Ensure nutritional drink - what it's really used for (allergies, blood, surgery)

[robertpasa]

My parents drink large amounts of Ensure nutritional drink. For a long time I thought they just needed the protein but I realized with embarassment that they use it for its laxative properties. I tried it once myself and it had a laxative effect.

I have to buy this stuff a lot so they can be regular. Do a lot of people drink this because it is a laxative? It doesn't mention that on the box.

I wonder if something else might do the same trick at less a cost? It's over a dollar per little bottle.

[Parnassia]

Originally Posted by robertpasa

My parents drink large amounts of Ensure nutritional drink. For a long time I thought they just needed the protein but I realized with embarassment that they use it for its laxative properties. I tried it once myself and it had a laxative effect.

I have to buy this stuff a lot so they can be regular. Do a lot of people drink this because it is a laxative? It doesn't mention that on the box.

I wonder if something else might do the same trick at less a cost? It's over a dollar per little bottle.

How much of the stuff do they drink?

The reasons any particular person feels they require a laxative varies across the board. The solution for all those people's irregularity will also vary across the board. If your parents don't bother to pay attention to an overall diet that's easier for their GI tract to process, they may opt for the Ensure because it takes little to no thought or effort. No prep at all. People get accustomed to things and find justifications for continuing to do them over and over again. It may be habit rather than reason.

On a very basic level, if you drink more liquid meals than solid every day its going to loosen up your GI tract. If they drank more of some other liquid it might have the same effect the Ensure does. Plain old ordinary water, vegetable or fruit juice, milk (non dairy milks if they are lactose intolerant), herbal teas, soups...

Has a doctor recommended the Ensure for any other specific reason? Make sure you know whether there's actually a nutritional reason they started using it. Both my parents went through periods when they drank Ensure for nutritional reasons but I don't recall them commenting that they wanted a laxative effect. My dad drank it for many years but not for that reason and he was obsessive about staying "regular". A bit of reading about Ensure products says more people report the opposite effect.

If you actually looked for Ensure alternatives you probably would have found this:

https://www.thedollarstretcher.com/f...es-for-ensure/

[Flamingo13]

My friends youngish (20's) son drinks this, he has swallowing issues and parent are trying to make sure he gets some protein into him.

[sholomar]

For softer stools they could get a costco membership and get some of their protein bars that have the chicory root in them... they are roughly 25 cents per bar and quite delicious. They also carry a Nature Valley version in store and on their website that's on sale, but they are pretty much the same thing... the nature valley version has slightly more salt and tastes a bit more salty.

https://www.costco.com/nature-valley...100381587.html


Some people have stomach issues where something easy to digest is what they need, so that's the use case for these liquid drinks (which costco also carries)

Why would a person need a laxative? Too much dairy, or a low fiber diet.

[guidoLaMoto]

Supplements like Ensure are really intended for use in those who have trouble eating enough for one reason or another-- poor dentition, lack of appetite et etc. They contain concentrated carbs & fats, so are hyperosmolar in the gut-- tending to draw water into the gut. That can lead to decreased transit time, ie-- diarrhea....If the common problem of difficult BMs is their reason for using it, simple MOM each PM for a BM in the AM is certainly cheaper.

The lay person often has a misunderstanding of nutritional supplements. An extreme example is the pt I encountered when I rotated onto The Diabetes Service as an intern. As she entered the exam room. it was easy to see she was morbidly obese, and she weighed in at 500lb+. I noted in the chart that her weight had been steadily increasing for many months after a 500 cal diet had been ordered.

"Now tell me the truth. You're not following that diet very well, are you?"....She looked at me sheepishly and smiled. "No. To tell you da trut, Ahs has trouble finishin' all 500 cal after ma reglar food ever day."

Unsophisticated, she thought the diet was some magic supplement that would solve her problems.

More sophisticated people get more sophisticated but often no more accurate in their dietary self-treatments.

[Robinwomb]

When I was in an eating disorder treatment in 2009 I was forced to drink Ensure every day to gain weight. It was "supplemental" in addition to a LOT of food every day. I had to eat supported meals in treatment with a group, and I had a therapist who would watch me drink Ensures to make sure I was doing it. Ensure is an easy way to get in more calories without feeling too full, and when you have been deprived of nutrition for so long it can help build up stores of vitamins and macros that your body has been depleted of for so long, and it's easy to digest and assimilate. they also have plant based ones now free of dairy for people with dairy allergies/intolerances. I was physically and mentally unable to eat large amounts of food my body desperately needed at the time, but Ensure helped in that regard.

[SimplySagacious]

Drinking large amounts of it suggests they could be using it to replace meals. I would be digging deeper to find out what's really going on.

[Mikala43]

Have THEY told you they use it as a laxative? Or are you just guessing?

I had to do a liquid diet and ensure was a part of it, and for me, there were no changes in bowel movements.

What is a large amount? Why are they taking it?

I just had my Mom get some to ADD to her diet, she needs to gain weight. It is not to replace regular food.

[vision33r]

Originally Posted by robertpasa

My parents drink large amounts of Ensure nutritional drink. For a long time I thought they just needed the protein but I realized with embarassment that they use it for its laxative properties. I tried it once myself and it had a laxative effect.

I have to buy this stuff a lot so they can be regular. Do a lot of people drink this because it is a laxative? It doesn't mention that on the box.

I wonder if something else might do the same trick at less a cost? It's over a dollar per little bottle.

That stuff is terrible for you. You better off drinking coconut milk and taking vitamins.

Each can has over 40g of sugar, more than a can of soda a day. You can get much better and cleaner nutrients with organic protein shake powders added to coconut milk.

[GrandviewGloria]

Originally Posted by vision33r

That stuff is terrible for you. You better off drinking coconut milk and taking vitamins.

Each can has over 40g of sugar, more than a can of soda a day. You can get much better and cleaner nutrients with organic protein shake powders added to coconut milk.

Absolutely right! When the first ingredient on the label is sugar, followed by another sugar, you know you're in trouble. And then there are the "Vegetable Oils" (soy, as I remember). Those are INFLAMMATORY (as is sugar). Sugar, by the way, blocks absorption of Vitamin C. C is critical for healing.

Soy Protein is also something I'd worry about. There's a reason why the Japanese make Tofu: fermentation renders soy edible. Has the soy in Ensure been rendered edible by some such expedient?

I have an aunt who's being killed by carbs, right this minute. She had a gastrointestinal surgery, after which they naturally inserted an IV ("near her heart, to keep her blood sugar high"). Those IVs have to go into the big veins, because the sugar/seed-oils combo causes CLOTS in smaller veins. Then, they were so proud of themselves, for feeding her Ensure, "because she was losing too much weight!" ... "Thank heavens for Apple Ensure!". This aunt-by-marriage was not obese. But she had enough fat stores to survive without eating, for at least a month - probably two. Not eating, would have sent her into Ketosis, which is ideal for those who are healing. In my opinion, hydration, electrolytes, and vitamins, would have been plenty. She didn't want or need any calories, for a while.

So then, because she wasn't gaining weight, they inserted a feeding something directly into her stomach. At that point, the rest of that corner of the family had identified our corner as "The Enemy", and stopped listening to us. But I can guess what's in the stomach feeder thingie (more sugar and seed oils).

Last I heard, they were surprised to hear a cardiologist had discovered my aunt had a HEART ATTACK sometime after the surgery (can't imagine WHY, with all that healthful sugar, and soybean oil being pumped in there, right next to her heart).

How do you get sugarwater and soybean oil to form a stable emulsion? EMULSIFIERS to the rescue! Yaaaaaay! Read the pluckin' label, folks! https://www.google.com/search?q=ensu...iw=826&bih=472 Emulsifiers contribute mightily to 'Leaky Gut Syndrome' (Intestinal Permeability). Permeable intestines are the LAST thing an elderly person needs. Maybe THIS is why OP and his parents are using it as a "laxative".

As for those "vitamins and minerals!!!!" in Ensure, are we to believe that they're bioavailable? ...that they're in forms which can be absorbed by our bodies? Or, as is usual for "fortified" foods, have they simply sourced the cheapest forms of whatever's listed on the label?

That corner of the family are wholesome, good, generous people - obedient people. Their patriarch moved them to the Lower Midwest, to escape our "Mississippi Mendacity". They identify with sports teams. They watch sports at holiday events. They're CONFORMISTS. They respect authority. They believe those who present themselves as authority figures - like doctors and nurses and dieticians and purveyors of products endorsed by the Medical Industry.

They sank most of their petrochemicals fortune into founding two charities. They're aghast that our daughter has a standing eight figure authorization with our Decorator, for art purchases at auctions. "You could help so many people!" They're horrified at our sons' polyamory setup. They know I've run around naked on Ibiza. They don't even say "hell" or "damn" - and passed on inheriting priceless furniture, because it's adorned with bare-breasted grotesques. They're NOT about to listen to any of us.

So, my aunt, their matriarch, just keeps getting worse, as they feed her more of that miraculous Apple Ensure. The Medical Industry and its suppliers have developed protocols ideal for turning little problems into catastrophic medical emergencies - then ringing that cash register for as long as possible - wringing every bit of money and misery out of your dying body, until they kill you.


Oh... and the kind of "weight" you're going to gain, ingesting sugars, will not be muscle, bone, and connective tissue. It's going to be FAT.