Therapeutic Diets
Therapeutic Diets
Therapeutic Diets
Therapeutic Diets
• Modifications of normal diet used to
improve specific health conditions
• Normally prescribed by doctor and
planned by dietician
• May change nutrients, caloric content
and/or texture
• May seem strange and even unpleasant to
the patient
Therapeutic Diets
• Patient’s appetite may be affected by
anorexia or loss of appetite, weakness,
illness, loneliness, self-pity and other
factors
• Use patience and tact to convince patient
to eat food
• Understand purpose of diet and provide
simple explanations to patient
Therapeutic Diets
• Regular diet • Fat restricted (low-fat)
• Liquid diet diet
• Soft diet • Sodium restricted diet
• Diabetic diet • Protein diet
• Calorie controlled diet • Bland diet
• Low cholesterol diet • Low residue diet
Regular Diet
• Balanced diet usually used for ambulatory
patients
• At times is has a slightly reduced caloric
content
• Foods such as rich desserts, cream
sauces, salad dressings and fried foods
may be decreased or omitted
Liquid Diets
• Nutritionally inadequate and should only
be used for short periods of time
• Uses:
– After surgery or a heart attack
– Pts with acute infections or digestive
problems
– To replace fluids lost by vomiting or diarrhea
– Before some Xrays of digestive tract
Liquid Diets
• 2 types
– Clear liquid diet
• Water, apple or grape juice, fat-free broths, plain
gelatin, popsicles, ginger ale, tea, coffee
– Full liquid diet
• Everything on clear liquid diet plus strained soups
and cereals, fruit and vegetable juices, yogurt, hot
cocoa, custard, ice cream, pudding, sherbet, and
eggnog
Soft Diet
• Similar to regular diet but foods must
require little chewing and be easy to digest