Poucho, if you have a health food store (or maybe a GNC), they have all natural protein drinks or protein powder into which you add water or milk.  Whey protein is good quality.

Ensure has a lot of chemicals as well.  You can order protein powder from Dr Mercola or a protein powder made for underweight people called Absorb plus, different flavors that you add Udo's Oil or a flax oil.  You can find it searching Absorb Plus®.  

I too was underweight.  It took about 4 months after my J-pouch connection to finally gain weight.  Yes sugar definitely bothers my J-pouch.  

My best to you.  Lori

YogiLori posted:

Ensure has a lot of chemicals as well.  You can order protein powder from Dr Mercola or a protein powder made for underweight people called Absorb plus, different flavors that you add Udo's Oil or a flax oil.  You can find it searching Absorb Plus®.  

I too was underweight.  It took about 4 months after my J-pouch connection to finally gain weight.  Yes sugar definitely bothers my J-pouch.  

My best to you.  Lori

10 servings per tub for $62.00��  Who can afford that? Lol

Check out benecalorie.  It's a flavorless liquid that can be added to meals.  A one ounce portion adds 300 calories to your meal with no additional output.  Three ounces per day gives you close to an additional 1000 calories.

Sue

I'm looking into this Benecalorie. It has 0 grams of sugar too!! It is covered by my insurance 100% but need a prescription. I hope Dr Shen will authorize it

That's great PouchoMarx; I'm sure Shen will authorize it since the last thing a jpoucher needs is increased output due to increased consumption and or sugar.  Keep us informed.

Sue

suebear posted:

That's great PouchoMarx; I'm sure Shen will authorize it since the last thing a jpoucher needs is increased output due to increased consumption and or sugar.  Keep us informed.

 

Sue

He must have approved it cuz Edgepark called and said its shipping. Hope it works. Thanks for suggestion. I'm going to do 2 a day for a month and see if it helps

Good job Poucho - I just drink Ensure some - I know it's not that great, but it really helps.  I still can drink coffee - so, I use about 1/3 to 1/2 of a bottle of vanilla ensure as "creamer" - it feel like it helps me get a few vitamins, etc. in - I'm sure the other stuff is better though. My insurance covers nothing, so I just do what is cheap.  Glad you found some good stuff and that your insurance covers it!

I believed Ensure drinks are only provided if full appetite not restored or not absorbing protein and nutrients from a normal diet .

If you have a normal appetite and no difficulties absorbing nutrients you would be far better off eating meals consisting of pasta, chicken or fish.

I find pasta is good but only if active, otherwise, depending on sex, such as male or female, you'll end up with tummy fat if a male and fat thighs and bottom (butt) if a female.

Otherwise, a balance diet containing fish or chicken, in moderation would be much healthier than consuming the Ensure type nutrition drinks.

I've struggled for a while putting on weight. I like the idea of ensure and things like that, but it's pretty expensive and sometimes worsened my diarrhea. My friend turned me on to a nutrition-based app a few days ago called "myfitnesspal". It's free unless you want to go premium, which is dumb unless you're rich...$10 a month. Anyways, the free version can be used to lose, maintain, or gain weight. You enter what you eat and it breaks down your daily diet in a way that helped me realize I wasn't eating enough fats. I've upped my fats and proteins with an egg-white powder protein smoothie. Since starting about 4 or 5 days ago, I've been easily getting 3000 calories a day, which I thought would be impossible with a pouch that isn't always functioning properly.

If you're like me, you're thinking that entering your food in an app on your phone seems annoying with all the other literal crap that we have going on. Well, I gave it a shot and it's actually pretty easy. You can scan barcodes from the packaging or search for things if you decide to eat out, and all the nutrition data is already entered. You just have to choose the serving amount. Also, when you go to add food for new meals, all the things you've had in the past are right there.

I feel like I'm trying to sell it. I wouldn't do that, if I wasn't really hopeful that this is going to help me put on some el bees.

Keep us updated on how you do with Benecalorie. Sounds promising.

Hi Poucho...Understand your situation completely. At one point in time I was relegated to having to solely use a clear liquid diet, with allowed use of  elemental protein drinks/shakes.  The Ensure and Boost are not 'elemental', and contain a ton of sugar and other ingredients that cause probs with absorption .

The products that helped the most were high in protein and calories, without a lot of the sugar and such...and they were 'elemental'...easily absorbed in guts...

One is called  Peptamen, the other is Absorb Plus...http://absorbplus.com/diet/use/use1b.php

  ...

6) Is Absorb Plus covered by insurance?   http://absorbplus.com/faqs/faqs6f.php

That depends on your insurance policy. We have customers who are able to get the cost of Absorb Plus completely covered by having their doctor write a prescription for it. A Canadian customer gets it covered by having his doctor write a letter stating that his life would be in danger without Absorb Plus and then he had to buy it from a Pharmacy. He gave us the name of a pharmacy near him and we arranged for the pharmacy to order product from us. Other customers have managed to get partial rebates for the cost on their tax return. Regulations vary from country to country and also according to your insurance policy. Keep in mind that Absorb Plus is a supplement, it is not a drug and so does not have any kind of drug licensing number - which some policies require.

Also the Peptamen...https://www.nestlehealthscience.us/brands/peptamen/peptamen

They both will help a lot with calories and protein and other needed nutrition....I am not entirely sure, but if your doc or surgeon gives you a script and/or a statement or form stating  'Medically Necessary "  ,  Insurance  may cover it.....

Believe me, I know it's expensive, but with help from doc, pharmacy, etc, maybe insurance will assist....

Also, check out websites using search terms  protein shakes...many home made recipes that have calories and protein to help gain weight and strength using natural ingredients ...

Best Wishes, R.

Great information - thanks for sharing - I guess I should be putting ensure in my coffee.  I knew it was not great, but sort of thought "better than nothing" - but I guess I need to work harder to find something.  I have a hard time eating so many thing - and ensure - about 1/3 a bottle in my coffee never did bother me.  Coffee is my "go to" - it's what makes my GI run - it helps food go through me and not get stuck.  Yes, it goes through too fast - but without it - well, then I am miserable and then I am prone to partial or full obstructions.  I guess we just all do the best we can.  Yep - ensure is FULL of sugar.  But, again, I figure 1/3 a bottle in my coffee is not so bad.  Another bad thing I eat - milk duds.  I kid you not - it's one of the few pleasures in terms of candy (which I know I shoud never eat) that does not upset my stomach.  I have a sweet tooth, I"ve tried going totally off sugar - and I find "all or nothing" just does not work for me.  So, I cheat here and there   - and try to eat in a healthy manner about 80? percent of the time.  Hard to do in American culture.   One thing that helped me a lot - this is strange - is when I stopped working. At my jobs, there was always so much FOOD and it was a lot of bad food.  Celebrations of birthdays, baby showers, teacher appreciation week, PTA this or that, on and on it went.  I never realized how much crap I ate working in schools as a teacher and a counselor until I stopped.  When you don't have the bad food at home, it's so much easier not to eat it.  I used to pick up two donuts every Friday on the way to work - my gift to myself for making it through the week.  No donuts now.  I wonder if other workplaces struggle with this.  As the years went on, it did get better and people tried to bring healthier foods - fruit, veggie trays, etc. - but all the other crap was always there too.  And guess what people tend to go for?  Sorry for the rant.  I am thin - but I really need to step it up regarding what I eat as I age.  Thanks for the kick in the pants - I will look into your products.  I feel like I am always walking a tightrope - I guess all of us with pouch do at times.  I agree with whoever said, fats so important.  My GI will not hold a bunch of veggies if I dont' have some type of fat with them.  The key is healthy fats.  All of this working on what to eat wears me out.  I am not a foodie and really, I'd eat a frozen dinner every night if I could.  Hate to cook, hate all the food prep, etc.  Bores me to death.  I'd rather paint and read. God I am getting old.

suebear posted:

That's great PouchoMarx; I'm sure Shen will authorize it since the last thing a jpoucher needs is increased output due to increased consumption and or sugar.  Keep us informed.

 

Sue

Received my Benecalorie last night. I drank it as a shot straight and it was the worst tasting thing I have every had..lol.. it was thick and chalky and actually felt like my mouth was foaming and almost threw up..lol. it says to add to food so I need to figure out what to add it to. Any suggestions? thought about just adding it to my ensure active drink? I cant see adding it to a juice or applesauce. but if I have to drink it straight, I will. Ive had worse in my mouth before..lol

You're brave!  I don't know of anyone who has consumed it like that!  It's meant to be added to food.  Perhaps something like oatmeal; because you can add brown sugar and milk to help dilute the taste.  Or soup?

Sue