Diet Therapy
🥗 *Diet
Therapy* 🥗
Diet therapy breaks the general
diet into its *basic components* (water, carbohydrate, fiber,
protein, fat, vitamins, minerals, and other substances such as
alcohol) and consistencies (liquid, soft, or solid).
Each of these can be
altered to form therapeutic diets as shown by the following examples:
➡️ *Fluid-modified diets:* restricted fluid intake
for treating heart or kidney disease.
➡️
*Carbohydrate- modified diets:* for treating diabetes or
hypertriglyceridemia.
➡️ *Protein-modified diets:* low
protein for unstressed patients with chronic kidney disease; high
protein for stressed patients.
➡️ *Fat-modified
diets:* low total and saturated fat for treating
hypercholesterolemia; low total fat for treating malabsorption
syndromes.
➡️ *Mineral-modified diets:* low sodium,
potassium, and phosphorus for treating kidney disease
The main focus of
diet therapy is on natural and unprocessed whole foods and avoiding
❌oily, fried and canned food, in order to promote overall physical
and emotional health and avoid the risk of various diseases We are what we eat,
and so the food we consume plays a very important role in keeping us
physically and mentally healthy.
🥗 *Food-Mood*
*Complex
Carbohydrates:*
Complex carbohydrates are a form of
sugar made up of large molecules containing fibers and starch. This
sugar molecule is converted into glucose in the body and is then used
as energy which is beneficial for brain health and stabilizes our
mood. In contrast, the carbohydrates found in the canned food and
drinks imbalances the sugar level that rapidly increases and decrease
our mood and produce a negative effect on our psychological
well-being.
We often use these sugary snacks to comfort us
when we feel low, but this can create an addiction-like response in
food. And research has shown that they can also lead to
depression.
✅So it is advisable to eat natural food and
carbohydrates.
*Some of the food items are:*
•
Fruits and vegetables🥦
• Whole grains- Buckwheat, brown
rice, corn, wheat, barley, oats, quinoa.
• Nuts, seed and
legumes🥔- lentils, kidney beans, chick peans, all nuts and
seeds.
• Dairy products- Low-fat yogurt, skim milk
*Diet therapy is focused on the type of food we consume for the therapeutic purpose.
* It normally involves the modification in our existing diet plan, in order to maintain overall well-being. It is ordered to maintain, restore and correct nutritional status, to decrease calorie for weight control, provide extra calorie for weight gain. It also balances the amount of carbohydrate, fat and protein for control of diabetes.
*It is even replacing drug therapy in some cases.
* Whenever we have a deficiency of any vitamin or protein, our first response is to ask the physician to prescribe vitamin tablets. But, rather than depending on this supplementary tablets, we should take a look at our diet🥘, because food is the best and the natural way of maintaining all the vitamin and protein level.
*EMOTIONS AND FOOD:*🥗
We all know that eating healthy food improves our physical health, but very few of us are aware of the fact that healthy food is also important for our emotional health‼️.
*We are what we eat.*
Researchers have conducted
many studies validating the same. Scientific study shows that _eating
healthy can drastically alter your mood and enhance your life._ In a
study, researchers found that intakes of fruit, vegetables, olive
oil, nuts and legumes were significantly linked with *positive
emotion * whereas soda, sweets, and fast foods were inversely
related to positive emotion
Our emotional response is centered in the amygdala of the limbic system, which is located in the center of the brain. Although our mind normally controls the output of emotional states, sometimes emotional responses are so fast that our thinking brain (prefrontal cortex) has no time to act. Both our limbic system and prefrontal cortex are made of if millions of cells that feed off blood. And the quality of blood depends on the food we intake. *Therefore, emotional balance does depend on nutritional balance*