Ketogenic Enteral Nutrition

KEN is a regime used whic eliminates the need for eating. Instead, for ten days at a time, a patented liquid formula made up of protein and nutrients is dripped directly into the stomach via a plastic tube that goes up the patient’s nose and is taped on to their face. At the other end of the tube is an electric pump, which works day and night to deliver two litres of the formula over 24 hours.

While on the KEN, dieters can go about their lives as normal but must carry the pump and liquid in a bag or backpack and hang it by their bed at night. They are allowed to unhook themselves from the pump for one hour a day — for bathing — and can drink water, tea, coffee (with no milk, sugar or sweeteners) or sugar-free herb teas with the tube in.

Patients could still eat or drink the wrong things if they wanted to, but they don’t feel hungry after a couple of days and, of course, they’ve chosen to be on the diet.

KEN works by sending the body into controlled starvation, forcing it to use its own fat for energy. And it works fast. Each cycle of KEN strips up to 10 per cent of body weight in just ten days, without, apparently, causing any loss of muscle, and without causing hunger.

The no-food diet originated in Italy and was invented by Gianfranco Cappello, associate professor of general surgery at the University of Rome’s La Sapienza Hospital. Cappello is a world expert in artificial feeding, and has successfully treated 40,000 patients with the KEN diet.