Clear Liquid Diet

The Complete Guideline About Clear Liquid Diet

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Broth, plain gelatine, and clear water are the major constituents of the clear liquid diet. These are easy indigestion and no ruminants left within the intestinal tract. If you are suffering from stomach-related complications, the doctor may tell you a clear liquid diet before a specific medical procedure. As this diet with no calories and essential nutrients, you can’t follow the clear liquid diet.
 
This diet is opaque, but still, you can see through. You can’t add solid foodstuff to this diet. A clear liquid diet would be semi or completely liquid foods at the average room temperature. Before a particular medical procedure, doctors advise taking a clear liquid diet. So that no ruminants remain within the intestinal path or stomach.
For people suffering from chronic digestive complications (nausea, diarrhea, or vomiting), the health care professional advised taking such a diet for limited periods.
 

What Does a Clear Liquid Diet Consist of?

 A clear liquid diet is an effective source to keep us hydrated. This also provides essential electrolytes like potassium, energy booster, and sodium. A clear diet helps to stay fit and active. You cannot adopt clear liquids for the full-time diet.
 
A clear liquid diet contains the following
 
  • Gelatine
  • Water (flavoured, carbonated, and plain)
  • Sugar/honey
  • Carbonated drinks (Dark soda)
  • Coffee/tea (without milk/ cream)
  • Vegetable juice
  • Strained tomato
  • Hard candy (peppermint rounds/ lemon drops)
  • Sports drink
  • Ice pops (without nuts/seeds, fruits/bits)
  • Fat-free-clear broth
  • Beverages (fruit flavoured)
 You can have the above-stated clear liquids with the doctors’ guidelines. Doctors might not suggest red colour clear liquids before a colon-related medical procedure.
 

Clear Liquid Diet Ideas for Colonoscopy Patient

 A clear liquid diet is always prescribing before colonoscopy. This diet contains no solid food particles. So that, Clear internal images of the gut can take.
 
Start a clear liquid diet from a day before the colonoscopy. You should not intake any solid foods from the previous day of the colonoscopy. Follow the below diet chart before colonoscopy,
 
ADD
  • Flavoured water (without purple/red dye)
  • Black coffee/tea (without milk and cream)
  • Soda
  • White and clear juices (apple, white cranberry, white grapes, and pulp-free-lemonade)
  • Tropical juices
  • Gelatine or jelly (without pulp)
  • Clear broth (beef, vegetables, and chicken)
  • Sports drinks (light coloured)
  • Popsicles (without fruits and red-purple dyes) 
AVOID
  • Cream
  • Alcoholic beverages
  • Milk
  • Orange juice
  • Smoothies
  • Cooked cereals
  • Tomato juice
  • Grape juice
  • Soup
  • Purple-red dyed popsicles, gelatine, and juices
  • Milkshakes
Diets to follow a little earlier to the colonoscopy:
Follow a diet with low-fibres. Do not add dry fruits, nuts, whole grains, and raw fruits/vegetables to this diet.
A day before the colonoscopy procedure:
Say no to solid foods; you can take a clear liquid diet.
On the day:
Follow a clear liquid diet. Stop intake anything two-hours before the colonoscopy.

Clear Liquid Diet Menu Plan for Whole Day

 An outline of the clear liquid diet plans are –

Breakfast

  • Gelatine (one bowl)
  • Fruit juice (one glass and pulp-free)
  • Tea/coffee (a cup; without milk/cream)
  • Honey/sugar (if needed)

Snacks

  • Gelatine (one bowl)
  • Fruit juice (one glass and pulp-free)

Lunch

  • Water (one glass)
  • Gelatine (one bowl)
  • Broth (one cup)
  • Fruit juice (one glass and pulp-free)

Snacks

  • Ice pops (pulp-free; one cup)
  • Tea/coffee (a cup; without milk/cream) or soft beverages
  • Honey/sugar (if needed)

Dinner

  • Gelatine (one bowl)
  • Fruit juice (one glass and pulp-free)
  • Tea/coffee (a cup; without milk/cream)
  • Honey/sugar (if needed)
You can include Gatorade, Sprite, and Mountain dew in your clear liquid diet plan. This diet also helps to keep the body sufficiently hydrated.
 
The associated risk is also involved in taking this diet. A clear liquid diet does not contain adequate nutrients and required calories. That is why it is not recommending to continue the clear liquid diet for long. You should follow such diet only with a doctor’s advice.
 
Follow medical guideline before starting the liquid diet especially before the medical test. Otherwise, the result will be inaccurate, and you have to reschedule the test. Being a diabetic, you need to follow the doctor’s advice thoroughly. A diabetic clear liquid diet essentially contains two-hundred grams of carbohydrate. You need to track the blood sugar regularly while you are on such a diet.

How to Survive on a Clear Liquid Diet

 This full liquid diet is deficient in essential nutrients and required levels of calories. So, you can’t follow this diet for more than five days. If you are on a juice diet for a long time, you might face the risk of malnutrition. The prescribed liquid diet is often safer for us but only for a short span.
 
The significant problem of this liquid diet is a continuous feeling of severe hunger. As the body can’t get the required number of calories and nutrients, people feel persistent discomfort. You can adapt the following ideas while you are on a clear liquid diet.
 
  • Have lots of water to suppress the discomfort of hunger. This will help to stay hydrated and nourished.
  • Have a wide variety of gelatine and electrolyte drinks (salty and sugary)
  • Increase the intake frequency
  • Nutritional supplements, if prescribed by the doctors.

Pros

  • This is the best possible way to clear the stomach and intestinal path before any surgery or medical procedure.
  • This diet will help the operation patient to recover promptly.
  • This helps to keep our bodies effectively nourished and hydrated.
  • It enhances the digestion process.
  • This diet is effective in reducing the tendency of vomiting and nausea.

Cons

  • With this diet of nutrients and calorie deficit, you might suffer from severe fatigue and hunger.
  • You might experience certain side-effects.
  • As this diet doesn’t involve any solid foods, it isn’t easy to continue.

Clear Liquid Diet for Weight Loss

This is not a safe option for weight loss unless the doctor suggests it. This diet can’t provide the benefits and result like the crash diets, as it is scanty with essential calories and nutrients. Once you restart the regular diet, you will quickly put on weight easily.
People might suffer from the following difficulties if they follow the liquid diet for a long.
  • Infertility
  • Weakness
  • Mood swings
  • Bone damage
  • Heart damage
  • diarrhoea
 
While you follow a liquid diet to reduce body weight, add a few exercises to achieve that. But intense exercise will have an adverse impact while you follow the clear liquid diet. You can consult with the doctor in this context.
 

Clear Liquid Diet for Diabetics

 This diet is safe for diabetic people. But this needs to take under the doctor’s guideline and for a brief span. Diabetic patients usually add 200 grams of carbohydrate to control the level of blood sugar. Being a diabetic, you need to be under thorough and regular observation and follow the everyday diet as early as possible.
Diabetic patients face frequent swings in their blood pressure while they are under a clear liquid diet. They need to follow the prescribed medicines and insulin without any skip. The physician will suggest a balanced diet and medication to control the blood sugar level balanced.

Clear Liquid Diet for Diverticulitis

 This is a disorder related to the digestive tract. In this disorder, diverticula or inflamed pouches are forming on the intestinal lining. Most of the diverticulitis cases are not at all complicated. Almost 25 per cent of diverticulitis cases are complicated.
The symptoms of this disorder are abdominal pain, nausea, abscess, fever, and irregular bowel movement. For easing these symptoms, a proper and adequate diet is essential.
Physicians often recommend a no-fibre and clear liquid diet for resting the stomach. This will help heal the inflamed pouches in the intestine. All diverticulitis patients can’t follow the same diet. Before shifting to a liquid diet, you need to consult with physicians.
 

Clear Liquid Diet With Protein

It’s a challenging option to get proper protein from a clear liquid diet. You can add protein foods to the liquid diet. According to medical research, you need to have 0.8 grams of protein/kg of body weight. If your weight is around 160 lb, you need to intake 56 grams of protein daily.
 
A clear liquid diet allows foods with clear fluids or transforms into a clear fluid at average body temperature. Broth, juice, tea, and gelatine are the example of a clear liquid diet.
According to reputed gastroenterologists, a clear liquid diet can provide a maximum of six grams of protein and six-hundred calories. If you add beef bouillon soup powder, you can have one gram of protein from it.
You can make the homemade meat-clear-broth to increase the protein level of the liquid diet. Canned and fat-free soup broth also provides sufficient protein. You can get six grams of protein from the homemade meat-clear-broth.
 

Summary

As the clear liquid diet is scanty of essential nutrients, you do not follow this diet for the long term. With the doctor’s guidelines, you can have this diet to treat any health complications before medical procedures.
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