Liquid food means something different in hospital than at the pharmacy or the supermarket. What's behind liquid diets, medical drinks and drinkable meals, when each form makes sense, whether it fills you up, and what your health insurer pays for.
Gregor Aßlaber, Saturo editor
· ✓Fachlich geprüft von Joerg Hauke, Nutrition expert
Aktualisiert 24 September 2026 · 15 Min. Lesezeit · 34 Quellen
Liquid food in three forms: clear broth, cream soup and a Saturo drinkable meal. Which one fits depends on the situation, not the label.
The essentials in 30 seconds
Energy per millilitre
1.5–2kcal/ml
High-calorie medical drinks are the most energy-dense food on the shelf: 300 to 400 kcal in 200 ml. A drinkable meal comes in at 1 kcal/ml, milk at 0.6, clear broth at 0.07.
Malnourished on admission
27%
This is how many patients were already malnourished on admission in the German hospital malnutrition study, rising to 56% in geriatric care. For them, liquid food is treatment, not convenience.
Warning sign: weight loss
5%
Anyone who unintentionally loses more than 5% of their body weight in six months meets a GLIM criterion for malnutrition. From this point on, liquid food belongs in medical hands, not in your shopping basket.
Condition for going liquid-only
Fully balanced
Only liquid food that contains all nutrients in the required amounts may serve as your sole source of nutrition for longer. A protein shake doesn't qualify; a fully balanced medical drink or a complete drinkable meal does, in consultation with a doctor.
01 Understand
What liquid food is and everything the term covers
Liquid food is any food that delivers energy and nutrients in a drinkable or spoonable form, without chewing. This covers three different things: the broth on the hospital tray after surgery, the 200 ml bottle from the pharmacy for malnutrition, and the drinkable meal from the supermarket. They're made for different people, follow different rules and deliver very different amounts.
Liquid diet, medical drinks, drinkable meals, astronaut food: who means what
Liquid diet is the term used in hospitals and care settings: a diet form where everything is drinkable because chewing or swallowing isn't possible. Medical drinks usually refers to medical products, so-called balanced diets from the pharmacy, either standard-calorie or high-calorie. Drinkable meal is the food version: a complete meal in a bottle or as a powder, sold over the counter, for healthy adults. Astronaut food is the colloquial name for both. Tube feed doesn't go through the mouth at all, but through a tube into the stomach or intestine. This article covers all forms, with a focus on what you drink.
What is a liquid diet? Liquid food in hospital
In hospital, liquid food isn't a product category but a stage in building up your diet. After abdominal surgery, acute gastrointestinal illness, swallowing difficulties, or procedures in the mouth and jaw area, nutrition starts with whatever the body can tolerate and becomes more solid day by day. Hospital kitchens classify diet types by consistency; the names vary, but the sequence is similar in most hospitals.
From tea back to a plate: hospital diet stages
1Stage 1Clear liquid diet
Tea, clear broth, diluted juice, water. Provides fluid and electrolytes, almost no energy (300 ml of broth: 21 kcal). Only for hours to a few days, for example right after abdominal surgery or with gastrointestinal infections.
2Stage 2Liquid diet
Everything that could pass through a straw without chewing: milk, kefir, cream soups, yoghurt drinks, medical drinks, drinkable meals. This is where protein and energy intake begins. The most important stage after jaw surgery, with jaw wiring, and with swallowing disorders.
3Stage 3Puréed diet
Puréed and spoonable, no lumps: mashed potato, puréed vegetables, meat as a mousse, semolina pudding, quark. For people who can swallow but not chew. According to the DGE diet-form guidelines, this alone can barely meet nutritional needs, so it's fortified or supplemented with medical drinks.
4Stage 4Soft and light full diet
Soft-cooked, without crusts, grains or anything hard to digest, followed by a light full diet and then a normal full diet. From here on, liquid food is at most a supplement, for example as a medical drink when appetite is lacking.
Sequence and examples based on the diet stages commonly used in German hospitals (DGE guidelines on diet forms 2023, based on the guide to nutritional therapy in clinical practice) and the IDDSI consistency scale for swallowing disorders. The treatment team decides how long each stage lasts.
After bowel surgery, the early stages often last just one to two days; after a stroke with swallowing difficulties, they can take weeks. Two hospital terms help here: Enteral nutrition covers anything that goes through the gut, so medical drinks and tube feed; it's prescribed and, under certain conditions, continues to be paid for by your health insurer after discharge (see chapter 7). Parenteral nutrition goes into a vein as an infusion and isn't liquid food in the sense of this article.
Stage 1 in hospital: clear liquid diet. It provides fluid but barely any energy, so it only lasts hours to a few days.
Liquid food for adults: why the question of who it's for matters
Search for liquid food and you'll quickly land on baby food or pet food. Adults need the same nutrients as from solid food, just in a different form: protein, fat, carbohydrates, fibre, vitamins and minerals in a ratio that matches daily needs. This is exactly where most homemade solutions fall short: a fruit smoothie is liquid but almost protein-free; a clear broth is soothing but empty. What a complete liquid meal looks like is covered in chapter 6; first, it's worth looking at the three product types.
02 Categorise
Three types of liquid food: medical, drinkable meal, tube feed
In Europe, food law decides whether a product belongs in the pharmacy, the supermarket or the hospital, not the manufacturer. It recognises two worlds: foods for special medical purposes, the balanced diets, and regular foods, which include drinkable meals. Legally, tube feed belongs to the first world; in practice, it's a third one.
Medical drinks: balanced diets from the pharmacy
Medical drinks are a food for special medical purposes, or FSMP for short: under EU Regulation 609/2013, intended for the dietary management of patients who can't sufficiently absorb or process regular food, and only under medical supervision. A fully balanced diet may serve as the sole source of nutrition (Regulation 2016/128). Typical bottles hold 125 to 200 ml, standard-calorie at 1 kcal/ml or high-calorie at 1.5 to 2 kcal/ml, meaning 300 to 400 kcal and 11 to 20 g of protein. They're designed for malnutrition, cancer, major surgery and swallowing disorders; the taste is sweet so that people with poor appetite will drink it, and fibre is often missing.
Drinkable meals: complete liquid food as a regular food
A drinkable meal is a regular food: sold over the counter, no prescription needed, for healthy adults who want to replace a meal. No specific law dictates what must be in it; the nutrition label is the only real indicator of quality. Complete means: 400 to 500 kcal per serving, plus protein, fibre and a share of your daily vitamins and minerals. In November 2025, Stiftung Warentest tested six drinkable meals and reached the same verdict as this article: fine occasionally, not as a permanent replacement. Don't confuse these with meal replacement products for weight control, which are required to contain 200 to 250 kcal per meal; these are diet products, not meals.
At a glance
Four types of liquid food compared
What sets the categories apart, from energy density to the question of who pays.
Medical drinks
Drinkable meal
Tube feed
Homemade
What it is
Balanced diet (FSMP) for people who are ill
Regular food, a complete meal
Balanced diet, delivered via a tube
Shake or soup from your own kitchen
Energy
1.5 to 2 kcal/ml, 300 to 400 kcal per 200 ml
1 kcal/ml, 400 to 515 kcal per serving
1 to 1.5 kcal/ml, amount set by nutrition plan
150 to 450 kcal per serving depending on recipe
Protein per serving
11 to 20 g
high, up to 36 g
as per plan, fully balanced
3 to 21 g in our recipes
Sugar per 100 ml
around 7 g in the standard 1.5 kcal line, around 15 g in the compact 2.4 kcal line
0.3 to 6 g, depending on product (Saturo 0.3 to 0.5 g)
as per plan
from fruit and milk, dosed yourself
Fibre
standard lines without added fibre, fibre variants do contain it
depending on product, up to 8 g
with or without
oats, pulses, flaxseed
Legal status
EU Regulation 2016/128, under medical supervision
general food law
EU Regulation 2016/128
none
Where to buy
pharmacy, medical supply store, online
supermarket, drugstore, online
prescription, homecare, pharmacy
kitchen
Does insurance pay
yes, with a prescription if indicated
never
yes, if indicated
no
Who it's for
malnutrition, swallowing disorders, after major surgery
healthy people, one meal a day
when eating by mouth isn't possible
for days, not weeks
Values per category: medical drinks according to manufacturer data, as of September 2026 (standard line 1.5 kcal per 200 ml: 300 kcal, 11 to 12 g protein; 2 kcal line per 200 ml: 400 kcal, 20 g protein; compact line 2.4 kcal per 125 ml: 300 kcal, 12 to 18 g protein; sugar per 100 ml: standard line 6.7 g, compact line 13.7 to 15.5 g); drinkable meals according to Stiftung Warentest 11/2025 (400 to 515 kcal per serving, up to 30 g sugar per 500 ml, i.e. 6 g per 100 ml, even without added sugar) and Saturo (36 g protein, 7 to 8 g fibre, 1 to 1.5 g sugar); tube feed according to ESPEN; homemade according to the recipes in chapter 6 (USDA).
Tube feed and enteral nutrition: when drinking isn't possible anymore
Tube feed is fully balanced liquid food delivered directly into the stomach or small intestine via a tube; together with medical drinks, it makes up enteral nutrition. It's used when intake by mouth isn't enough: after strokes with severe swallowing difficulties, with head and neck tumours, in intensive care. The professional body ESPEN recommends a nasal tube for only four to six weeks, after which a tube through the abdominal wall (PEG) is used. Legally, tube feed is a balanced diet, and health insurers cover it. It's not relevant for most people searching for this topic, but it shows that people live with it for years.
Don't confuse these
A protein shake isn't a meal: 24 g protein, 110 kcal, no fibre, barely any vitamins. A diet shake, at 200 to 250 kcal, is too low. Baby food is balanced for babies. A meal is only replaced by a product actually designed to be one.
Recipes and pack sizes change. All third-party figures come from manufacturer websites and the Stiftung Warentest 11/2025 test, as of September 2026; report outdated information to support@saturo.com.
03 Understand
What liquid food does differently in the body
Same calories, same nutrients, and yet the body reacts differently to a glass than to a plate. Three stops explain why liquid food passes through faster, fills you up less, and how you can make up for that.
1
Mouth: chewing is a satiety signal
Chewing takes time, and that time matters: through chewing movements, taste and saliva, the mouth tells the brain that you're eating, and the body releases satiety hormones. A meta-analysis of chewing studies shows that more chewing measurably reduces hunger, and in most trials also the size of the next meal. A drink skips this stop in seconds. Expectation matters too: when the same starter is perceived as a drink rather than food, it's less filling, and participants ate around 400 kcal more over the course of the day.
2
Stomach: liquids leave it faster
The stomach empties liquids faster than solid food, and a stomach that empties quickly signals hunger again sooner. What slows this down is composition: protein, fat and fibre delay emptying, and so does a thick consistency. That's why a Saturo drinkable meal with 36 g of protein and fibre keeps you full differently than a juice with the same calories.
3
Gut and blood: sugar, fibre, rhythm
Liquid carbohydrates reach the bloodstream faster. A drink high in sugar sends blood sugar sharply up and down, and the drop feels like hunger. Fibre and fat smooth out the curve, sugar sharpens it; that's why it's worth reading the 'of which sugars' line. And the gut wants fibre: without it, gut bacteria run out of food and digestion slows down. So going liquid-only long-term always means keeping an eye on fibre too.
04 Deciding
When liquid food makes sense: chewing, swallowing, weight, age, daily life
There are two reasons for liquid food, and they shouldn't be confused. The first is medical: the body no longer gets enough from regular food because chewing, swallowing, appetite or digestion aren't cooperating; then liquid food is part of treatment. The second is practical: there's a lack of time or opportunity; then liquid food is a meal you drink. Three questions help sort out the cases.
Interactive
Which liquid food suits you?
Three questions, four answers. Not a diagnostic tool: if you notice warning signs, let your doctor decide.
1Have you unintentionally lost weight in recent months, had trouble swallowing, or had an illness that makes eating harder?
2Are you unable to chew for a few days, for example after dental or jaw surgery, with jaw wiring or tonsillitis?
3What's this about for you?
Medical
Check first, then drink: prescription medical drinks
These are exactly the cases balanced diets are made for. Talk to your GP about a nutrition screening; if your ability to eat normally is limited, medical drinks can be prescribed, and your health insurer covers the cost minus the co-payment. A drinkable meal doesn't replace this check-up.
Saturo drinkable meal instead of chewing, no prescription needed
For a few days without chewing, a complete drinkable meal like Saturo is the easiest solution: 400 kcal, 36 g protein and 26 vitamins and minerals per bottle, no preparation needed. Soups, yoghurt and shakes add variety; the key is protein in every portion. You'll find the recipes in chapter 6.
If it's not your body but time, a kitchen or appetite that's missing, a Saturo drinkable meal with 400 kcal and 36 g protein replaces one meal a day; a proper plate stays the norm. If you're healthy and want to gain weight, use it as an extra meal, for example a second breakfast.
Saturo Shape Shake: meal replacement with 203 kcal
Shape Shake is made for weight loss: a meal replacement for a weight-control diet with 203 kcal, 17 g protein, 11 g fibre and all 26 vitamins and minerals per serving (30 g powder, 300 ml unsweetened soy milk). Replacing two main meals a day with it supports weight loss; replacing one helps you maintain your weight. The 400 kcal drinkable meal isn't designed for this.
Guidance, not diagnosis. Unintentional weight loss, swallowing problems and illnesses should always be checked by a doctor, regardless of the result here.
Liquid food for chewing and swallowing difficulties
The most common medical reason is mechanical: it simply doesn't work. After a wisdom tooth extraction, with a locked jaw, tonsillitis or missing teeth, liquid food is the only way to feel full for days or weeks, and one food is enough for that: soup, shake, drinkable meal. It's different with a swallowing disorder (dysphagia): it affects 30 to 40% of people over 65 living at home, and 29% in a German acute geriatric ward. Here, thin liquids are often the most dangerous, because liquid can enter the windpipe; speech and language therapists determine the safe consistency using the IDDSI scale. If you regularly choke while swallowing, get it checked out first.
With malnutrition and unintended weight loss
The second reason is often overlooked: the body gets too little, even though you're eating, for example due to loss of appetite, chewing and swallowing problems, depression or dementia. Doctors identify malnutrition using the GLIM criteria. This is where high-calorie oral nutritional supplements work: in the Cochrane review (62 studies), older people gained 2.2%, and mortality among malnourished people dropped by around a fifth. ESPEN recommends at least 400 kcal and 30 g of protein per day in addition to food, for at least a month; then health insurance covers it (chapter 7). Healthy people who want to gain weight need more energy from normal food, or if necessary high-calorie oral nutritional supplements as a supplement.
Interactive
Is your food still enough? Signs of nutritional risk
Tap what applies to you. The signs are based on the GLIM criteria that doctors use to identify malnutrition.
Not a diagnostic tool. The points are based on the GLIM criteria for malnutrition (weight loss, low BMI, muscle loss, reduced food intake, disease burden) and don't replace medical screening. Always get unintended weight loss or swallowing problems checked out by a doctor.
Liquid food in old age
An unfavourable combination happens with age: appetite decreases, chewing and swallowing become more strenuous, and at the same time protein needs increase because the body processes protein less efficiently. Professional bodies recommend at least 1.0 g of protein per kilogram of body weight per day from age 65, and 1.2 to 1.5 g with acute or chronic illness; the DGE states 1.0 g as an estimated value.
This is where liquid food has its strongest place: not as a meal replacement, but as a protein-rich snack that requires no chewing. A glass of kefir with skyr mid-morning, a creamy lentil soup in the afternoon, an oral nutritional supplement after dinner: three portions provide 40 to 60 g of protein. Timing matters: between meals, not before them, otherwise the drink pushes food off the plate.
Appetite decreases with age while protein needs increase. A liquid meal in between closes the gap when large portions are no longer manageable.
Liquid food in everyday life: when it's not your body but your time that's lacking
If you skip breakfast, spend your lunch break at your desk, or have no kitchen after training, you replace the meal with nothing, or with pastries. A Saturo drinkable meal delivers here what your body expects from a meal: 400 kcal, 36 g protein, fibre, micronutrients. It's not better than a cooked meal, but it's better than no meal. Two rules keep this healthy: one meal a day, not three, and a proper plate stays the norm. If the bottle becomes a habit because eating has become a hassle, it's no longer a matter of time.
05 Check
Does liquid food fill you up, is it healthy, and can you live on it?
The three most common questions about liquid food have honest answers, and none is a simple yes or no. Whether liquid food fills you up depends on four factors. Whether it's healthy depends on what's in it and how long it replaces food. And whether you can live on liquid food alone: yes, under certain conditions.
Liquid food that fills you up: the four factors
Four factors determine whether a liquid meal is filling. Protein is the strongest: it slows gastric emptying; guideline value 20 to 30 g per meal, a fruit smoothie has 2. Fibre extends the time food spends in the stomach; 5 to 8 g per portion. Consistency: thick, warm and spooned fills you up better than thin, cold and drunk. Low sugar keeps the blood sugar curve flat and hunger at bay. In 253 preload trials, the body compensated worst for liquid energy. That's why a liquid meal keeps you going for three to four hours, while juice and broth last one.
Liquid isn't the problem, empty is the problem. A meal fills you up through protein, fibre and volume, whether it's spooned or drunk. If you check a liquid food's ingredient list for these three things, you'll know in ten seconds whether it'll keep you going for three hours or just one.
Joerg Hauke, Nutrition expert, technical review of this article
Can you live on liquid food alone?
Yes, under two conditions. First, the liquid food must be nutritionally complete, meaning it delivers all nutrients in sufficient amounts; medical oral nutritional supplements, tube feed and complete drinkable meals meet this, but juices, soups, protein shakes or smoothies don't. Second, the energy must be right: your daily requirement stays the same, usually 1,700 to 2,700 kcal. What's missing: chewing as a satiety signal, eating together, variety of plant compounds, and without fibre, gut activity. Self-experiments online report the same thing. For healthy people: a week of liquid food only is possible, but unnecessary; one meal a day is the sensible framework, and liquid-only for longer belongs under medical supervision.
How much you'd need to drink for that depends on your daily requirement. The calculator translates the DGE guideline values into bottles and shows why liquid food replaces one meal for healthy people, not all of them.
Interactive
How much energy do you need if you eat only liquid food?
1800kcal per day
Woman, 25 to 51, sedentary: DGE guideline value for women aged 25 to under 51 with predominantly sedentary activity (PAL 1.4). Liquid only would mean: 4.5 Saturo drinkable meals at 400 kcal or 6 bottles of high-calorie oral nutritional supplement at 300 kcal, every day.
Guideline values for energy intake from the DGE (2015) for adults of normal weight; PAL 1.4 = exclusively sedentary activity with little leisure activity, PAL 1.6 = predominantly walking or standing. Individual requirements depend on weight, muscle mass and activity; our calorie calculator gives a more precise figure. In case of illness, follow medical guidance.
Liquid food for weight loss
Losing weight with liquid food works, but only like this: formula diets replace all meals with a balanced powder; the rules require 600 to 1,200 kcal, at least 75 g protein and all micronutrients. The second form is the meal replacement: one or two meals a day swapped for a shake with 200 to 250 kcal; a meta-analysis found around 1.5 kg more weight loss after a year than other diets. The Saturo drinkable meal with 400 kcal isn't a diet product; it only helps if the meal it replaces had more calories. 'One week liquid only' isn't a method: 1 to 2 kg of fat, plus water weight that comes straight back.
Downsides of liquid food: what's missing long-term
Four things go missing once liquid food replaces eating instead of topping it up. Chewing: as a fullness signal, for your jaw muscles and for the saliva that protects your teeth. Fibre and variety: many products, especially medical ones, are fibre-free, and none deliver the full range of plant compounds. Sugar: sweet liquid food spikes blood sugar faster than solid food. Habit: once you stop eating, it's hard to start again. None of this applies to one liquid meal a day, but all of it applies to three. So on 'liquid food or normal eating', the answer is: normal eating, with liquid food stepping in where eating isn't possible.
The line that counts
Three lines of the nutrition table assess a liquid food: protein (20 to 30 g), fibre (5 to 8 g) and of which sugars (the less, the better; 'no added sugar' doesn't mean low in sugar). If vitamins and minerals are missing, it's a drink, not a meal.
06 Choose
Choosing or making liquid food: recipes, powder, drinkable meal
Whether shop-bought or homemade, a liquid meal stands or falls with its protein content. This ranking shows what a portion delivers, for both shop-bought drinks and homemade recipes; the figures come from the US nutrient database USDA and from manufacturers, with portions calculated as you'd actually drink them.
Protein per portion: shop-bought and homemade
Drinkable meal, 400 ml: 36.0 g
Whey protein shake, 30 g in water: 23.4 g
Medical drinkable nutrition 2 kcal, 200 ml: 20.0 g
Medical drinkable nutrition 1.5 kcal, 200 ml: 11.2 g
Kefir, 250 ml: 9.5 g
Buttermilk, 250 ml: 8.3 g
Whole milk, 250 ml: 7.9 g
Unsweetened soya drink, 250 ml: 7.2 g
Oat drink, 250 ml: 2.8 g
Orange juice, 250 ml: 1.8 g
Skyr banana shake: 21.3 g
Red lentil cream soup: 18.0 g
Pea cream soup: 16.7 g
Peanut oat shake: 16.9 g
Silken tofu mango smoothie: 14.5 g
Banana milkshake: 9.2 g
Drinkable porridge: 5.3 g
Green smoothie: 3.5 g
Clear broth, 300 ml: 3.4 g
Pumpkin cream soup with cream: 3.2 g
Drinkable meal: Saturo, 400 kcal per bottle. Whey protein: USDA, 30 g powder in water, around 110 kcal. Medical drinkable nutrition: manufacturer figures per 200 ml bottle, as of September 2026. Kefir, buttermilk, whole milk, soya drink, orange juice: USDA per 100 ml; oat drink 1.1 g per 100 ml (manufacturer figure).
Making liquid food yourself: the basic formula and three recipes
A homemade liquid meal follows a formula: a protein source (skyr, quark, silken tofu, cooked pulses, egg in warm soup), an energy source (oats, banana, nut butter, avocado, a spoon of oil), fibre (oats, flaxseed, pulses, vegetables) and liquid (milk, soya drink, kefir, stock). Aim for 400 to 500 kcal, 20 to 30 g protein and 5 g fibre per meal. These three recipes tick all the boxes: one cold and quick, one warm, one vegan.
Three liquid meals from your own kitchen
1
Skyr banana shakecold · 5 minutes · vegetarian
21 g protein
340 kcal
6 g fibre
Zutaten
150 g skyr or 0% Greek yoghurt
1 banana (120 g)
150 ml milk
1 tbsp ground flaxseed
Cinnamon
Zubereitung
Blend everything until smooth, drink chilled straight away or eat with a spoon. Add a tablespoon of peanut butter for 25 g protein and around 450 kcal; swap milk for oat milk to make it more vegan, though lower in protein.
Sauté the onion and carrot in oil, add the lentils and cumin, pour in the stock and simmer for 15 minutes until soft. Blend until smooth, season with lemon and salt, and eat lukewarm. Figures per portion; keeps in the fridge for three days.
Blend everything, thinning with water if needed. With the oats added, the smoothie comes to 18 g protein, 300 kcal and 5 g fibre and works well as a full meal. No chunks, so it's also suitable after dental surgery.
Nutritional values per portion, calculated with USDA FoodData Central SR Legacy (0% Greek yoghurt 10.2 g protein, banana 1.1 g, milk 3.2 g, cooked red lentils 9 g, silken tofu 7.2 g, mango 0.8 g, soya drink 2.9 g per 100 g); flaxseed and oats as per pack information.
What's hard to achieve homemade is the full range of vitamins and minerals; this is where a ready-made product earns its keep, so liquid meals from a recipe suit days rather than weeks – for longer stretches, they should be topped up.
Powder or ready-to-drink?
Both formats have their place. Ready-to-drink means: open the bottle, drink, done, no scales, shaker or washing up, though price and packaging use are higher. Powder is cheaper per meal, lets you adjust the dose and can be upgraded with milk instead of water, but needs preparing, a container and refrigeration once mixed. On the go, when appetite is low, or at a hospital bedside, the bottle makes sense; at home and for stocking up, the powder does. What matters is the nutrition label, not the format.
Drinkable meal: liquid food for everyday life, no prescription needed
If you're healthy and want to replace one meal a day with a liquid one, you don't need a medical product – you need a food designed to be a meal. When comparing options, look at the figures from chapter 5 (protein per portion, fibre, 'of which sugars', full micronutrients), plus the base (milk, soya, pea, oat) if you eat vegan or can't tolerate lactose, and the price per meal. The Saturo drinkable meal meets these criteria with 36 g protein, 7 to 8 g fibre and no more than 1.5 g sugar per 400 ml bottle, vegan and with no added sugar.
From the Saturo range
Drinkable meal: a complete meal from a bottle
36 g protein and 400 kcal per bottle, plus 7 to 8 g fibre and 26 vitamins and minerals, vegan, no added sugar. Protein contributes to the maintenance of muscle mass. Reference intake for protein: 50 g per day (NRV). Ready to drink, chilled or at room temperature, as a replacement for one meal a day.
36 gProtein
400kcal
26Vitamins & minerals
1.0 gSugar per bottleno added sugar, only from the ingredients
Choose flavour
€4,39per meal
Choose flavour
Drinkable meal · Natural€4,39 per meal ·
07 Get it
Buying liquid food: pharmacy, health insurance, drugstore, online
Where you get liquid food depends on the type, and the type depends on the reason. Medical drinkable nutrition is available at pharmacies and medical supply shops, over the counter, but only covered by health insurance with a prescription. Drinkable meals are found in drugstores, supermarkets and online shops. Tube feeding runs through a prescription, homecare providers and pharmacies. The most common question is whether insurance covers it.
Liquid food from the pharmacy: when does health insurance cover it?
Statutory health insurance covers medical drinkable nutrition under three conditions set out in German social law and the pharmaceutical guidelines. First, it must be a balanced diet (FSMP); a drinkable meal from the supermarket doesn't qualify. Second, there must be a lacking or limited ability to eat a sufficient normal diet. Third, changing the diet or another measure – such as enriching food with butter or cream, adjusting texture, or speech therapy for swallowing problems – must not be enough. The prescription is issued by a GP practice, or by the hospital as part of discharge planning. Drinkable nutrition isn't covered for loss of appetite without a diagnosis, for healthy people wanting to gain weight, or for athletes.
Liquid food at dm, Rossmann and the supermarket
Drugstores and supermarkets stock both: high-calorie drinkable nutrition as powder or bottles, over the counter, and drinkable meals in the chiller cabinet or with the drinks. Check the category: a food for special medical purposes carries the note 'use under medical supervision' and is balanced for people who are ill, usually sweet and fibre-free; a drinkable meal is a normal everyday food. On price, look at the cost per portion, not per bottle: medical drinkable nutrition costs about as much per 200 ml as a drinkable meal costs per 400 ml, yet only delivers half a meal.
Buying liquid food online: what to look out for
Online, you can find everything from tube feed to drinkable meal subscriptions. Four things are worth checking: nutritional values per portion, not per 100 ml; the best-before date, since ready-to-drink products only keep for a day in the fridge once opened; the price per meal including delivery; and, for medical products, whether your prescription can be redeemed there (online pharmacies and homecare providers, yes; food shops, no). For drinkable meals, a trial pack is worth it. If you're looking into liquid food due to weight loss, swallowing problems or an illness, check with a doctor first; the decision tool in chapter 4 shows which format fits.
The practical case: when it's not your body but your time that's short, a complete drinkable meal replaces lunch – one a day, not three.
08 Reference
Frequently asked questions about liquid food
What counts as liquid food?
Everything that delivers energy and nutrients without chewing: liquid food in hospitals (tea, broth, cream soups as a step in the diet build-up), medical drinkable nutrition as a balanced diet from the pharmacy, drinkable meals as everyday foods available without prescription for healthy people, and tube feeding, which is given via a tube instead of the mouth.
Is liquid food healthy?
That depends on what's in it and how long it replaces eating. A complete liquid meal a day with protein, fibre and little sugar is unproblematic. Going liquid-only long-term means missing out on chewing, fibre, variety of plant compounds and the habit of eating; sweet products also spike blood sugar.
How long can you live on liquid food alone?
With fully balanced liquid food and enough energy, for a very long time: people on tube feeding live like this for years, and in the DiRECT study participants lived on a formula diet alone for three to five months, under medical supervision. For healthy people, one meal a day is the sensible limit; going liquid-only for longer needs medical supervision.
When is liquid food prescribed?
When there's a lacking or limited ability to eat a sufficient normal diet that can't be fixed by changing what you eat or other measures, according to the pharmaceutical guidelines. Typical cases are malnutrition, cancer, swallowing difficulties and major surgery. Only a balanced diet product can be prescribed, never a drinkable meal from the supermarket.
What can you eat on a liquid diet, and does yoghurt count?
Anything that doesn't require chewing. Stage 1 of hospital diet levels: tea, clear broth, diluted juice. Stage 2: milk, kefir, cream soups, yoghurt drinks, drinkable nutrition, drinkable meals. So drinkable yoghurt counts; set yoghurt, quark and skyr belong to the pureed diet at stage 3 and also deliver protein without any chewing.
Do you gain weight from liquid food?
Only if it delivers more energy than the body uses; a drinkable meal that replaces a meal won't change your weight. For malnutrition, gaining weight is the goal: in the Cochrane review, older people gained 2.2% with high-calorie drinkable nutrition. Healthy people wanting to gain weight should read the article on high-calorie drinkable nutrition.
Do you still have bowel movements on liquid food?
Yes, but less and less often if nothing else is eaten: stool is made up mostly of undigested fibre, water and gut bacteria, and standard-line medical drinkable nutrition is fibre-free. Some people get sluggish digestion, others get diarrhoea. If you're living on liquids long-term, choose fibre variants or a drinkable meal with fibre, and drink water alongside it.
Which medical drinkable nutrition suits me, like Fresubin or Fortimel?
The major manufacturers offer the same lines: standard line with 1.5 kcal/ml with and without fibre, compact lines with 2.4 kcal/ml, protein lines with 2 kcal/ml (manufacturer figures, as of September 2026). What matters is the variant, not the brand: energy density, protein, fibre, texture and taste are decided in practice; if there's a medical indication, insurance covers any brand.
