As I woke up this morning and walked to the fridge for breakfast, I had three tantalising options. Summer Fruits elemental, Grapefruit elemental or Orange & Pineapple elemental. On face value, that doesn’t sound too bad does it? A delicious fruity drink to start the day…
Unfortunately, I have remembered these shakes with complete rose tinted glasses. They are vile. I mean, they really are disgusting.

For dinner, I had Summer Fruits. As you can see, I was delighted
- Not like a juice
- Not like a milkshake
- Not like a smoothie
- Not like squash
- Not an enjoyable beverage
- Not enjoyable full stop.
Because this isn’t the first time I have been on a exclusive liquid diet. Twelve years ago I featured in the very cool (!) teen mag, Mizz. The headline was extremely dramatic and I was interviewed at home with a friend from school.

I told you it was a dramatic headline
Luckily this isn’t on the cards this time around. Now I’m a responsible adult (ha!), I am able to consume all the required shakes – 9 250ml cartons a day. *Gulp*…
People said to me at school, ‘why did you decide to write in and tell your story?’ I remember distinctively staring at them like it was completely obvious. ‘I’m miserable and hungry! I may as well make some money out of it!’ I wish I could remember what I spent the £150 on (probably more Mizz magazines), but it was hugely exciting.

Mizz was the coolest magazine to read when you were 11 years old in the 90’s. (I also did enjoy the ‘Four cute poster boys’)!
To find out more about my Crohns story, click here.
End of day 1 and I’m hungry… no surprises there. I’m going to leave you with something one of my oldest friends said to me today.
‘Remember, solids are for chumps’. Katharine, April 2016
Thank you for the post, Briony! My daughter has been on a similar liquid diet after she was diagnosed with Crohn’s. Her drink was called Modulen (by Nestle) and was a powder, similar to baby formula, that had to be prepared with water and flavoured with strawberry or cocoa. She did not like it but very bravely continued for 5 weeks. It helped her a lot: she was in remission and started gaining weight. The doctor mentioned some new studies where they add at least one or two of these as a snack to the normal diet, and apparently it helps. Sending you best wishes for health and wellness. Tez.