Nutrition

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Nutrition

Basic Nutrition

What we eat affects our energy level, our moods, and our overall health. Optimizing not only what we eat but how we eat can prevent chronic disease and lead to physical and emotional well-being.

In our clinical programs, information on proper nutrition is an integral part of our curriculum and one of the five main elements of mind/body medicine. We emphasize that a good diet not only helps people stay healthy, but also can improve and/or prevent the progression of some chronic medical problems.

Our nutritional guidelines are developed specifically for each patient population by our staff dietitian, who also presents and answers questions at one session of each program.

Building a Healthy Diet

health Food is the foundation of nutritional health. Nothing can replace food. It can be supplemented, adjusted, increased or decreased, but not entirely replaced. Food provides the building blocks of carbohydrates, proteins and fats (the macronutrients), as well as vitamins and minerals (the micronutrients). The best way to make sure you’re getting all of these nutrients is by eating a wide variety of healthy foods every day.

Most countries have a food guide to help people make good decisions around food choices. Canada’s Food Guide is divided into a rainbow of four food groups:

vegetables and fruits
grain products
milk products and alternatives
meat and alternatives

The 2007 food guide recommends the following daily servings of each food group:

Recipes for healthy living in HIV/Aids

When you are HIV-Positive, taking control of what you eat is very important.

Twelve key things to remember when considering eating well with HIV or to consider if you are caring for someone who is HIV infected are:

1.   Start eating well early, ensuring that you do not suffer from malnutrition.
2.   Choose foods that you enjoy eating.
3.   Eat a variety of foods.
4.   Make starchy foods the basis of each meal.
5.   Eat lots of fruit and vegetables.
6.   Drink lots of clean, safe water.
7.   Meat and dairy foods may be eaten daily.
8.   Eat dry beans, peas, lentils, peanuts or Soya regularly.
9.   Include sugar, fats and oils in your diet.
10.   Use salt sparingly.
11.   Do not take alcoholic drinks.
12.   Be as active as you can.

Vitamins, Minerals and Supplements

Vitamins and minerals are called micronutrients because they are needed in very small amounts. They cannot adequately be made by the body and must be obtained from diet and/or supplements. Vitamins and minerals do not provide energy but perform vital functions that regulate the many activities and chemical reactions that take place inside the body. Without adequate intake of these micronutrients, symptoms of a deficiency can develop. If not treated, some deficiencies can cause sickness and death.

Recommended intake levels have been developed for each vitamin and mineral to give guidance as to how much should be taken every day to prevent deficiency. These are usually described as the RDA (recommended daily allowance). For many micronutrients, experts have also set an Upper Tolerable Limit (UL), which is the maximum daily amount a person should consume. Remember that these recommendations are set for the general population and do not take into consideration any disease state, like HIV. In this chapter, we try to provide guidance about your specific needs as a person living with HIV.

Why Nutrition Matters

Good nutrition is critical for people living with HIV and AIDS. Basically, nutrition should be viewed as an essential co-therapy that can help maximize your medical management of HIV. Eating well can help:

Prevent or delay the loss of muscle tissue or "wasting"
Strengthen the immune system
Reduce viral mutations
Decrease the incidence and severity of opportunistic infections and hospitalizations
Lessen the debilitating symptoms of HIV/AIDS

You, Food and HIV

The saying goes: You are what you eat. The good news is that nutrition is in your hands—and in your mouth. Good nutrition can keep you healthy and decrease your chances of getting other chronic diseases. People with HIV who get the nutrients they need get sick less often, are stronger and have improved quality of life. With good nutrition and medical care you can not only live longer with HIV… you can live better.

Nutrition in HIV/AIDS

Nutrition and your immune system
We have known for decades that nutrition plays a major role in immunity and the ability of the immune system to respond to infection. The nutrients our bodies derive from food keep the immune system strong in countless ways. For example, the skin and linings of the lungs and gut provide the first line of defence by acting as physical barriers to invaders such as viruses and bacteria. These barriers are very sensitive to nutrition, especially vitamin A, and deteriorate when people don’t get proper nutrition. When this happens, viruses and bacteria have easier access into the body.