What is Full Liquid Diet: Working, Benefits and Things to Eat

There are many reasons for one to start a full liquid diet. It can be either because your doctor has recommended it to cure digestive problems or prepare you for colonoscopy. It can also be because you want to lose weight. Notwithstanding the reason, make sure you know everything about the diet, what it is, how it works, benefits, foods to eat, and other things. Here is an in-depth guide to help you.

What Is a Full Liquid Diet and How Does It Work?

A full liquid diet is a low-calorie diet where you only drink liquid or food turned into liquid at room temperature. It gives numerous benefits to the body and even allows your body to heal quickly from a medical procedure. This is why doctors often recommend that their patients start a fluid diet after surgery.

For this purpose, you can either make smoothies, juice up veggies or fruits or have soup. However, these foods include very little to nil protein or fibre, giving the digestive system the required break. So make sure you are having more than the three standard meals to meet the body’s nutrients and calorie intake level.

It is best to eat six to eight small meals containing different combinations of liquid, blended and strained foods. To further increase the calorie intake, include full-fat dairy items like whole milk, high-calorie supplement shakes, or butter.

What Are the Benefits of Choosing a Full Fluid Diet?

Dieters choose a full fluid diet because it improves metabolic rate, reduces time, supports the digestive system, and enhances body detoxification. As a result, one enjoys weight loss benefits and improved health overall. Other benefits of liquid diets are as follows:

High Nutrition

If you choose smoothies or juice as your liquid diet, it gives you a tremendous amount of nutrition. However, always drink your smoothie or juice instantly after transferring it from the centrifugal blender. Also, replacing your dinner meal with this liquid food not only ensures reduced weight but also enhances body composition.

Better Digestion

If you are suffering from an illness or have recently undergone surgery, switching to a liquid diet helps prevent complications and manage pain. So, you can be safe from going through an intestinal blockage.

Detoxification

One of the best ways to detoxify your body is by adopting a full liquid diet. We already know that smoothies, broths, juices are rich in minerals, vitamins, and fibre. However, recent research also shows that vegetable and fruit juices also have high antioxidant content. So, they prevent the threat of oxidative damage, whereas dietary fibre improves digestive health.

Minimum Calorie

Another essential benefit of a liquid diet is they contain significantly fewer calories. In fact, if you are on a liquid diet, you can expect to consume not more than 500 calories in a day. Thus, it serves as an effective way of reducing weight.

Convenient

The most loved reason to adopt a liquid diet is that it is super quick to prepare. In other words, you don’t have to heat the ingredients, find different recipes, or waste time in sautéing. Instead, simply combine all the vegetables or fruits you like and blend to get your meal ready.

To enjoy the above benefits, you must know the right thing to eat. However, if you find yourself among those who are not aware of what to eat on a full liquid diet, here is a detailed answer to help.

What to Eat on a Full Liquid Diet?

Meal of the Day	Food Items to Include in a Full Liquid Diet
Breakfast	Juice, coffee/tea, yoghurt or cream of wheat cereal thinned with hot milk
Lunch	Pudding, tomato soup, protein shake
Snack	Milkshake, or protein shake
Dinner	Strained and thinned soup, creamed, protein shake, custard, fruit juice
Dessert	Ice cream or milkshake

If you are thinking of starting a fluid diet, you may find it difficult in the beginning since the diet plan concerns low-calorie eatables. However, you will gradually adjust after a few days.

Thankfully, there are plenty of food items you can have when on a liquid diet. So, make sure you diversify your ingredients and avoid consuming too many calorie-rich food items like ice cream.

Some of the examples of a full fluid diet includes:

Strained creamy soups
Juices without pulp
Pudding
Ice Cream
Milkshakes
Eggnog
Baby Food
Yoghurt

Things to Consider Before Starting a Full Fluid Diet Plan

You must keep in mind several things when preparing your full fluid diet plan. In this regard, it is best to rely on a healthcare professional to decide the exact food items to consume.

Apart from a doctor, you can also take the help of a registered dietician. They will lay down all the guidelines one must follow and tailor your needs simultaneously.

Here, some of the considerations are as follows:

Make sure the food you consume has the consistency of baby food. It means it should have no chunks or visible food particles before mixing with other liquids or soup.
Pay close attention to what your body is indicating when you consume fluids.
Try and drink, keeping 15 to 20 minutes of intervals in between meals throughout your day. However, if you are facing trouble drinking enough, it is also a problem that needs attention.
If you want to moisten your food before blending, milk, salad dressing, mayonnaise, and water serve as a perfect choice.
A full fluid diet is often carried out for a few days and not over a long term since it will result in drastic weight loss. However, you may continue if the doctor advises otherwise.
Don’t procrastinate in conditions such as vomiting, diarrhoea, fever, and abdominal pain. Instead, call a doctor immediately. It mainly indicates cases of infection and other complications.

Even if you plan to undertake a full liquid diet, make sure you double-check with a certified dietician or a doctor. You certainly do not want to invite illness due to a lack of nutrients and other factors. Also, liquid diets can be dangerous for pregnant women, children, and other patients with intestinal issues. So, make your decision wisely.

Frequently Asked Questions

✓ Which drink serves as the best choice in a liquid diet?

Any food item that contains a proper balance of nutrients serves as the best liquid diet food. However, to name some, it includes dal soup, vegetable soup, chicken broth, etc.