Diabetes Information

Diet therapy is concerned with the modification of the normal diet to meet the requirements of the sick individual. Its purposes are:
1. To maintain good nutritional status.
2. To correct deficiencies.
3. To afford rest to the whole body or the body that is affected.
4. To maintain body’s ability to metabolize the nutrients.
5. To bring about changes in body weight whenever necessary.
Diet therapy in most instances is not a remedy in itself but is a measure which supplements or makes the medical or surgical treatment more effective.
Therapeutic nutrition begins with the normal diet. Advantages of using normal diet as the basis for therapeutic diets are :
1. It emphasizes the similarity of psychologic and social needs of those who are ill and those who are well, even though there is a quantitative and qualitative difference in requirements.
2. Food preparation is simplified when the modified diet is based upon the family pattern and the number of items required in special preparation is reduced to a minimum.
3. The calculated values for the basic plan are useful in finding out the effects of addition or omission of certain foods, for example, if vegetables are restricted vitamin A and C deficiency can occur.

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Filed under: Diabetes Diet