FACTORWS TO BE KEPT IN MIND, WHILE PRESCRIBING DIET

It is pertinent to point out that specified diets charts cannot and should not be prescribed for two persons, alike, who may be having, if at all, identical symptom. Following factors must be kept in mind while prescribing a dietary regimen :

1) Age, sex, profession, health status, as also diabetic status of a person must be taken into consideration, while preparing a dietary chart.
2) Diet prescribed should be within financial reach of the patient. If costly food-items are prescribed, the patient may not be able to stick to it.
3) Diet must be related ot the quantum of physical labour put in by a patient. For instance, a laborer would require more and higher calorie, based diet than a person working in an office, similarly in IDDM cases, one must be careful not to keep oneself without food, especially after taking an insulin injection.
4) NIDDM patient’s diet will differ from Insulin dependent patient, because the latter will require more quantity of carbohydrate as compared to the former.
5) Prescribed diet should not be monotonous. In order to avoid such monotony, patient’s diet should often be substituted by alternate food items.
6) Food must be tasty, otherwise the patient may be compelled to violate the dietary restrictions. Diet- menus of breakfast, lunch, supper and dinner must be often changed, without sacrificing the basic requirements in this regard, so that the patient does relish his food, instead of thinking that he has been subjected to and forced into a dietary pattern to which he is averse.
7) Diet of a child, growing child, pregnant woman, workman, labourer and that of an office workers should be designed and tailored to meet his physical and professional requirements
8) Prescribed food should be liked by the person so as to satisfy his taste-buds or else he will be forced to seek deviation of his own choice.
9) Food must also be satiating, that is after taking his food, the patient should feel fully satisfied and also feel that his hunger has been satiated or else he will often eat more and more.
10) Calorie-based diet should be a complete blend of well-balanced carbohydrate, protein, fat, vitamins and minerals, in addition to green and fibre-based vegetables.
11) Constipation is a common and normal complication of diabetic and if the prescribed food does not have enough of roughage, his complication will become still worse. A diabetic’s diet must have plenty of fibre, green vegetables, low-carbohydrate, bran and citrus fruits.
12) A healthy person normally requires about 100 to 300 gms of carbohydrates, 50-80 gm protein, 50-100 gms of fats, in addition to green and fibre rich vegetables and fruits. A diabetic’s diet should have less of carbohydrates, but not less quantity of protein, rather protein-intake should be increased. Fat content will be determined by the level of cholesterol in the blood, as also heart condition, and digestive capacity of the patient.
13) Easy availability of prescribed food items is of almost necessity. If the prescribed item is cheaper and useful also, but is not available easily (or if available, at the exorbitant rates), the patients shall be obliged to bid good-bye to it. The patients with limited resources and the ‘have nots’ are as lucky as the ‘have’ are, hence the former will develop a sort of inferiority complex for his inability to procure. Such diverse situations should always be avoided, if not eliminated once forever.
14) Those addicted to drinking should gradually taper their alcohol intake, as sudden cessation/withdrawal may have some psychological, emotional and physical upsets.
15) Dieting restrictions should never develop a feeling of “going off my diet”, fear of under-eating or over-eating. Dr. Joseph I Goodman says “Nutritional neurosis and food faddism” “should not disturb and cause any fear to the diabetic patient, much so his rest of family members.”
16) Let the other family be started of such foodstuffs which are forbidden to a diabetic who, on certain gatherings may also join others in eating and drinking sessions, but imprudent discretion should not outweigh sense of proportion.
17) Now a word about sweets and alcohol, again quoting Dr.Goodman, “The medical evidence is clear: Neither sweets nor alcohol are, in themselves, harmful to diabetics. Since the forceable removal of these items form the diet can produce severe neurosis in diabetics and their families, this alone is an ample reason to make certain that the age-old stigma against such items is erased. But there is more. The evidence is also clear that the removal of such sources of carbohydrate from the diabetic’s diet can do physical as well psychological harm. It can result in dangerously lowered levels of energy on the one hand and increased levels of cholesterol and triglyceride (cholesterol-related fatty acid) on the other.”