# Ensure?



## SneakerPimp (Jan 14, 2008)

It's gotten to the point now that very rarely do I actually enjoy food. I know I'm missing nutrients in my diet because I'm so afraid to eat most vegetables, several fruits, breads, etc. I figured I'd try a meal replacement drink or bar. That way I would satisfy my hunger and get enough nutrients. Ensure seems to be the only one I can find that is lactose and gluten free. I'm lactose intolerant, and possible gluten intolerant, although I still haven't had tests done. Better safe than sorry. If I take a digestive enzyme before drinking the Ensure it seems to go down well. Does anyone else have any experience with this? Are there other alternatives? Different drinks?


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## Kathleen M. (Nov 16, 1999)

Ensure is the one they usually recommend as nutritionally complete and generally easy on the system for people who are too ill to eat. For what it is worth people with ulcers in the colon will sometimes go on an Ensure only break (4-6 cans a day) to rest the colon so it is one that can be used for full nutrition if you had to.I'm not sure many of the other brands are any better, so if Ensure works for you I'd tend to stick to that.Be really careful with meal replacement bars. A lot of them on the market are targeting the low carb craze and have various sugar alcohols in them to reduce the net carbs and those tend to increase gas and diarrhea.


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## SneakerPimp (Jan 14, 2008)

I can't do the bars, because as I learned recently, almost all of them have soy which can be problematic for me.And thank you for the information. I feel better now about drinking Ensure. I didn't know it was recommended for people too ill to eat. In fact, I'm about to open a bottle right now. Today is a bad tummy day!


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## Kathleen M. (Nov 16, 1999)

When my Dad had cancer and had a hard time eating from the treatments they had him on Ensure, that is when I first learned about it. It is something you can live on by itself for a good stretch even when it is the only thing you can get down.


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## SneakerPimp (Jan 14, 2008)

My father also had cancer and had some pretty severe treatments. I'll ask him if he had any digestive issues.My IBS has gotten worse over the past few months, for reasons unknown. My mother suggested going on a fast for a week or two, drinking only Ensure, water, and possibly ginger tea.What do you think of this?


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## Kathleen M. (Nov 16, 1999)

Hard to know. For people with ulcerated inflammation in the colon it can do them a world of good because you don't have food residue and fiber rubbing up against the sore lining so it can heal up faster.With IBS the lining of the colon is just fine so some of those strategies aren't as likely to do much long term good.IBSers often react to the act of eating and so sometimes it comes back worse than ever when you break a fast, but at least with this you are getting nutrition and drinking something so you don't have as much of a shut down, restart kind of situation.


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## SneakerPimp (Jan 14, 2008)

I think I'll give it a try, at least for a few days. I had a fairly safe dinner last night (salmon, green beans, potatoes) and ended up with very, very bad D. When I break the fast, I plan on doing it slowly...reintroducing safe foods a little at a time. Hopefully this won't cause too much stress on my system. Part of the problem right now, I think, is that I'm so afraid to eat ANYTHING that almost everything is making me react negatively.


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## Kathleen M. (Nov 16, 1999)

Amount can matter even with safe foods. A meal with a total of 300-400 calories every 3 hours is better than waiting until you are really hungry. If you get really hungry any meal even a small safe one can set it off. Most people afraid of eating tend to avoid meals for as long as possible. That just makes each meal worse and then they tend to wait as long as possible to eat again.So 3 ounces of salmon, 1/2 a potato with no fat and a `1/2 cup of green beans may be a safe meal but 8 ounces of salmon, one large potato with butter and 1 cup of green beans may be too big.


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