Food therapy: treatment with food

Everyone knows the saying of Hippocrates: "We are what we eat!" However, with the development of the food industry and the food industry, in particular, children's food, it is increasingly difficult to choose the right product. The eyes wander, and the hands themselves try to put something useless in the food basket. A nutritionist will come to help you choose the right food.

Read about the tasks of a nutritionist, as well as about such a treatment method as food therapy, in the article by a specialist in healthy nutrition, a pediatrician Kateryna Tolstikova.

Every mother tries to feed her baby only what is really useful, received a quality mark, and the value of the product was confirmed by neighbors and grandmothers. But eating the right foods, on time, regularly, measuring portions and drinking plenty of fluids is not enough today. As a result of small or rather significant pathological deviations (not necessarily of the gastrointestinal tract), everything that parents and children eat cannot always be fully processed by the body. Therefore, today's truth is: "We are not what we eat, but what we were able to absorb!"

Proper nutrition of mother and child plays an extremely important role in the prevention and even treatment of many diseases. Therefore, the main work of a nutritionist is to identify the causes of a pathological condition (if it is already developing) or a predisposition to it (according to the genetic map of the parents or the child himself, lifestyle, eating habits and passions) and to prescribe therapeutic and/or preventive measures with the help of nutritional correction , daily routine and, in general, lifestyle. This approach is called food therapy.

How does food therapy work? For example, with iodine-deficient conditions of the thyroid gland, it is impossible to consume products containing zobogens and isothiocyanates (soy, peanuts, millet, sorghum, beans, green vegetables). Otherwise, the absorption of iodine by the thyroid gland in the body decreases even more, which deepens the problem. And with irritable bowel syndrome, the use of fructooligosaccharides (fructans), which are useful for the digestive system and are not absorbed in the intestine (banana, honey, artichoke, asparagus), will lead to an exacerbation of the disease.

But this does not mean that by removing one or two products from the diet, you can immediately solve the problem. This happens, but rarely. For example, with lactose insufficiency, when the amount of lactase enzyme in the child's body is not enough to digest and break down milk. Then the problem can be corrected by excluding a number of products from the diet. In other cases, a careful study of your child's diet, down to the spices and seasonings, is necessary to understand and eliminate the cause of the symptoms.

Food therapy is used for:

• Metabolic and endocrinological pathology of congenital and acquired genesis, for example: obesity, type 2 diabetes, metabolic syndrome (disease X), insulin resistance, thyroid pathology, hypotrophy, gout, various enzyme diseases (lactase deficiency, fructosemia, galactosemia, homocystinuria, gluten enteropathy);
• Pathologies of the urinary system (dysmetabolic nephropathy, urolithiasis, recurrent microbial-inflammatory diseases of the kidneys and urinary tract);
• Blood diseases (deficiency anemia associated with nutrition, hemorrhagic vasculitis);
Pathologies of the gastrointestinal tract (esophagitis, gastritis, gastroduodenitis, pancreatitis, colitis, cholecystitis, gallstone disease, liver diseases, malabsorption, maldigestion);
• Functional disorders (irritable bowel syndrome, functional constipation, functional dyspepsia).

Food therapy is also used in complex therapy for the following conditions:

• pregnancy and postpartum period;
• postoperative period;
• allergy;
• avitaminosis;
• helminth infections;
• dysbacteriosis syndrome;
• psychosomatic disorders;
• eating disorders (bulimia, anorexia).

Get serious Get serious about what you and your child eat. Sometimes several products in the diet can be the cause of painful conditions, and sometimes, on the contrary, consumption of the right products can become a real panacea for the body.

Nutrition is your daily choice, so you should approach it consciously!