Flavored pouches of nutritional jelly

During during the second winter I spent in Japan, I caught the flu, whooping cough and pneumonia all at the same time. I was quarantined to my apartment by my doctor and left to fend for myself for about 3 weeks until I began to feel well enough to get to the grocery store. 

Just after giving birth to my son, I spent about a week and a half in bed feeling like I was dying. I couldn't walk around easily, let alone cook lunch or dinner. While my husband was at work, I sorta just existed in the apartment trying to nurse myself back to health while trying to nurse a newborn baby. 

Both of these experiences have one major thing in common that probably saved my life. 

It is a pouch of nutritional jelly. This one is for protein if you couldnt figure that out from the largely printed English on the front. There are several flavors, each with a different nutrional focus. 

The protein is yogurt flavored.

The energy one is muscat grape flavored and has more calories than the other pouches.

The vitamin one is grapefruit flavored. And there is a mineral one as well, but silly me forgot to take a picture of it.

Comparing the energy to the vitamin focused packet, they both seem to have added vitamins, with about double the amount in the vitamin focused pouch. Neither has fat or protein, so you are just sucking down a rice ball's worth of sugar and vitamin supplements. 

Even if they aren't the best meal replacements, they are very easy to stomach even when sick to your stomach or, like I had been, so weak that I lacked enough appetite to eat. 

These are great for hiking for a quick pick me up or keep stocked in your pantry for one of those mornings when you wake up with the flu and need to eat to get better. 

They can be found in grocery stores, convenience stores, and any drug store. For about 180 yen, it is a better meal than a snickers bar.