The term clear liquid diet may call to mind images (or terrible memories) of the cabbage soup diet.
While it may sound like a crash diet cousin, a clear liquid diet is actually a tool used by healthcare providers to help their patients.
You may be instructed to follow this diet for a short time before or after surgery. It can also be used to manage gastrointestinal issues. It’s not meant as a long-term diet since it doesn’t provide enough calories or nutrients if used for longer than five days.
So, what exactly is a clear liquid diet? Think of it as a transparent diet. People on it consume more than just colorless, clear liquids like water or broth.
Transparent food and drinks with color are also allowed, such as coffee, tea, juice without pulp, sports drinks, ice pops, and gelatin snacks (Oates, 2021).
Clear liquid diets can be used before or after surgery to ease your digestive system’s workload.
A healthcare provider may have you follow a clear liquid diet before endoscopic procedures (like a colonoscopy) to reduce residue in your bowels. Doing so helps get a better picture of your digestive tract to spot any problems.
Restricted eating is necessary to avoid complications after certain surgeries like gastric bypass or colon operations.
The goal is to minimize the amount of work your digestive system needs to do to give it a rest. The amount of time you’ll spend on this diet and how quickly you’ll progress to eating soft and then solid foods depends on your personal situation.
The clear liquid diet isn’t just for people who have undergone digestive operations. It can also be used for a day or two following any surgery that involves general anesthesia.
That’s because general anesthesia (when they put you to sleep during an operation) affects your ability to swallow. A short-term clear liquid diet can reduce the risk of choking until a healthcare professional can assess how well you’re swallowing (Oates, 2021).
A clear liquid diet offers the significant advantage of keeping you hydrated if you can’t stomach regular food and have persistent vomiting or diarrhea (Oates, 2021).
Despite that, organizations like the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) suggest people return to a regular diet as soon as possible following a bout of diarrhea or vomiting. This is because a regular balanced diet provides essential nutrients restrictive ones like the clear liquid or BRAT diet do not (AAP, 1996).
You can eat any transparent, room temperature liquid (or soft solids like Jell-O). Some examples of what you can consume on the clear liquid diet include (Oates, 2021):
- Plain water
- Carbonated beverages like sodas and seltzer
- Black coffee
- Tea without milk or cream
- Sports drinks like Gatorade
- Fruit juice without pulp (cranberry juice, apple juice, grape juice)
- Oral hydration solutions with electrolytes like Pedialyte
- Clear ice pops or popsicles
- Ice chips
- Clear broth (bouillon or consomme)
- Plain gelatin like Jell-O
- Clear hard candies
Still, the specifics of a clear liquid diet can be confusing. Even though pulp-free fruit juice is okay to drink, things like pulp-free orange or grapefruit juice are not okay since they’re not transparent. The same applies to milk.
Some healthcare providers suggest you avoid foods with red or orange food coloring if you’re having an endoscopy. Food dyes can look like blood, making it difficult to properly assess your digestive system during the procedure (Oates, 2021).
Patients with diabetes need extra monitoring while on a clear liquid diet. Unless under the guidance of a medical professional, people with diabetes should not use this diet.
Most of the food and drinks permitted on a clear liquid diet contain simple sugars. For people with diabetes, this can alter blood sugar levels and insulin needs, leading to serious consequences (Oates, 2021).
You should not use a clear liquid diet to lose weight. Clear liquid diets do not provide adequate calories or nutrition for a safe or effective long-term diet. They also offer little to no protein or fat––two macronutrients critical for your body to function (Oates, 2021).
Using a clear liquid diet for too long may cause nutritional deficiencies. If you’re struggling with managing your weight, consult a healthcare professional or dietitian who can offer you a range of different options.
The clear liquid diet is meant to be a short-term tool used for certain medical conditions and procedures. Your healthcare provider may direct you to follow one ahead of a colonoscopy to get clearer test results, as well as after surgery while any anesthesia wears off.
A clear liquid diet may also be used temporarily to help keep you hydrated if you’ve had an upset stomach.
- American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP). Practice parameter: the management of acute gastroenteritis in young children. American Academy of Pediatrics, Provisional Committee on Quality Improvement, Subcommittee on Acute Gastroenteritis. (1996). Pediatrics, 97(3), 424–435. Retrieved from //pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/8604285/
- Hancock, S., Cresci, G., & Martindale, R. (2002). The clear liquid diet: When is it appropriate? Current Gastroenterology Reports, 4(4), 324–331. doi:10.1007/s11894-002-0083-2. Retrieved from //link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs11894-002-0083-2
- Oates, J. R. & Sharma, S. (2021, June 18). Clear Liquid Diet. StatPearls Publishing. Treasure Island, FL. Retrieved from //www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK538500/
A clear liquid diet is prescribed for short periods for specific medical purposes. It helps your gastrointestinal tract heal from severe bouts of disease, such as diverticulitis, and it helps clear it out before certain tests and procedures, such as colonoscopy.
A clear liquid diet is medically prescribed for short periods to rest and clean out your digestive tract while providing adequate short-term hydration and some energy. Just like it sounds, the diet consists of clear liquids and foods that melt into clear liquids (like Jell-o®). It excludes solid foods and liquids that you can’t see through (like milk). Clear liquids are easily absorbed by your digestive system, and they also allow technicians to see clearly into your digestive tract during an imaging test, such as a colonoscopy.
The diet is usually prescribed for one of three reasons:
- To clear out your digestive tract and/or prevent nausea before a procedure, such as an imaging test or surgery.
- To give your digestive system a rest from severe gastrointestinal symptoms, such as inflammation, vomiting and diarrhea.
- To offer nutrition without eating after a fast or surgery. Surgery in your digestive system may require a few days to rest the affected organs afterward. Other surgeries may require the diet for just 24 hours afterward until your anesthesia wears off.
This is not a prescribed weight-loss diet. It’s not particularly nutritious and includes a lot of empty calories from refined sugar. The diet is designed to require minimal effort on the part of your digestive system while providing hydration, some minerals and electrolytes, and a little energy to get you through. The clear liquids also help clear out built-up residue in the digestive tract that can worsen gastrointestinal symptoms and clutter up imaging tests.
The clear liquid diet includes:
- Coffee and tea without milk or non-dairy creamer (sugar or honey is OK).
- Clear, nonfat broths.
- Strained, pulp-free fruit and vegetable juices.
- Sodas and sports drinks.
- Clear nutritional drinks.
- Pulp-free popsicles.
- Jell-o®.
Your healthcare provider will give you more specific directions on the amounts of each type of liquid you should consume. If the diet is prescribed before an imaging test, you might be asked to exclude the color red. Red liquid can resemble blood on an imaging test.
The diet is usually only prescribed for a few days. If it is prescribed for longer, it will be modified with certain supplements to provide more adequate nutrition over the longer term.
The health benefits are primarily from giving your digestive system a chance to rest and heal from severe symptoms. If you have inflammation from pancreatitis, gastritis or inflammatory bowel disease, the clear liquid diet can give it a chance to calm down. If you have diverticulitis, an infection in your colon, the inflammation is aggravated by poop in the colon. A clear liquid diet for a few days can help clear that out.
If you have severe diarrhea or vomiting, the clear liquids can restore your depleted water, energy and electrolytes without triggering further diarrhea or vomiting. However, the clear liquid diet is not nutritionally adequate for more than a few days. In most cases, your healthcare provider will want you to progress as soon as possible to a full liquid diet or “soft” (low fiber) diet to prevent malnutrition.
- Malnutrition: It’s safe to limit calories and nutrition for short periods, but you risk malnutrition if you stay on the clear liquid diet for more than five days. Healthcare providers will rarely recommend this. If they do, they will prescribe supplements to enhance your nutrition.
- High blood sugar: If you have diabetes, you may need to discuss this with your healthcare provider before proceeding with the clear liquid diet. You may need to find sugar-free alternatives to some of the liquids, adjust your medications, and monitor your blood sugar carefully during the diet.
- Swallowing problems: If you have dysphagia or another swallowing problem, you might need to discuss thickeners with your healthcare provider to thicken your clear liquid diet to a consistency you can more easily swallow.
Contact your healthcare provider if you experience:
- Stomach pain or cramping.
- Severe weakness.
- Difficulty swallowing.
A full liquid diet includes all liquids and foods that become liquid at body temperature. Shakes, milk, frozen yogurt and creamy soups are allowed, as long as they don’t have any chunks or food particles in them. A full liquid diet is prescribed for similar reasons as the clear liquid diet — to rest the digestive system after illness or surgery and reintroduce it slowly to normal eating — but it’s a less severe diet for less severe cases. Some people need to start on the clear liquid diet first before progressing to the full liquid diet. Those who are preparing for an imaging test will need to stick to clear liquids to keep their digestive tract clear.
A note from Cleveland Clinic
A clear liquid diet is a brief but important intervention. It’s a safety measure that keeps you hydrated before and/or after surgery. It can help your gastrointestinal system heal and help healthcare providers get a better look inside at what’s troubling you. It might seem difficult, but most people manage it well for a day or two. While on the clear liquid diet, follow your healthcare provider’s guidance carefully. Your digestive system will thank you, and may even reward you with rapid relief.
Last reviewed by a Cleveland Clinic medical professional on 09/17/2021.
References
- Hancock S, Cresci G, Martindale R. The clear liquid diet: when is it appropriate? (//link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s11894-002-0083-2.pdf) Curr Gastroenterol Rep. 2002 Aug;4(4):324-31. Accessed 8/9/2021.
- Oates JR, Sharma S. Clear Liquid Diet. (//pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29413216/) 2021 Jun 18. In: StatPearls. Treasure Island (FL): StatPearls Publishing; 2021 Jan. Accessed 8/9/2021.
- Range TL, Samra NS. Full Liquid Diet. In: StatPearls. Treasure Island (FL): StatPearls Publishing; March 10, 2021. Accessed 8/9/2021.
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