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Nutrition Management
Nutrition practices that identify patients at risk for malnutrition by screening and assessing nutritional status, and replenishing nutrition when needed, can yield remarkable results. For individuals who are undernourished, nutrition interventions are shown to reduce risks for complications, and mortality. Improved nutritional status can cut costs of care while improving the recipient’s quality of life.
Nutrition intervention can be generally described as an action taken to decrease the risk of or to treat poor nutritional status. Nutrition interventions address the multi-factorial causes of nutritional problems and therefore include actions that may be taken by many different health care professionals. A wide range of intervention actions, from nutrition education and nutrition counseling, to specialized medical and/or dietary treatment are all examples of nutrition interventions.
Nutrition is particularly critical during periods of rapid tissue growth (eg, in post-surgical healing), during illness, and for frail and elderly. Nutrition is essential to immune function for prevention of or recovery from disease. Nutrition interventions can restore normal nutritional status and improve outcomes such as:
- reduction in infection and complications,
- improvement of wound healing
- and reduction of mortality.
Dietary Guidelines
The Dietary Guidelines from the United States Department of Agriculture describe a healthy diet as one that:
- Emphasizes fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and fat-free or low-fat milk and milk products;
- Includes lean meats, poultry, fish, beans, eggs, and nuts; and
- Is low in saturated fats, trans fats, cholesterol, salt (sodium), and added sugars