Dietary nutrition in the treatment of diseases

Food is one of the most important necessities of human life. Food provides us with energy for work, material for replacing worn-out and building new cells and tissues in the body, and increases resistance to various diseases.

 

Rational, properly constructed nutrition increases efficiency, strengthens health, contributes to the prolongation of human life and helps cope with illnesses. Since ancient times, people know that human health is largely determined by his diet.

The famous Hippocrates, the father of medicine, liked to repeat:

Tell me what you eat and I'll tell you what you're disease with!

Modern dietetics as a science, therapeutic nutrition, began a little over a century ago. It is based on the works of Russian academician Ivan Pavlov. In 1904, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology and Medicine. Pavlov's works are the foundation of all current ideas about the activity of the digestive organs, the mechanisms of their regulation and how the work of these mechanisms can be disturbed.

Dietary nutrition, or in other words, therapeutic diets, are of great importance in the cure of many types of diseases. By selecting different foods and ways of their culinary processing can affect the disease processes and contribute to a faster recovery of a person, as well as prevent the transition of the disease into a chronic form. Complex treatment, in addition to medications, surgery, special procedures and other tools from the medical arsenal, necessarily includes proper nutrition of the patient.

When constructing a correct therapeutic diet, the most important principles of the physiology of digestion and the influence of various nutrients on pathological (painful) processes are taken into account. It is also necessary to observe the peculiarities of food preparation technology, taking into account dietary requirements.

Any diet used for therapeutic purposes should be characterized by energy value and chemical composition (a certain amount of nutrients), physical properties of food (volume, mass, consistency, temperature), a list of allowed and recommended food products, features of culinary processing of food, dietary regime (number of meals, meal times, distribution of the daily ration between individual meals).

Therapeutic dietetics uses the principles of sparing (gentle) and training dietary regimes. The first principle provides for the exclusion of mechanical, chemical, thermal stimuli that negatively affect the patient's condition. The second principle is the gradual expansion of the initially strict diet by reducing restrictions for the transition to a full-fledged dietary regimen.

A number of factors should be taken into account when making a diet plan, food selection:

1. Ensuring the physiological needs of the patient in nutrients and energy.

Each human body is unique, so it is necessary to adjust the average norms, depending on sex, age, occupation, etc. The doctor should also take into account the current state of the patient and the peculiarities of the disease.

2. Biochemical and physiological patterns that determine the absorption of food by a sick person.

For proper absorption of nutrients, it is necessary that the chemical composition of food matches the patient’s body’s ability to process them. To achieve such a therapeutic effect, the following techniques are used in a therapeutic diet:

• Drawing up a diet plan taking into account anthropometric data (height, body weight, etc.) and current metabolic parameters of a particular patient

• Consideration of the current disease characteristics of the individual patient when selecting foods and food preparation options. For example, if a patient is found to be intolerant to a number of foods, or more specifically, to the chemical and physical composition of these foods, options should be selected to ensure that the patient continues to receive adequate amounts of the necessary nutrients

• Consideration of nutrient interactions in the body

• The use of a gentle principle of nutrition by changing the amount of certain food substances in the diet, as well as the choice of such technological processing of food, which provides its easier and more complete absorption

• Stimulating the digestive system by selecting the necessary nutrients, especially amino acids, vitamins, microelements, and some fatty acids

• Compensation for increased expenditures of certain substances lost by the patient's body

• Directed change of diet (frequency, amount of food consumed) in order to train biochemical processes in the body

• The use of nutrients to bind, neutralize and remove toxic substances that have entered the patient’s body

3. Consideration of the local and general effects of food on the body and its culinary processing.

The digestive organs and the process of assimilation of nutrients are influenced by the mechanical, chemical and temperature properties of food.

Mechanical properties are determined by its volume, consistency, degree of grinding, nature of heat treatment (boiling, stewing, frying), qualitative composition (presence of fiber, connective tissue, etc.).

Chemical exposure to food is associated with substances that are included in the composition of products or are formed during their culinary processing and in the process of digestion. When creating a dietary plan, you should take into account the chemical irritants that are part of the food. These are extractives, essential oils, organic acids, mineral salts, etc.

The temperature effect of food occurs during its contact with the mucous membrane of the oral cavity, esophagus and stomach. Foods with a temperature close to human body temperature have minimal impact.

The overall effect of the nutrition the patient receives is determined by the composition of the blood during the digestion process, which leads to changes in the functional state of the nervous and endocrine systems, as well as all organs and systems of the body. The nature and intensity of these effects depend on the composition of the food and the method of its culinary processing.

How to find the right diet?

For your convenience, all diets are grouped in accordance with US & International Classification of Diseases, Tenth Revision, Clinical Modification (ICD-10-CM)

Using the “Therapeutic Nutrition” directory is very simple:

1. Find your disease using the ICD-10 code in section of menu "Therapy Diets"

2. Open the description of the diet for the selected disease, the list of permitted and prohibited foods and dishes.

3. Follow the recommendations of your attending doctor and adhere to the requirements of the chosen diet!

Nutritional therapy diets for nearly 180 diseases are currently available and in preparation!

Have a delicious meal for good health!