Nourishing and supplementary drinks

A wide range of products is available, from nourishing drinks available over the counter to those that can be prescribed by your doctor. If you are not eating well or have lost weight you may need to include high energy supplements in your diet. These will help you maintain a good nutritional intake.

Nourishing drinks

There are many high energy drinks available in the supermarket, such as, milk shakes and smoothies. Some drinks are fortified with vitamins and minerals. These are a good choice if you have poor appetite. For example

  • Build Up is available in sweet and savoury flavours. The sweet flavoured drinks are mixed with milk. Add ice cream to make a thick milk shake. Build Up soup is easy to make by just adding boiling water.
  • Complan is available in sweet and savoury flavours and is mixed with milk or water.
  • Nutriment is available in sweet flavours from most large supermarkets.

Nutritionally complete or supplementary drinks

While you are in hospital, or attending a clinic, your doctor or dietitian may prescribe special liquid nutritional supplements. These drinks may be taken in place of food or in addition to your usual meals. The dietitian will advise you how many drinks you need to take each day.

These drinks are available in a wide variety of flavours and as milk shake style drinks or juice/squash supplement.

The following are some examples of drinks that are available:

These are like milkshakes and are available in a wide variety of flavours. There are also some savoury choices.

  • Ensure Plus milkshake style
  • Calshake
  • Enshake
  • Ensure Plus Fibre
  • Fortisip
  • Fortisip Compact
  • Fresubin 2kcal drink
  • Resource Energy
  • Fresubin protein energy drink
  • Scandishake
  • Ensure TwoCal

SOME IDEAS ON HOW TO USE THEM

  • Chill sweet flavoured drinks or use them at room temperature.
  • Warm chocolate, coffee or vanilla flavoured drinks. Add whiskey or brandy to make a delicious hot toddy.
  • Mix sweet flavoured drinks into cocktails (see recipes) or freeze them into ice cream or ice-lollies. Always take ice cream out of the freezer 10–15 minutes before eating it.
  • Powdered supplements may also be added to puddings, desserts or mixed with cream and frozen to make a high energy ice cream. Ask your dietitian for recipes.
  • Neutral flavoured supplements – unflavoured Scandishake, neutral Fortisip, Calogen can be used to enrich soup or purée food.

ENERGY SUPPLEMENTS

Energy supplements are available as powders and liquids. Ask your dietitian for advice on how much to use each day. They can be added to both food and drinks.

These are highly soluble, tasteless powders that dissolve easily in liquids and most soft food. For example:

  • Maxijul supersoluble powder
  • Vitajoule
  • Polycal powder
  • Caloreen

FAT BASED LIQUID

Calogen
Liquigen
Fresubin 5kcal Shot

These are vegetable fat based low volume supplements. They are available in sweet or neutral flavours. They can be taken like a medicine or added to suitable foods such as milk, soup, yoghurt, and custard. They need to be used under strict supervision.