A disease such as asthma is a pathology of a chronic course. Her treatment is long, often lifelong. It is important not only to fight existing infections, but also to eliminate allergens from the environment of a sick person, which, among other things, can be found in food products. This will strengthen the immune system and direct its forces to resist the disease.
Doctors recommend that patients with asthma stick to dietary table number nine. Thanks to the compiled diet, it will be possible to reduce the number of relapses of the disease, relieve the severity of symptoms, and normalize metabolism. The energy value of the diet is within the normal range, that is, a person receives from 2300 to 2500 kcal per day. This allows you to regulate carbohydrate and fat metabolism, not gain excess weight and prevent the development of complications of the disease.
The diet for asthmatics involves the rejection of any foods that provoke allergies. If they are not so established, then you should follow the general rules of nutrition for allergy sufferers.
What should be excluded from the menu:
Table salt is under strict restriction. Its amount per day should not exceed 6-8 g.
It is necessary to refuse any kind of nuts, first of all it concerns peanuts.
Strong allergens are chicken eggs, and sometimes poultry meat, especially goose and duck.
The ban applies to seafood, sea fish, caviar.
Mushrooms, citrus fruits, raspberries, strawberries, and tomatoes fall under the restriction.
Allergic reactions are provoked by chocolate, coffee, confectionery, carbonated drinks and honey.
You need to give up all seasonings, products with a sharp taste and smell – horseradish, radish, radish, etc. All histamine-like substances can cause an exacerbation of the disease, this list also includes spices such as onion and garlic.
Fatty varieties of beef and pork should be removed from the diet.
The asthma diet suggests avoiding foods with thiamine and histamine, as they release allergy mediators from target cells. Most of these substances are found in alcoholic beverages, cheese, canned fish, sauerkraut and raw smoked sausages. That is, in those products that have undergone fermentation. In this regard, canned food, pickles, marinades, smoked meats are prohibited in any form.
Elimination diet for asthma
The elimination diet involves the rejection of those foods that are potential allergens. To make it easier to identify them, it is recommended that a person with asthma keep a food diary. It needs to record what was eaten during the day, at what time it happened and whether there was any allergic reaction from the body to a particular dish. This will allow you to accurately identify the allergen without giving up many foods. For example, if a reaction appeared to buckwheat porridge with butter, then most likely the porridge containing gluten acted as an allergen. At the same time, you can not refuse oil, adding it to other dishes.
Buckwheat is completely abandoned for up to 3 weeks. If there is an improvement, then another attempt is made to introduce the product to the menu, but this is done very carefully. When the adverse reaction occurs again, the product is considered problematic and discarded. Naturally, such a test system is lengthy in time, but it is it that allows you to create an individual elimination diet, which cannot be obtained at a consultation with any allergist.
A nutritional plan designed in this way will reduce the manifestations of food allergies to a minimum, which means reducing the risk of exacerbation of the disease. At the same time, an excessive load will be eliminated from the immune system.
Dietary guidelines for asthma
Allergic reactions are caused by chemical additives that are widely used in the food industry. It has been proven that substances such as tartrazine, salicylates, benzoate, sodium nitrite and sulfate, sodium glutamate have a negative effect on the course of asthma. Therefore, patients with bronchial asthma should make it a rule to minimize the consumption of any canned food, confectionery, semi-finished products – all those products that have a long shelf life. After all, often, in addition to the chemical additives declared on the packaging, these products contain traces of antibiotics, peanuts and other potential allergens.
The cause of bronchial asthma is often a high sensitivity to mold fungi. They are found in cheeses, cottage cheese, vegetables and fruits. Therefore, the next rule for asthmatics is to eat only fresh food that has been stored in the refrigerator for no more than a day. Vegetables and fruits must be carefully processed before consumption.
The third rule for people with asthma is competent culinary processing of dishes. Products can be stewed, boiled, baked. But it is worth remembering that broths on meat, fish and chicken often provoke allergies than just boiled fish, poultry or meat. Therefore, it must be changed at least three times during cooking. Avoid fried foods completely.
The fourth rule is to maintain the normal functioning of the digestive tract. It is important that the intestinal barrier function is not impaired, and the organ allows allergens to freely pass through the intestinal-hepatic barrier. This will allow them not to linger in the body, which means that the risk of developing unwanted reactions will be minimized. Useful in this regard are fermented milk drinks, such as: yogurt, kefir, yogurt. The same applies to dietary fiber, which normalizes intestinal motility and stimulates local immunity.
The last but most important rule for patients with bronchial asthma is a varied and complete menu. Poor nutrition negatively affects the state of health no less than the use of unhealthy foods. With a limited intake of nutrients, the work of the respiratory muscles is disrupted, gas exchange suffers, and the immune system copes with its work worse.
The calculation of the daily ration should be based on the height and weight of the human body, on his age and physical activity. The main recommendation is as follows:
Proteins – up to 80 grams per day (but not less than 70 g). 50% of them must be of plant origin.
Fats up to 70 g per day (but not less than 50 g). The amount of vegetable fats – 40 g.
Carbohydrates – 300 g per day.
It is possible to remove inflammation from the bronchi by eliminating carbohydrates that are quickly absorbed – these are sugar, jam, honey, etc. It is important that there is a sufficient intake of natural antioxidants in food. These are products containing selenium, vitamins C, E, A. Most of all they can be obtained from vegetable oils, vegetables and fruits.
Be sure to include brown rice, legumes, green vegetables in your diet. They contain magnesium, which helps to normalize the tone of the muscles of the bronchi and reduces their excessive activity.
An example menu might look like this:
Breakfast: rice porridge with sugar, baked pear, tea.
Snack: zucchini pancakes with currant jam.
Lunch: vinaigrette with vegetable oil, steamed veal cutlets with mashed potatoes, rosehip broth.
Snack: banana and dried fruit compote.
Dinner: rabbit stew, stewed cabbage with onions, green tea.
Before going to bed, a glass of kefir or another fermented milk drink.
It is impossible to provide a single nutrition menu for all patients with bronchial asthma, since food allergens are individual. Nevertheless, the described prohibitions and rules are the most common and, adhering to them, you can make the most adapted diet for a particular person for asthma.