A therapeutic diet is a plan that controls the intake of certain foods or nutrients. It is usually a modification of a person’s regular diet, tailored to fit the nutrition needs, guided by a naturopathic doctor. A therapeutic nutrition diet can help with diseases like diabetes, high blood pressure, cardiovascular diseases, and obesity and can potentially slow down the progress or prevent many other types of illnesses.
Sometimes, depending on baseline health status, various health risk factors and individual patient’s health goals, I may incorporate various nutritional tools such as specific therapeutic diets to help my patients reach healthier baseline levels.
Therapeutic nutrition raises the therapeutic effects of particular foods for specific health conditions.
Some of the nutrition diets recommended by Dr. Elena include :
Gluten-free Diet: A gluten-free diet is an eating plan that excludes foods containing gluten. Gluten is a protein found in wheat, barley, and rye. A gluten-free diet is not only for people who are allergic to gluten but are also popular among people who haven’t been diagnosed with a gluten-related medical condition.
Plant-Based Diet: It has been observed based on laboratory investigation and physical exams findings that people who follow a plant-based diet tend to have a lower risk of developing type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol and fatty liver disease. This type of diet often leads to an increase in a person’s overall health and longevity.
The DASH Diet: This is a flexible and balanced plan that helps create a healthy lifestyle. DASH stands for Dietary Approaches To Stop Hypertension. It’s easy to follow using foods such as vegetables, fruits, fish, beans, nuts and whole grains.
The Autoimmune Paleo (AIP) Diet: This diet is taken from the Paleolithic diet. It aims to reduce inflammation in the gut, heal the gastrointestinal tract and reduce overall systemic inflammation. It is a diet targeted specifically at autoimmune diseases.