DIET AS THERAPY
Introduction Proper nutrition is necessary for maintaining good health and for building good health during and after an illness. Using diet to care for or control disease is called diet therapy. Diet therapy means modifying or changing the normal diet, in order to meet requirements created by disease or injury. Such diets are called therapeutic diets. How is a normal diet modified for therapeutic purposes? Dietary modification for therapeutic purposes may be as follows: 1. Calories may be increased or decreased. For example, in fever, the calories are increased and for obesity the calories have to be decreased. 2. Modification may be made in the balance of nutrients, such as high or low protein, carbohydrate, fat, minerals or vitamins. 3. Certain foods may be omitted in case of allergy. 4. Modification of normal diet in term of consistency, can be made such as liquid and soft diet. 5. Modification of the normal diet, could be in the rearrangement of the number and frequency ...