Elemental (Bowel Rest) Diet

An elemental diet is a completely liquid diet with pre-digested nutrients that are rapidly absorbed into the bloodstream (within 20 minutes). An elemental liquid diet gives your gastrointestinal system a rest, but still supplies your nutritional needs. It is also referred to as a bowel rest diet.

The stool that results from an elemental diet is greatly reduced in volume and usually liquid, so it gives your colon a rest from passing normal bowel movements, which can allow your colon and bowel to heal faster.

What if there was a pre-digested food, that only took 3 minutes to prepare and made your gut feel soothed and safe? A quick, easy, 100% natural way to nourish your body with top quality nutrition, from which all of the crucial nutrients could be properly digested and absorbed – regardless of the state of your gastrointestinal tract?

When everything you eat makes you feel sick or in pain (or even causes intestinal bleeding), you quickly become afraid of eating. Combine this anxiety with the fatigue that accompanies a chronic illness like IBD, cancer, fibromyalgia or AIDS, and it becomes very difficult to ingest enough nutrients every day to meet your body’s needs. That’s where an elemental diet is a literal life-saver.

Elemental Diet Crash Course

Whether you already have my book, The IBD Remission Diet, but you don’t like reading, or perhaps you’re just learning about elemental diets, let me take you through the basics in these next 3 videos…

Elemental Diet – How Can it Help My Gut & How do I Use It?

In this video, I tell you who can benefit from using an elemental diet and why. How to use an elemental diet to reset your gut flora, relieve an intestinal obstruction or stricture, or provide bowel rest for inflammation or bleeding. I also cover how to use it for SIBO, Crohn’s, colitis, diverticulitis, or food allergies.

Elemental Diet: Exclusive diet, Half diet – What Should I Do?

I’ll outline your options for the different ways you can use an elemental diet to facilitate bowel rest, gut healing, and a microbiome reset. I tell you when it’s best to go on a 100% exclusively elemental diet (pre-digested liquids ONLY). And when you might do well on only a half elemental diet (cheaper and easier!) where the other half of your foods are well-tolerated or low residue foods. I also share stories of the ways my readers use Absorb Plus elemental shakes to head off a flare or deal with stress.

Elemental Diet – Am I Intolerant to the Shakes or Herxing/Detoxing?

How do you know if you’re having an intolerance to the elemental shake, OR experiencing a Herxheimer (die-off of pathogens) reaction? I talk about how to discern between an ingredient allergy or intolerance, versus a Herxheimer or die-off effect as pathogens are cleared from your gut. I also give you solutions for both situations.

Insider Tips for Elemental Diet Success

Now that you have the basics, join me for a deep dive with Dr. Ray & Debbie Steinbock who have guided thousands of patients through an elemental diet. This is the equivalent of paying for an appointment with a specialist, so don’t miss this treasure trove!

 

The elemental diet was first used by NASA as a convenient way to provide astronauts with optimum nutrition while limiting fecal matter (bowel movements). Elemental liquid diets have since been prescribed to treat serious inflammatory bowel disorders such as Crohn’s disease or with SIBO, or pre/post-surgery, Cancer, or other conditions that limit a person’s ability to eat or digest food effectively.

For extensive information on how to implement an elemental diet for IBD, including tips and tricks to make it easier, listen to (or read the transcript for) my Elemental Diet Podcast.

Elemental Foods:

Protein – free-form amino acids or di-peptide bond proteins only. Examples of allowable proteins include egg albumin, whey isolate (but not concentrate) powder, rice protein isolate powder, pea protein isolate powder.

Carbohydrates – carbs must be in monosaccharide form only. This means NO carbohydrates other than glucose, dextrose, fructose, xylitol, maltitol and other monosaccharide sugars. Maltodextrin (a glucose polymer) is also allowed.

Fats – cold-pressed beneficial oils only. Like flax, Udo’s, coconut, fish oil, etc.

Half Elemental Diet

A half elemental diet is one in which half of your daily nutritional requirements are supplied through an elemental liquid diet, and the other half through solid food. Researchers have established that half-elemental diets significantly lower the occurrence of relapses (symptom flare-up) in Crohn’s disease – see the study here. So those without the willpower, or the need, to do a full elemental diet, still have a good chance of avoiding flare-ups from only a half-elemental diet.

The IBD Remission Diet

This book is a very specific natural diet and supplementation plan devised to induce disease remission – this is the protocol I invented and followed to go from 99 lbs and so weak I could barely walk to the toilet, to 135 lbs and working out at the gym in only 6 weeks time.

The protocol in this book is designed to completely heal the GI tract, eliminating the bad bacteria in your intestine and replacing them with good bacteria, and restoring health and balance from the cellular level on up throughout the immune system. Although this elemental treatment is specifically formulated to address inflammatory bowel conditions like Crohn’s, ulcerative colitis and diverticulitis, people may find other health conditions will also be resolved as the program facilitates extensive whole-body healing.

Typically, an elemental diet alone will not benefit people with ulcerative colitis, diverticulitis or IBS, however as the elemental diet is only ONE component of The IBD Remission Diet, thousands with colitis, diverticulitis, or severe IBS have also used it as a tool to induce remission. This is most likely the result of:

• Pathogens being cleared from the gastrointestinal tract and replaced with good bacteria (microbiota reset)
• Supplements which heal the mucosal lining and intestinal wall
• Whole-body detox provided by an elemental diet
• Myriad of bodily functions assisted by the targeted amino acid blend and other herbal supplements prescribed.

Elemental Diet for SIBO

Elemental diets are useful for SIBO & IBS as a food clearance mechanism and microbiota reset. Many things can irritate the gut, some of which we are completely unaware of, and the process of dealing with food elimination and food allergen testing is both labor intensive and time consuming.

People can use an elemental diet for a short period of time (example 2-3 weeks) to clear out whatever is irritating the gut, while still providing the body with top-quality nutrients. This builds muscle, helps to maintain weight, and can assist in weight-loss during that period (adjust calorie intake accordingly).

It also assists with the bacterial clear-out, because if you are not eating carbs, grains, beans, etc. there are no undigested carbs going into the colon or different parts of the small intestine for the bacteria to eat – thus shifting the gut flora. Of course, if you can add a natural antimicrobial and high dose probiotic supplementation at the same time, you can get the best results from your time on the diet!

Watch the video above to learn more about which supplements to take, which foods are allowed, and how to HELP the diet get rid of bacterial overgrowth, Candida, etc. and balance your gut flora. Dr. Alison Siebecker has also found an elemental diet to be highly successful with SIBO patients.

Cleanse and Detox

As you know, people with inflammatory bowel disease or irritable bowel syndrome are hypersensitive, and have to be very careful in order to avoid a flare-up during detoxifying. A detox that works well for most people is to combine elemental shakes with vegetable, bone, and medicinal mushroom broths, along with fresh vegetable juices (if tolerated – with a little apple juice or stevia added for sweetness) and a number of targeted supplements.

How Many Shakes Will I Need?

The number of shakes you need, depends on if your disease is active, and whether you want to gain, lose, or maintain your existing weight.

In an active disease state, you need a lot of extra calories (and protein) for healing and tissue repair, in addition to the calories normally needed by a person of your height and weight. If you are a child or teenager (still growing), you also need a lot of extra calories to fuel your growth. If you are a tall or heavy person, you will need more calories per day than a short or small-boned, light person.

If you want to gain weight, then you need to take in extra calories – over what your body needs – to put on weight.

But, if you want to lose weight, then calculate your intake of calories/liquid diet shakes according to your desired body weight, not your current body weight. This will allow you to lose fat, while still nourishing your body and your muscles.

Here’s how to calculate the number of elemental shakes you’ll need per day, based upon your condition and your goals:

1. To Gain Weight with Active Inflammatory Bowel Disease

Based on our experience with thousands of people with active inflammatory bowel disease who have used the elemental shakes I formulated (Absorb Plus (US), Absorb Element Plus (UK), ElementGold (AU), etc) the basic calculation for figuring out how many shakes you need to consume each day to gain weight (about 2 pounds per week) is:

• An inactive adult: needs 17 calories per pound of body weight + 2 additional shakes per day.
• An active adult: needs 20 calories per pound + 3 additional shakes per day.
• Child or teenager: needs 40 calories per pound, per day (but a minimum of 5 shakes a day).
• Pregnant or nursing woman: needs 25 calories per pound + 2 or 3 additional shakes per day.

If in doubt, start with 6 shakes per day and then increase from there until you start gaining weight. The first time I went on an elemental diet (after a severe hemmorhage) I weighed only 99 pounds (I’m 5’7″) and I drank 9 shakes per day and gained 36 pounds in six weeks. The second time I went on an exclusively elemental diet, I weighed 115 pounds, and I drank 6 shakes per day to gradually gain 5 pounds in three weeks. Calorie needs are very individual, so don’t be afraid to experiment, especially if you have a high metabolism.

2. To Maintain Your Existing Weight

Based on our experience with thousands of people who have used elemental shakes, the basic calculation for figuring out how many shakes you need to take in each day on an exclusively liquid diet is 17 calories per pound of body weight, per day, for an inactive adult.

This means if you are an inactive adult who weighs 120 pounds, you need to consume 2040 calories per day (120 x 17 = 2040) to maintain your weight.

Mixing your elemental shakes with water and 1 tablespoon of flax, MCT, or Udo’s Choice Oil, will increase each shake by 120 calories, due to the healthy oil added. So, for example, if you’re using Absorb Plus, each shake would be 485 calories. Therefore, you need to drink 4.2 shakes per day to not lose weight.

• The calculation for an active adult to maintain your existing weight is 20 calories per pound, daily.
• A growing child or teenager: needs 35 calories per pound of body weight, daily.
• A pregnant or nursing woman: needs 25 calories per pound of body weight, daily.

If in doubt, start with 6 shakes per day and then increase or decrease if needed. It’s very individual; so don’t be afraid to experiment. Remember, these calculations are for people using ONLY elemental shakes as their sole food source, during an elemental liquid diet.

3. Mixing Elemental Shakes With Food to Maintain Existing Weight

To use elemental shakes along with regular, well-tolerated foods, you can use the calorie guidelines below, but drink only the number of shakes you need per day to make up the missing recommended calories from your regular diet.

• An inactive adult: needs 17 calories per pound of body weight
• An active adult needs 20 calories per pound of body weight, daily.
• A growing child or teenager: needs 35 calories per pound, daily.
• A pregnant or nursing woman: needs 25 calories per pound, daily.

Note: You can use my list of Low Residue foods or FODMAP or SC Diet for well-tolerated foods.

However, if you want to GAIN weight, then:

• An inactive adult needs to consume: 17 calories per pound of body weight + 2 additional shakes, per day.
• An active adult: needs 20 calories per pound + 3 additional shakes per day.
• Child or teenager: needs 40 calories per pound, per day (but minimum of 5 shakes/day).
• Pregnant or nursing woman: needs 25 calories per pound + 2-3 additional shakes per day.

Note: Someone with a high metabolism may also need additional shakes to those given above. Basically, use these calculations to give you a rough guideline. But since each body uses calories differently, adjust up or down according to your body’s needs.

Benefits of An Elemental Diet

• Optimum nutrition with high quality protein
• Rapidly absorbed into the blood stream
• Pre-digested for maximum absorption and to be easy on the gastrointestinal system
• Increased health and energy
• Improved sleep
• Can be used to gain weight, lose weight, or build muscle

Full liquid diets have been shown to be more effective than steroids at reducing inflammation and healing the mucosal lining of the intestines in people with colon and bowel disorders such as Crohn’s disease and colitis.

“Exclusive nutritional therapy shows a more rapid effect than steroids in inducing clinical remission, and is markedly more effective than steroids in producing healing of mucosal inflammation.” – Dr. Robert Canani (Source: DDW Annual Meeting: Abstracts 103976, 107178, 2002)

Elemental Shake Recipes

Here are two of my favorite elemental shake recipes (which you could also use for smoothies or protein shakes):

Daily Super Health Shake

• 8-16 ounces of cold or room temperature water
• 4 scoops of Absorb Plus elemental shake powder
• 100-1000 mg. Vitamin C powder in Mineral Ascorbate form only (e.g. Vit.C as Calcium Ascorbate) according to your tolerance level
• 1 tsp. – 1 tbsp. Udo’s, flax or MCT oil (as much as you can tolerate)
• 1 scoop of MultiAbsorb Immune

Shake together in a BlenderBottle or blend on low speed

If not using MultiAbsorb, then add:

1-2 capsules of multi-vitamin/multi-mineral (Nature’s Way is a good brand)
1 capsule of CoQ10, 60 mg.
1 capsule of grapeseed extract, 60 mg

*For vitamins in capsule form, open or puncture capsule and empty contents into shake, discard empty capsule shell. Do not use hot water or it will denature ingredients.

Jini’s Immune Support Shake

• 8-16 ounces of cold or room temperature water
• 4 scoops of Absorb Plus elemental shake powder
• 100-1000 mg. Vitamin C powder in Mineral Ascorbate form only (e.g. Vit.C as Calcium Ascorbate) according to your tolerance level
• 1 tsp. – 1 tbsp. Udo’s, flax or MCT oil (as much as you can tolerate)
• 1 scoop of MultiAbsorb Immune

Shake together in a BlenderBottle or blend on low speed

If not using MultiAbsorb, then add:

400 IU capsule of natural Vitamin E
1 capsule of CoQ10, 60 mg
1 capsule of Pycnogenol, 60 mg
1 capsule of Bioflavonoids, 500 mg

*For vitamins in capsule form, open or puncture capsule and empty contents into shake, discard empty capsule shell. Do not use hot water or it will denature ingredients.

If you have any questions, simply email us and we’ll help you out!