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  Liquid Diet  
 
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The full liquid diet is a temporary diet that is used in several different settings such as preparation for surgery or medical tests, or resting the lower GI tract. The full liquid diet helps to keep a person hydrated, is easy to digest and does not leave much residue in the stomach or intestines. Fruit juices without pulp such as apple, grape and cranberry, nectars, broth and teas with lemon are examples of items allowed in the liquid diet.
 

  
 

Liquid Diet can help with the following:
 
 
Digestion  Delayed Gastric Emptying (Gastroparesis)

Infections
  Colds and Influenza
 Marvin Sackner, M.D., a pulmonary specialist at Mount Sinai Medical Center in Miami Beach, published a study in 1978 finding that drinking hot chicken soup aided in clearing nasal passages better than plain hot or cold water. Sackner felt even consuming chicken soup cold aided in clearing a "stuffy" nose. But, a hot, steaming cup of chicken soup was the most efficient remedy.

Dr. Irwin Ziment, M.D., pulmonary specialist and professor at the UCLA School of Medicine feels chicken soup contains ingredients similar to those in modern cold medicines. It has been demonstrated that chicken soup has a very mild anti-inflammatory action and this potentially could contribute to some of the so-called medicinal activities that people have attributed to chicken soup. Adding pepper to chicken soup also can help to clear a stuffy nose, doctors say.

Organ Health
  Diverticular Disease
 The liquid diet should be used for a short time when symptoms are present, in order to give the colon a rest.
 
 


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GLOSSARY

Gastrointestinal:  Pertaining to the stomach, small and large intestines, colon, rectum, liver, pancreas, and gallbladder.

Stomach:  A hollow, muscular, J-shaped pouch located in the upper part of the abdomen to the left of the midline. The upper end (fundus) is large and dome-shaped; the area just below the fundus is called the body of the stomach. The fundus and the body are often referred to as the cardiac portion of the stomach. The lower (pyloric) portion curves downward and to the right and includes the antrum and the pylorus. The function of the stomach is to begin digestion by physically breaking down food received from the esophagus. The tissues of the stomach wall are composed of three types of muscle fibers: circular, longitudinal and oblique. These fibers create structural elasticity and contractibility, both of which are needed for digestion. The stomach mucosa contains cells which secrete hydrochloric acid and this in turn activates the other gastric enzymes pepsin and rennin. To protect itself from being destroyed by its own enzymes, the stomach’s mucous lining must constantly regenerate itself.