Diet in Common Diseases

All diseases require modified diets, but diet plays a variable role in their cure, at one extreme there are diseases like food allergy where dietetic restriction alone completely cures the patient; then come diseases like overweight (obesity) or nutritional deficiency where diet plays the most important role. In diseases like diabetes diet is more important than drugs and only in a minority of diseases, diet plays a comparatively less important role. Diet in every case has to be looked at from various angles like:
1. total calories(normal requirement varies from 1800 to 3000 per day),
2. carbohydrates,
3. fats,
4. proteins,
5. vitamins,
6. minerals,
7. water,
8. roughage value, and
9. Satiety value of food.
These are nine aspects of every food and each requires consideration before selecting the foods. The values of food have to be checked. It is important to realize that dieted habits vary from person to person and a study of the individual’s diet is essential before any modification is suggested for his ailment. Not only is the selection of raw materials important but the processing of food, use of condiments, amount of each constituent, total amount of food, frequency of intake, etc., are all also important.