Meal replacements are ready-made foods, usually in the form of a bar or soluble powder in which, for a very small mass of food, a rather high quantity of nutrients is concentrated. These are obviously synthetic products, designed to be maximally nutritious, so much so that they contain (or should contain) a fair amount not only of the three main macronutrients, but also vitamins and minerals. They are designed for the needs of those who would like to lose weight without having to worry about optimising their diet in order to achieve this, and are a standard solution to the problem. This solution, insofar as it is proposed to everyone, regardless of considerations of calorie requirements and special nutritional needs, turns out to be very approximate. Evidently, in fact, the food might be, in the dosage recommended on the label, more suitable for some individuals and less so for others (who might find themselves taking in less nutrients than they really need, even considering the need to lose weight). It could still be argued, albeit purely on an anecdotal basis, that totally artificial foods have often turned out to be unsuitable for the real needs of men and women: studies are known in which synthetic foods have revealed a much lower nutritional potential than expected, despite the fact that in theory they should have had a very different effect. Two emblematic examples of these curious phenomena concern milk consumed during the anabolic window and food for astronauts. In the first case, it has been found that drinking whole milk at the end of a workout promotes better recovery than drinking skimmed milk. Recovery induced by whole milk (more fat) is better in terms of both speed and quality, even though the quantity of the food is regulated in such a way that the calories consumed are equivalent in the two circumstances (Elliot, 2006). In the case of food for astronauts, it is well known that a scientific team attempted to develop totally artificial foodstuffs that would provide, in a concentrated form, easy to take into space and store, all the nutrients necessary for the body’s proper trophism. The attempt proved unsuccessful, as although the nutrient supply of the artificially synthesised food was in fact adequate for the astronauts’ needs, the trophic capacity proved insufficient. The reasons for these phenomena are uncertain: it is assumed that there are substances in natural foods that are not yet known to modern food science that enable their proper enjoyment. Undiscovered, these supposed substances cannot be reproduced artificially, nor can they be preserved during the treatments that foodstuffs undergo, including the skimming of milk. Given these disadvantages of meal replacement, an unconventional application to the athlete’s needs may nevertheless prove beneficial. More specifically, although these products are designed for the purpose of losing weight while avoiding a diet, if they are considered as any food to be included in a diet, not necessarily slimming, they could prove to be valuable allies. The downside of this solution is the high economic cost of these supplements which, once included in a diet, should be consumed regularly. Obviously, the solution is not within the reach of all wallets and, in any case, although it may sometimes be helpful, it is certainly not essential to use these products to achieve one’s goals.