Nutritional supplements are formulas designed to improve the diet in the event that it does not meet the patient's requirements on its own. The consumption of these supplements should be personalized and supervised by a health professional. The consequence of the use of supplements is not intended to be curative, much less to be a replacement of the diet.
Purposes of nutritional supplementation:
- To increase the total intake of nutrients in the patient.
- To preserve or rescue the nutritional status.
- To optimize the functionality of the organism.
- To increase the quality of life.
Recommendations for the consumption of nutritional supplements:
- Ingest at times that do not induce decreased appetite at meals. For example, take them after the main meals [breakfast, lunch and dinner].
- Be creative in the treatment of flavors and ways of elaboration.
- Once opened, store in the refrigerator.
- Do not eat it more than 24 hours after opening.
Adapted basic food: Adapted basic food is used when it is necessary to ensure nutrition especially in sick or debilitated people, who have difficulty chewing or some inability to swallow liquid and / or solid foods. It is appropriate to vary these foods with homemade dishes, or to combine with them.
The basic adapted food includes the following groups of products:
- Mashed diets of high nutritional value.
- Texture regulators or products with altered texture to hydrate in case of dysphagia: gelatins or thickeners.
High nutritional value triturated diets:
- These diets are essentially prescribed to individuals who have problems chewing or swallowing solid foods, who cannot achieve proper nutritional absorption through traditional feeding.
- They are usually varied purees based on meats, fish, eggs, vegetables, legumes and vegetables, with a high content of protein and micronutrients, low in sodium, cholesterol or saturated fat, appropriate to the requirements and preferences of the patient.
These diets propose the following options:
- They are provided for breakfast, mid-morning and snack consumption, lactose-free milk and cereal porridges enriched with proteins, vitamins and minerals.
- They are offered for lunch and dinner as a main dish, purees made from poultry, fish or eggs, mixed with vegetables, legumes or cereals. Likewise, fruit purees rich in fiber, vitamins and minerals are incorporated as desserts.
Texture modifiers:
- These diets are essentially prescribed to individuals suffering from diseases that cause dysphagia for liquids, so that ingestion of watery foods can cause them from choking to aspiration pneumonia.
- These modifiers are composed of processed starches and maltodextrins, with the purpose of suddenly thickening liquids, soups or purees to a solid consistency. Vitamins and minerals are added.
- These thickeners allow the elaboration of main dishes or desserts with altered texture, increasing the diversity and pleasure of meals.
Certain types of affordable thickeners on the market are:
- Flavored thickeners for beverages.
- Gelled water: It is common in many flavors with a gel texture, it is of great benefit to hydrate when the patient suffers some dysphagia for liquids and also for the administration of medicines, in case there is any complication to swallow.
- Condensed juice-like drink with honey-like texture ready for consumption.
Diet enrichers: These are modules of a nutrient or food that, when added to the usual food, optimize its nutritional characteristics. These modules achieve the introduction of proteins, carbohydrates, fats for therapeutic purposes, vitamins, minerals and fiber.
Examples:
- Milk protein modules to increase in a complete feed, with the objective of considerably increasing its protein value, without modifying the energy content.
- Caloric modules from carbohydrates and/or fats.
- Modules to specifically enrich one or more vitamins, minerals or trace elements.
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