3. SETTING A DIET PROGRAM SUITABLE FOR THE MEMBERS OF THE FAMILY
1. DIET FOR A HEALTHY PERSON
Many kinds of nutrients are useful for our body. Proteins, carbohydrates, and fats are the nutrients which give us energy; and the body needs a lot of them. Some vitamins and minerals do not give us energy but are essential for the working of the systems in our body and help prevent illnesses to continue a happy life. Every human need different levels of various nutrients depending on sex and age for proper growth.
Usually we eat a variety of food stuff and each of it is composed of different nutrients which are needed in different quantities. The different nutrient quantities our body needs are shown in the following table:
The Quantity of Energy and Nutrients Thai People Need Per Day
Each kind of food we consume gives different nutrients and energy. By selecting what to eat in each meal, one should consume alternate nutrients so that our body can get appropriate and enough nutrients. If our body does not get the nutrients it needs, we might develop malnutrition.
2. DIET FOR PRE–SCHOOL CHILDREN
Pre–school children should get all groups of diets such as rice, vegetables, fruits, meat, and milk. We should advise them to eat a variety of diets by not selecting only their favorite food stuff. The cleanness of the diet should be of concern and the diet should be digested easily. If the food stuff is too hard or sticky for them to chew on, we should chop or boil it. The children should consume soup from broth or thin soup because they can get vitamins and minerals from soup as well. Children should have boiled vegetables and fresh fruit juice. When they grow up, we give them fresh fruits and vegetables. In a day, pre–school children should have 4 - 5 scoops of rice or grain, 1 egg, 2 - 3 scoops of green leave vegetables and other vegetables, 2 - 3 pieces of fruit such as one banana, a piece of papaya, 5 - 6 spoons of meat, 1 egg, and 3 - 4 spoons of other meat. They should drink milk every day. Rotation of the diet should be done from day to day and once a week liver might be added. Prepare an appropriate quantity of the diet, not too strongly seasoned and easy to chew. Avoid snacks, sweetened candy, toffee, pop soda, and high fat diet. Have them join the meal with adults and do not scold or force them to eat because it may cause further problems. If they are back from playing, do not let them eat immediately. Wait at least 15 minutes before serving the meal.
3. DIET FOR THE ELDERLY
We should regard the individual when setting the diet for the elderly because each of them may like different kinds of diet. Sometimes it is not necessary to have all nutrients in one meal. We should
1) set the diet divided into 4 -5 meals a day to reduce distention.
2) prepare soft diet, easy to digest, not strongly seasoned. If serving vegetables, chop and boil or steam them to soften them.
3) try to avoid a diet which produce gas or belly ache such as some kinds of nuts.
4) have good quality diet such as complex carbohydrates, which are not in the process of rubbing off vitamins, add protein from fish.
5) steam the diet which is better than fried to reduce consuming too much fat.
6) add plenty of vegetables and fruits such as ivy gourd, morning glory, kale, tomatoes, tangerine, ripe bananas, ripe papaya to increase the fiber content and thus helping the excretory system.
7) encourage some activities such as exercises to help increase the appetite.
8) cheer up the elderly so they maintain a good state of mind, give attention to them so they do not feel leftover or be nobody in the family.
9) prepare colorful diets for stimulate the appetite by using natural colors. The diet should be warm, even hot to increase appetite.
10) do not serve too spicy food as it may cause stomach ache or uncomfortable feeling after consumption. Spicy food may affect the digestive tract.
In conclusion, diet for the elderly is important. Since the diet they consume will affect their health. The elderly themselves should understand how to select a useful diet. Consuming a good diet can enhance health; so, we should prepare ourselves from early age to grow and become a healthy elderly.
4. DIET FOR PATIENTS
When people are sick, they have to specially care about their health and hygiene including the diet. Different sicknesses need different diets, such as:
Ordinary diet for general patients who are not seriously ill must be prepared with the ordinary 5 groups of a diet. Sufficient diet for their need is appropriate.
Soft diet is the diet for the patient who cannot chew food as usual. They might be the patient after recovering from illness or the patient who is ill with acute digest tract such as diarrhea, etc. This kind of diet will be soft meat, mild tasting, easily digested without hard waste, not too fat like milk cream, not fried eggs, steamed or grilled fish, ground meat, soup, steamed or boiled chicken, thin soup, boiled low-fiber vegetables without strong smell, fruit juice, ripe bananas, etc.
Tube diet is administered to patients after recovering from surgery or to patients with stomach or intestine problems. The diet should easily be digested without waste. There are 2 kinds of these diets:
(1) Liquid diet such as lemon tea with sugar, coffee with sugar, clear soup with no fat, clear rice milk, and dissolved sugar, glucose, etc. Let them have little by little every 1 - 2 hours. When the patients can eat more, gradually increased the quantity.
(2) Concentrated liquid diet is concentrated rice milk, wet ground rice, concentrated soup, all kinds of milk, milk mixed drink, fruit juice, boiled vegetables soup, ice cream, soup with ground liver, etc.
Special diet for specific illness is prepared according to a physicians’ recommendation for some types of illnesses which must be a carefully prepared and specially controlled diet in which protein is limited liver sickness, low-fiber diet for severe diarrhea, high-fiber diet for large intestine ineffectiveness, low calorie diet for diabetes, high protein diet to recover after surgery, and low sodium diet for heart diseases.
SETTING THE MENU FOR THE DIABETIC PATIENT
1. Punctually consuming all 3 meals of the same quantity and not to eat anything between meals.
2. Not having sweets, desserts in syrup, sweet syrup, pop soda, sweetened milk, alcoholic beverage, beer, strongly sweetened fruits, preserved fruits, and sweet fruit preserve.
3. The diet in the starch group should be controlled such as rice, bread, dumplings and vegetables substituted with sugar and starch from pumpkin, or sweet fruits like durian, and longan, etc.
4. The diets should contain proteins from chicken, crab, fish, shrimp, beef, pork, and protein from plants like bean and tofu. Besides, they should consume a lot of fibers such as coarse rice, lentils, string beans, and all kinds of vegetables suitable for a diabetic patient, which are fat, or fattening foods and some plant oil such as coconut milk, coconut oil, and palm oil.
SETTING THE MENU FOR PATIENTS WITH CHRONIC RENAL FAILURE
1. Low protein diet of 40 grams a day supplement with the 9 types of essential amino acid alternatively a high protein diet of 60 -75 grams a day.
2. Try to use egg yolk and fish as the protein source.
3. Avoid gizzards.
4. Avoid animal and coconut fats.
5. Refrain from a salty diet and limit the amount of water.
6. Refrain from fruits except in the morning before dialysis.
7. Refrain from food with high phosphate content such as grains, butter, and egg yolk.
SETTING THE MENU FOR A CANCER PATIENT
Cancer is a malignant tumor happening in the tissue or cells in the organs of our body. The general symptoms are low appetite and weight loss. Having cancer at the esophagus, the stomach, or the intestine will create more problems in eating than having cancer at the other organs. After being diagnosed, the patients should be treated by a specialist in cancer treatment and should adjust themselves to accept the treatment. This treatment may take a long time. Appreciating consuming the diet and suitable nutrition can help when undergoing cancer treatment. If the gastro intestine is working normally, one could eat coarse rice together with fish, vegetables and fruits especially tomatoes, green vegetables, ripe papaya, guava, etc. Increase the consumption of beans especially soybeans such as head sprouts, white tofu, soybean milk, etc. Avoid having a fatty or fried diet. Emphasize on boiling and steam cooking. In case the cancer patient cannot eat normally, he can be fed with medical food or through a feeding tube. In this case, the patient or the caregiver should consult a physician or nutritionists to understand and carry out the method appropriately. The cancer patient should follow up and evaluated the result of the treatment. The patient should weigh themselves frequently, and if the weight does not change much, it shows that they get enough energy.
5. DIET FOR EXERCISER
The people who normally exercise will use much energy. They need a diet which provides more energy than usual. The exerciser should have an adequate diet as mentioned below:
1. Diet before exercise. Before having exercise, we should not eat because it may cause angina and the exercise cannot be done as planned. Before having exercise, we should have all the food we eat digested. The meal we eat should be taken 3 - 4 hours before the exercise. Snacks should be eaten 1 - 2 hours before having exercise and should be low fat, low protein but high carbohydrate. In addition, avoid having food that can cause gas in the stomach such as fermented food, strong seasoning, etc.
2. Diet during an exercise. While exercising, the body will produce sweat to regulate body heat and release waste out of our body. So, we should drink water or mineral drinks to compensate for water and mineral loss. Never eat a meal during an exercise because it may cause angina. Undigested food is an obstruction for exercise.
3. Diet after the exercise. How much energy we lost during the exercise depends on the length and the manner of that exercise. After an exercise, we should eat to compensate the energy loss. Some kind of exercise requires nutrients to compensate the energy loss and create new energy for the next time. Therefore, we have to eat properly and enough nutrients as well.
4. Water. In addition to eating the 5 major food groups, water is utterly important for us because it helps our excretory system to work effectively. And since we lost a lot of water while exercising, we have to drink enough water to compensate the loss of water. During some kind of exercises, we need to drink water while exercising as well.
Conclusion: Whether we are healthy or not depends on important factors, such as choosing a quality diet, freshness without contaminant, and eating various kinds of food to get all 5 groups of nutrition. People’s ages and physical conditions vary, so it is necessary for us to choose the appropriate diet in suitable proportions for our body’s needs to get all the nutrients. These nutrients which we gain must not be too much or too less, so they can make us healthy and give a happy live.