The most common worry of people reading about a cleansing course for the first time: “they will starve me there.” The short answer is no. Meals are part of the programme and included in the price of the five-day course, guests eat every day, and the RUTA center does not use fasting as a method at all.
Instead of hunger, a different tool does the work — diet therapy: protein-free, salt-free therapeutic nutrition prescribed by a doctor after an examination. Let’s look at how it works, why protein and salt disappear from the menu for five days, and how medical nutrition therapy differs from the “detox diets” found online.
Why a Detox Course Needs a Special Diet
The five-day RUTA course is an inpatient programme in two stages: the first targets the liver, gallbladder, intestines and kidneys; the second — the lymph, blood and blood vessels. The scientific background is described on the method page, the daily routine — on the course page.
Diet therapy is one of the core components of the programme, and it has a specific medical purpose — not simply “eat less”:
- unburden the liver and activate its excretory and detoxification functions;
- enhance diuresis — the excretion of fluid by the kidneys;
- flush salts out of the renal tubules.
In other words, the diet here is not a way to cut calories but the condition that lets the excretory organs work on cleansing instead of digesting the usual daily menu.
Why Protein Is Excluded
Protein is the most labour-intensive food for digestion and metabolism, and much of that work falls on the liver. A protein-free regimen for five days relieves it of this load — and allows its excretory and detoxification functions to activate, which is exactly what the course is for.
Why Salt Is Excluded
Salt retains fluid. A salt-free regimen works in the opposite direction: diuresis increases, the body excretes fluid more actively, and with it — salts from the renal tubules. That is why the second mandatory element of the course is drinking plenty of water.
It Is Not Fasting: What Guests Eat and Drink
The fundamental difference between the course and fasting is simple: on the course, you eat. Every day, following the regimen set by the doctor. What is restricted is the composition of the food — protein and salt — not eating itself.
We deliberately do not publish a specific menu here: the meals are part of the therapeutic programme, and the doctor defines them based on each guest’s condition after the examination. The drinking regimen, however, is the same for everyone and clearly defined:
- plenty of plain still water — a mandatory condition of the course; carbonated water is not allowed during the course;
- herbal teas with anti-inflammatory, choleretic, diuretic, laxative and cleansing effects;
- at a certain stage — apple juice, which allows the intrahepatic bile ducts to open and prepares the biliary system for cleansing.
Drinking is not an add-on to the diet but its continuation: without enough fluid, the enhanced diuresis for which salt was excluded simply will not happen.
The Diet Is Part of a System, Not a Standalone Service
It is important to understand: diet therapy does not work on its own — it prepares the body for the other procedures and supports them. The same five days include enema procedures based on medicinal herbs and seaweed, a biliary tubage (how it works is explained in our article on liver cleansing and tubage), therapeutic massage, the swimming pool, water treatments and other procedures.
The center does not offer diet therapy separately — it only makes sense inside the complete five-day programme, where each element reinforces the others.
How Medical Nutrition Therapy Differs from Internet Diets
Searches like “salt-free diet” or “protein-free diet” return dozens of ready-made menus. The difference between them and the course’s diet therapy is not in the ingredients but in the system.
- An examination first. Before the course, every guest undergoes an ultrasound, ECG, general and biochemical blood tests, and a urine test. The eating regimen is prescribed based on the results — not “the same for everyone”.
- A doctor nearby. Both stages of the course take place in an inpatient setting under round-the-clock medical supervision, with physicians watching how the body responds and adjusting the regimen if needed.
- A limited timeframe. The protein-free, salt-free regimen is designed for five days — it is a therapeutic tool, not an eating model for months. Staying on such a diet on your own, without control and without an end date, is a health risk, not a health benefit.
- The diet does not act alone. In the internet version, the diet is everything. On the course it works together with the drinking regimen, herbal teas, intestinal cleansing and the tubage — and that is precisely why it produces the effect it is designed for.
A separate word about weight loss. According to the center, weight normalizes after the course — but the course is not a weight-loss programme, and no one will honestly promise you specific kilograms. If your only goal is to lose weight, that is a question for other specialists; if your goal is to cleanse the body, weight normalization comes as one of the consequences.
Who the Diet and the Course Are Not For: Contraindications
The cleansing course is not for everyone, and diet therapy is no exception — it is part of the programme and is assessed together with it.
Absolute contraindications:
- acute surgical and infectious diseases;
- progressive cancer;
- chronic diseases with a high degree of activity and in the stage of decompensation.
Relative contraindications are strictly individual. The center’s doctors determine them for each specific case of a severe, long-standing illness. That is why the course never starts without an examination, and the eating regimen is defined by a doctor — not by an article, a forum, or a ready-made menu from a search engine.
How to Join the Course
The RUTA center operates at the Koncha-Zaspa sanatorium in Kyiv. Meals, the medical examination and all procedures are already included in the price of the five-day course — see current prices on the pricing page.
Leave a request on the contacts page — a manager will answer your questions about meals, the daily regimen and available dates, while indications and contraindications are determined by a doctor after the examination.
Get rid of the excess — without hunger and without DIY experiments.
This article is for informational purposes only and does not replace a consultation with a doctor. The eating regimen on the course is defined by a doctor after an examination.
This article is for information only and does not replace a consultation with a doctor.