Overview
Nourishing drinks
Important
This information is produced for adults under the care of Guy’s and St Thomas’ hospitals. We usually give you the information after an assessment or appointment. Your dietitian or other healthcare professional may give you different guidance, depending on your specific medical needs.
It is important to check with a healthcare professional before making any changes to your diet. Please contact your dietitian if you have any questions or concerns.
If you are not a patient at Guy’s and St Thomas’ hospitals, please contact a GP or specialist healthcare professional.
You may find that the easiest way to increase the nutrients in your diet is to have nourishing drinks. You can have these drinks throughout the day, in between mealtimes.
This information gives you:
- practical tips for including nourishing drinks in your diet
- ideas for nourishing drinks to boost the nutrients in your diet
*If you have diabetes, speak to your GP, nurse or diabetes team before starting to have nourishing drinks.
Tips for including nourishing drinks in your diet
You need to aim to drink 2 nourishing drinks a day to help prevent weight loss and encourage weight gain.
Here are some practical tips for including nourishing drinks in your diet:
Do
- Have nourishing drinks in between your meals and not in place of them.
- Choose full-fat and full-sugar* products rather than diet, sugar-free or skimmed varieties. They give you more calories.
- Use milk or plant-based milk options (like soya, coconut, hazelnut, cashew, oat or almond milk) or fruit juice as base ingredients in your drinks, rather than water.
- Make fortified milk to increase the protein and calories. Add 2 to 4 tablespoons of dried milk powder to 1 pint of milk, stir until dissolved and use like your normal milk. Marvel®, Nido® or supermarkets’ own brands of dried milk powder are available.
- Try fruit smoothies* to help increase the vitamins and minerals in your diet.
- Relax with a warm milky drink, such as malt or cocoa, before bed.
- Buy pre-prepared dairy products or plant-based milk options.
- Add single or double dairy cream or plant-based cream to hot drinks instead of milk.
Recipe ideas for nourishing drinks
This section gives some suggestions for making nourishing drinks and estimates their nutritional value.
You can make any of the recipes using dairy milk or plant-based milk and whey-based proteins, depending on your preference. The estimated calorie and protein content will then change.
Nourishing drink |
Ingredients |
Estimated nutritional information |
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| Iced coffee |
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| Simple milkshake |
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| Berry delight |
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| Yoghurt delight |
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| Chocolate peanut butter shake (vegan) |
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| Banana and blueberry smoothie (vegan) |
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More information
You may find it helpful to watch the following video tutorials on how you can create nourishing meals, snacks and drinks using food fortification:
Resource number: 4068/VER4
Last reviewed: February 2026
Next review: February 2029
