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EATING TIPS

A strong connection exists between what you eat and your immune system's ability to fight off disease. Eating healthy food is especially important when you are HIV positive in order to increase your physical strength so that you can e joy life as normally as possible. Good nutrition is a co-therapy that can help to maximize your medical management of HIV disease. Aggressive nutrition can prevent or delay the loss of your muscle tissue, a process that is also called HIV wasting. Research indicates that your nutritional health is a major factor influencing HIV survival. Currently, there is no cure for HIV disease or AIDS, but you can affect the disease process and improve the quality of your life by maintaining a positive attitude and a healthy lifestyle. Some healthy lifestyle changes you can make include:

• following appropriate medical interventions to treat infections;
• choosing to eat healthy food;
• managing stress in positive ways;
• engaging in regular weight resistance exercise; and
• integrating natural or alternative therapies into your personal health management plan.

All of these therapies work together to help your immune system fight HIV. People with HIV or AIDS tend to lose their muscle tissue and protein stores with varying amounts of fat loss. There are three major reasons why you may lose weight, experience muscle wasting and develop HIV-related malnutrition. If you have a poor appetite, you may not eat enough protein, calories, vitamins and minerals that your body needs; your body's metabolism speeds up during active infection so you need extra calories and protein from food to maintain your eight; and if you have chronic diarrhea, your body loses calories, protein, vitamins and minerals.

Your muscle tissue is very important to keep you strong, maintain body functions and help process medications. . You can do this by eating food and drinking fluids high in calories so that your body does not use your muscle tissue for energy during active infection. These types of food give your body energy: complex starches or carbohydrates, simple sugars and fats. You al o need food that provides your body with protein to build and maintain your muscle mass. You can choose a combination of animal or complemented vegetable protein sources depending on your preference. You also need to engage in daily a d repetitive weight resistance exercise to gain muscle strength.

It is very important to eat small amounts of food throughout the day, even if you are not hungry. A high protein, high calorie eating plan that is rich in complex starches and includes moderate amounts of fat is best for you to help prevent muscle wasting with HIV disease. This may change if you have specific symptoms or other existing med cal problems. Your nutritionist or physician can help you decide how to modify your eating plan if you have specific symptoms.

This guide offers eating tips for maximizing your protein and energy intake to gain quality weight. It includes guidelines for taking vitamin and mineral supplements, suggestions for managing nutrition problems that may interfere with your ability to eat, and basic food safety tips and recipes.