# Is the substance used with feeding tubes actual food? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [April 14, 2005, 6:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-substance-used-with-feeding-tubes-actual-food/299320 "2005-04-14T18:41:45Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2005, 6:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-substance-used-with-feeding-tubes-actual-food/299320/1 "2005-04-14T18:41:45Z")
Kind of a stupid question, I guess, but what I mean by that is, okay, with the Schiavo case, everyone is talking about her being deprived of “food and water!” for so many days. Now, I saw an interview with a doctor on televison, who said that what she is given isn’t food as we think of it-it’s a liquid mixture of chemicals and nutrients (sodium, sugars, etc), that is delivered straight into her abdomen, via the tube. To clear things up-is this something they mix out of actual food, or is it a straight up solution mixture that would be completely unedible to most of us who are capable of eating the normal way? What would it taste like? Would it make us sick? (I just want to be able to counter the arguments that Terri wasn’t being given “food”, and how horrible that is, and how it’s not an extraordinary measure, etc). ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Amazing](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@Captain\_Amazing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Amazing)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2005, 6:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-substance-used-with-feeding-tubes-actual-food/299320/2 "2005-04-14T18:49:59Z")
Generally, what’s in the feeeding tubes is Ensure, or something like it. [http://ensure.com/ensure.aspx](http://ensure.com/ensure.aspx) It wouldn’t be my first choice for a meal, but obviously, it won’t make you sick or anything like that. ---
**Author:** ![Nanoda](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ce73a5/32.png) [@Nanoda](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nanoda)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2005, 7:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-substance-used-with-feeding-tubes-actual-food/299320/3 "2005-04-14T19:21:39Z")
I recall a thread where this was discussed… [Here it is.](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=309357). The idea of blue people made it stick in my mind. :eek: ---
**Author:** ![nonacetone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nonacetone/32/2819_2.png) [@nonacetone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nonacetone)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2005, 7:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-substance-used-with-feeding-tubes-actual-food/299320/4 "2005-04-14T19:36:19Z")
My grandpa had a feeding tube for many years. When something in his esophagus stopped working (the flap that closed when you swallow, didn’t), he was given a G-tube and used Ensure for nurishment. Also water. He still TRIED to eat, just to remember what the flavor of his favorite foods were like, sometimes, but he still couldn’t swallow anything without choking. He took care of all feeding and flushing of the tube himself until a few days before he passed. He was always very active, even when he had the G-tube. It sure didn’t hold him back from doing gardening, running to the store, visiting, etc. ---
**Author:** ![picunurse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/7bcc69/32.png) [@picunurse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/picunurse)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2005, 10:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-substance-used-with-feeding-tubes-actual-food/299320/5 "2005-04-14T22:27:25Z")
Tube feeding solution doesn’t necessarily have flavoring in it. **Captain Amazing** is correct to a point. Ensure is actually a diet supplement. Its made to drink, so it has flavoring. In most hospitals, and nursing homes, its easy and less expensive use a premade product like Ensure. But a few places still mix up unflavored feeding solution. To answer your real question. Yes, of course, its food. Standard tube feeding for someone without allergies or sensitivities, is milk based. Some are meat based, many are soy based. Its very similar to baby formula. There are a few very limited feedings that are for patients with very specific diseases, that are made in the pharmacy from “less like food” ingredients. Nutritional support for people who’s digestive system is broken, must be via IV. That solution has Amino acids, vitamins, trace minerals and a lot of glucose (sugar), as well as a special fat solution that is safe to give into the veins. These solutions are much less food like.