Therapeutic Nutrition in Dietary Therapy

Diet therapy is a wide word that refers to the modification or adoption of a diet in order to prevent or treat a disease or simply to maintain maximum health. In certain circumstances, an alternate dietary lifestyle plan to remove particular foods may be devised to recover health.

A poor diet may lead to not just weight gain and skin problems, but also tiredness and lethargy. Depending on the ailment, failing to follow the diet prescribed by a doctor may have major effects on your health. A healthy diet can help you avoid a variety of ailments.

It may involve the modification of the existing dietary lifestyle to promote optimum health.

A dietitian or nutrition counselor, for example, may recommend diet treatment to an obese individual in order to enhance their health. The therapy may include foods that enhance the health condition while avoiding items that may worsen the disease (such as fats, sweets, and so on). Essentially, the treatment encourages a well-balanced diet that is essential for optimal health.

Principles of Dietary Therapy: 

• Maintain healthy nutritional status
• Rectify deficiencies or diseases, if any
• Offer rest to the body 
• Assist digest the nutrients
• Make adjustments in body weight, when necessary

Diet treatment may entail the prescription of specific dietary regimens or meal plans. Therapeutic diets are specific eating regimens or meal programs. A therapeutic diet is a meal plan that restricts the consumption of particular foods or nutrients.

They are variations on the standard, regular diet. Examples of therapeutic diets include clear liquid diets, diabetic diets, renal diets, gluten-free diets, low-fat diets, high-fiber diets, and so on. Dietitians, nutritionists, and physicians are the most common people that recommend therapeutic diets. Later in this section, we will study many forms of therapeutic diets.

A healthcare team may comprise a physician/doctor, nurses, nutritionists, dietitians, counselors, and others, depending on the nature of the condition. Dietitians/nutritionists, on the other hand, are at the forefront of nutritional treatment. A nutrition expert can provide advice, counsel, coordination, education, guidance, information, suggestions, and support. Individuals/patients are worked with by nutrition professionals to assist them to understand that proper nutrition and good health go hand in hand.

Therapeutic Diet 

A therapeutic diet is a qualitative/quantitatively modified version of a regular diet that has been adjusted to the changing nutritional demands of the patient/individual and is used to address certain health/disease conditions.

Reason for modifying diet

• For critical or life-saving therapy, such as celiac disease, providing a gluten-free diet
• To replenish malnourished people due to illnesses such as cancer and intestinal ailments by supplying a higher amount of a nutrient such as protein
• Correcting deficits and maintaining or restoring the optimal nutritional status
• Resting or relieving an afflicted organ, as in gastritis
• To compensate for the body's capacity to digest, absorb, metabolize, or excrete: A low-fat diet, for example, resulted in fat malabsorption.
• To modify food intake tolerance. For example, when patients with esophageal cancer are unable to accept meals by mouth, tube feeding is indicated.

Types of Dietary Adaptations for Therapeutic Needs

• A diet may need to be changed and tweaked in a variety of ways before it satisfies the therapeutic demands of a certain patient. These modifications might include: 
• Food consistency changes, such as liquid diets, soft diets, low-fiber diets, and high-fibre diets.
• Increase or reduce the energy value of the diet, for example, a low-calorie diet for weight loss or a high-calorie diet for burning.
• Increase or reduce consumption of certain nutrients or food types, such as a sodium-restricted diet, a lactose-restricted diet, a high-fiber diet, or a high-potassium diet.
• Lack of spices and condiments, as in bland diets.
• Specific food omissions, such as allergy diets and gluten-free diets.
• Diabetic, renal, and cholesterol-lowering diets all include changes in the ratio and balance of proteins, lipids, and carbohydrates.
• Test diets: These are one-time meals or diets that are provided to patients in conjunction with particular tests.
• Change in meal frequency, feeding intervals, and re-arrangement of meal number and frequency, such as diabetic diet, peptic ulcer disease diet.

Types of Diets with Altered Consistency

Therapeutic diets are changed for consistency and texture to meet nutritional requirements. Based on their medical condition, some people may require a clear liquid diet, while others may require a totally liquid or soft diet.

Liquid Diet

It comprises items that may be served at room temperature in liquid or strained form. They are typically administered in febrile situations, as well as postoperatively when the patient is unable to accept solid meals. It is also used to replenish fluids lost due to vomiting or diarrhea in those who have acute illnesses or digestive difficulties.

Soft Diet

As the name implies, it offers soft whole foods that are barely seasoned and are similar to the standard diet. The name "soft" alludes to the fact that the meals in this type of diet are soft in consistency, easy to chew, and comprised of basic, readily digested items.

Bland Diet

A bland diet consists of soft, non-spicy meals that are low in fiber. It includes meals that are mechanically, chemically, and thermally non-irritating, meaning they are unlikely to irritate the gastrointestinal system. This diet is recommended for those who have stomach or duodenal ulcers, gastritis, or ulcerative colitis.

Current Research: Integrative Medicine 

Current Research: Integrative Medicine is a bimonthly, open-access, peer-reviewed journal that offers a global platform for the publication of important research from across the world by recognized research academics, helping to improve the journal's quality.

The journal publishes original research papers, clinical studies, case studies, and review articles on a variety of medical subjects, such as Biomedicine, Osteopathic, Regenerative, Holistic, Naturopathic, Functional, and Herbal medicine, as well as Psychology and Counseling, Physical Therapy, Homeopathy, Acupuncture, and East Asian Medicine, Nutrition, and Dietary Therapy.

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