Nutrition is defined as the science that deals with the study of the changes that take place within the body after the consumption of food. Therapeutic nutrition is concerned with the treatment of patients by prescribing the right type of diets in order to meet their nutritional requirements. The fact behind the nutritional therapy is that an imbalanced diet is the basic cause for many of the ailments in our body.

Objectives of nutrition therapy:

The objectives of nutrition therapy are as follows:

• Maintaining a good nutritional status by correcting the existing nutritional deficiencies.
• Formulating the diet meeting the nutritional requirements of specific patients
• Educating the patient on nutrition in order to prevent reoccurrence of the deficiency

Role of Doctor, Dietitian, Nurse in therapeutic nutrition:

Nutrition therapy given to a patient in a hospital requires a coordinated team approach of the doctor, dietitian, nurse and the patient so as to achieve better results. The team has the responsibility of educating the family members of the patient so as to strictly follow the dietary guidelines.

Prior to diet prescription, a thorough knowledge of the patient’s background data is necessary. This could be achieved by collecting the following information from the patient:

· Socio-economic background: This involves the information of the patient’s occupation, residential details and other recreational activities.

• Medical background: It requires the information such as current disease conditions, weight, metabolic reactions in the body and so on.
• Dietary history: This is the most important information with regard to diet therapy and involves the collection of the following data:

v Meal timings of the patients

v Methods followed in food preparation

v Meals skipped and timings

v Commonly consumed meals

v Foods consumed from outside

v Individual likes and dislikes

v Food allergies and previous diet restrictions

Diet is the most important requirement of a living being and any restrictions of diet act as a significant factor in many of the common disease

that we find in the world around us.