Before talking about the tube diet, I want to give you a brief reflection. Maybe because we are the cradle of the Mediterranean diet, and therefore Italian doctors tend to promote and encourage our lifestyle, but the most famous slimming methods often come to us from abroad.
Think of Montignac, Dukan or Atkins, creators of their respective diets.

In short, our dieticians enjoy a national and narrower reputation, if anything. Perhaps precisely because of the Mediterranean diet, which looks good on its own and is considered one of the best diets in the world on a par with the Dash diet.

And here I refer to the tube diet, a liquid-type protein diet, or at least, in the second case, semi-liquid but still ketogenic.

Big words, huh? Let’s see in simpler terms what it is.

DIET OF THE SONDINO

The diet of the tube, as the word itself says, involves the application of a tube, in practice a tubular device that connects from the nose to the stomach, to allow continuous nutrition. In practice it is enteral nutrition , which has many risks, generally minimized by strict hospital control.

The tube diet does not include solid foods. The diet without a tube (called a tube without a tube diet ), on the other hand, does not include solid foods with the exception of dinner, which is strictly protein, perhaps based on chicken breast. In this case it is the person who has to feed himself with drinks, but without the aid of the tube.

Why is it ketogenic?

Because the drinks taken during the tube diet and without the tube, are protein based, but not excessive: this stimulates fasting ketosis , that is, it pushes the body to burn fat after starving it for sugars and producing ketones. If we eat the right proteins we do not give sugars to the body, if we eat too much of them they will convert into glucose.

But in a very drastic calorie regime this usually doesn’t happen. Unfortunately, it is also liquid, so that the factor of liquids alone is added to the deprivation of sugars. Try drinking without eating all day, taking care before telling your neighbors to abandon their mansions.

In fact, after a day you will wander down the street ready to tear apart the first one that happens.

After a few days of discomfort, which in some cases becomes limiting and even dangerous, the body should get used to using the ketones it has produced as an energy source.

It goes without saying that the first pounds that are lost are of fluids, a consequence of the loss of glycogen.

The price of the diet is around three hundred euros or more.

Clearly, not everyone can do the introduction of the tube, so those who improvise on this diet can also do serious damage. For the fussy eaters, the version without a tube. No small appliances, liquid diet with mash and protein dinner.

DIET OF THE SONDINO: DISADVANTAGES

Beyond the controversy that the diet has aroused and its drasticity and the consequences that can be had by having a very low calorie and ketogenic regime, it is evident that this diet does not teach anything. It does not teach the obese how to eat, it is just a risky regimen, with possible side effects and little benefit. The problem is not losing weight, as the tube diet promises, but maintaining weight loss. What is the point of risking health to lose the pounds that will then recover?