Liquid Diet
A liquid diet requires that all or some meals are replaced with liquid diets. The liquid diets food lists includes teas, juices, and water. Most liquid diets are not safe for long term weight loss, but they can be useful both before and after surgical procedures.

When They Are Used
Physicians often recommend a liquid diet before a patient undergoes surgery. A clear liquid diet will flush the system and decrease the stress on the digestive system. Foods for a liquid clear diet include coffee, sports drinks, tea, and certain juices. This type of medical liquid diet is often prescribed for patients who have procedures that include a colonoscopy and sigmoidoscopy. Liquid diets and a prostatectomy go hand in hand.

In addition, a ten day liquid diet may be required for patients undergoing bariatric surgery. Extreme obesity is also sometimes treated with a liquid fasting diet. This type of approach rarely has long term benefits and is not used often.

Health Issues Involved
Full liquid diets will generally not provide an adequate amount of nutrients for maintaining healthy energy levels. In addition, while short term weight loss is achieved with cleansing liquid diets, most if not all of the weight is usually regained when normal eating habits resume.

Also, using liquid diet recipes when you have only a minimal amount of weigh to lose can be unhealthy and actually cause your metabolism to slow down. This is because when your body is deprived of essential nutrients it will go into survival mode. This means it will slow down your body’s metabolism, causing you to not lose weight.

Other Benefits
Beside pre and post operative advantages, restricting yourself to a liquid diet can assist you with other health issues as well. For example, clear liquid diets are often recommended when you are suffering from diarrhea. This is because a liquid diet will prevent dehydration and give your intestines a chance to recover.

In addition, liquid diets can help when you are vomiting as well. However, you should wait until at least an hour has past without vomiting so minimize the risk of the liquids coming back up.

Also, recently liquid protein diets and an Oprah liquid diet have become popular.