What Women Should Know About Special Diets

Following a special diet demands a certain amount of self-discipline and the co-operation of those around you. However, if you are determined to get and keep well it is worth any inconvenience.

With the increased awareness of the relation between diet and health, and recent scientific discoveries about the connection between certain foods and illnesses, more and more people are being advised to follow special diets.

These are usually prescribed because some part of the body is not working properly. For example if there is some problem with your digestive system a change in your eating habits will give it a chance to rest and heal. Dietary restrictions may also be imposed after serious illnesses when appetite is impaired or certain foods cannot be tolerated. And sometimes people develop allergies to specific foods which should be excluded from their diets. 

Special diets can vary from only slight modification to the normal eating pattern to a complete change in the type of food consumed. But whatever the diet, it is essential that it is followed carefully for maximum benefit.  

Preparing special diet foods 

When the restrictions imposed by the special diet try to make sure that the food you prepare is tempting enough to help restore the appetite - whether yours or someone else’s. 

One way to do this is to vary the menu as much as possible. On a low-fat diet, for example, it may be easy to serve grilled white fish every day but the dish will very quickly lose its appeal. A little advanced planning is really worth the extra effort to provide a changing menu, which makes the person on the diet look forward to mealtimes. 

You can also enliven special diet meals by experimenting with different flavorings and seasonings. Although some diets specifically exclude sodium products such as salt, most permit at least a small amount of herbs. But do use heavy species with discretion - special diets do not usually permit spicy foods such as curries and some also exclude highly flavored vegetables such as onions and garlic.

Because most special diets permit only a limited variety of foods, it is important to get the maximum goodness out of those that are allowed. You should therefore use the freshest possible foods and if you buy, packaged products read the list of ingredients on the label carefully to make certain they do not contain any of the foods excluded by the particular dietary restrictions. 

The correct cooking process is also important as cooking can reduce food’s nutritional value and make it hard to digest. Cheese, if permitted, should be cooked only lightly; meat should be lean and well-cooked without being overdone. Vegetables should be lightly cooked in as little water as possible so that their vitamins and minerals are conserved. They should also be served immediately and never reheated. 

Being on a special diet should not prevent you from eating out as long as you take steps to overcome any possible problems. For instance, if you are invited to a dinner party warn your host in advance and tell them which foods you cannot eat. When eating out, it may also help to suggest a dish that they could easily provide in restaurants, it is not always possible to trust the menu descriptions so you may have to ask the waiter exactly what the various dishes contain and to specify anything you may want left out.

Allergies

What is an allergy? It is a major defence mounted by the body's immune system against normally harmless substances, or allergens, such as chemicals in pollen, food, bee stings, animal dander, or dust. An allergic reaction is the body's strong reaction to these substances in a person who is sensitive to them. An allergy is everything from a runny nose, itchy eyes and palate to skin rash. It aggravates the sense of smell, sight, tastes and touch causing irritation, extreme disability and sometimes fatality. It occurs when the body's immune system overreacts to normally harmless substances.

Almost anything can be an allergen for someone. Allergens contain protein, which is often regarded as a constituent of the food we eat. In fact, it is an organic compound, containing hydrogen, oxygen and nitrogen, which form an important part of living organisms.

The most common allergens are: pollen from trees and grasses, house dust mite, moulds, pets such as cats and dogs, insects like wasps and bees, industrial and household chemicals, medicines, and foods such as milk and eggs. Less common allergens include nuts, fruit and latex.

There are some non-protein allergens, which include drugs such as penicillin. For these to cause an allergic response they need to be bound to a protein once they are in the body.

An allergic person's immune system believes allergens to be damaging and so produces a special type of antibody (IgE) to attack the invading material. This leads other blood cells to release further chemicals (including histamine) which together cause the symptoms of an allergic reaction.

Appreciate when asthma, eczema, headaches, lethargy, loss of concentration and sensitivity to everyday foods such as cheese, fish and fruit are taken into account the full scale of allergy.

Who are prone to be a sufferer of allergy reactions? The answer is three-fold. First, your genetic background plays a major role - we know that a family history of allergies or "Atopy" is highly significant, smaller families with fewer children favour the development of allergy. Males are more likely to develop allergies than females, and prenatal maternal diet and smoking seem to play a role. Obesity also seems to be a risk factor for developing allergies.

In the second place, the home environment in the first year of life is pivotal. Parental cigarette smoking triggers allergy, Infant diet, and early introduction of allergenic foods play a role. Air Pollution has been implicated; early use of day-care institutions, early use of broad-spectrum antibiotics and birth just before the spring pollen season all seem to promote allergic sensitisation. Recent studies suggest that heavy exposure to dog and cat allergens in the home may actually prevent allergies developing in infants (they suggest having two or more pets in the home!)

Finally, modest exposure to the common aeroallergens and allergenic foods in conjunction with these other factors leads to sensitisation in early life and clinical allergy then develops. Modest early exposure seems to be the key to triggering sensitisation, as evidence now exists for very high allergen exposure during early life having a "protective" effect (for example to cats and dogs). However, minimal exposure during the first year of life is still the recommended "rule of thumb" for allergy prevention.

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