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Home / Healthcare & Medicine / Nutrition / Nutrition: Eating to Live Well / Health Food Category: Special Diet Food, Nutritional Supplements, Medical Food

Health Food Category: Special Diet Food, Nutritional Supplements, Medical Food

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14.1
The third one is a special diet plan designed by doctors or dietitians to offer patients a healthy balanced diet. Basically, nature foods, organic foods, and diet foods are all in the form of original state. Diet foods can be altered to accommodate the special needs of patients. For example, if an old lady accidentally broke her bones after a fall, then the doctor and the dietitian could write prescriptions for her to recuperate at home. In this case, the diet designed by dietitian will includes high-calories, high-calcium diet for this old lady with fractures needs to help her bones to rebuild. Therefore, the diet plan built out by the doctor or the dietitian will focus on the key nutrients such as calcium and protein.
88.5
This is the definition of diet foods. They are supplied to aid recovery, and improve the prognosis of patients. The next one is the one that we are familiar with. Nutritional supplement. Nutritional supplements are popular in the USA and in European countries. They are products that supplement nutrients to promote health. Common supplements include vitamins or minerals. Nutritional supplements usually serve in the form of tablets or capsules. Vitamins and minerals are common ingredients. Nutritional supplements can help assure you get adequate nutrients your body needs but they can not replace complete meals. This is what I hope you can keep in mind. That’s why we also call them dietary supplements.
170.4
Next, we are going to talk about health foods, which refer to medical foods. These foods are intended to meet distinctive nutritional requirements of certain disease by changing the unfavourable contents in foods for those patients. We know that patients with diabetes need to manage their diet more carefully than others. Many people may think diabetics can only eat bland diets. So food manufacturers have developed some products with good taste but won’t cause blood sugar to spike rapidly. For example, sugar substitute, low-sodium foods. There are also medical foods for cancer patients. They have different nutrient requirements from diabetics. Patients with cancer need more protein and other special nutrients during chemotherapy or radiotherapy.
233.6
These foods for patients who have distinctive nutritional requirements need to pass the clinical trial process before obtaining the certification. So health foods or medical foods should be regulated by the government before marketing. Famous medical food, for example, thiamine for elderly and sugar substitutes for diabetics are all common medical foods. As mentioned, health foods(medical foods) are foods that part of the content has been changed without changing food taste. Removing those elements that could be harmful for those patients and can be consumed by people with distinctive nutritional requirements.

Continuing to explain the category of health food, Prof. Huang will talk about the special diet food, nutritional supplements, and medical foods.

Special diet food is designed for people with special needs. For example, patients with bone fractures might have a diet with high calcium and protein to help recovery. These food supplied to aid recovery, and improve the prognosis of patients.

The next category is possibly more familiar to you, nutrients supplements. Nutritional supplements are popular in the USA and European countries. These are products to promote health. Vitamins and minerals are common ingredients.

Medical food is a special type. These foods are intended to meet the distinctive nutritional requirements of a disease by removing some contents in foods that are unfavorable to consumers. For example, diabetics patients’ diet is different from others. So food manufacturers create sugar substitute, low-sodium foods. There are also medical foods for cancer patients.

Do you have the experience to take nutritional supplements? How is your frequency? Do you think it is effective? If you are comfortable to share, do comments below.

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This content is taken from Taipei Medical University online course
Nutrition: Eating to Live Well
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