Overview
Diet-based therapy uses specialized dietary regimens to promote wellness and to prevent and treat specific diseases, including cancer, cardiovascular disorders, and diabetes. Some low-fat vegetarian diets can help reverse arterial blockages that cause coronary artery disease and may help prevent or slow the progression of prostate and other cancers. Persons who follow a specific type of diet have reported cancer remission. It usually takes months or years for benefits to be observed. Diet therapies are more likely to be effective if practiced as a preventive measure against disease or if started early after the onset of disease.
Some diet-based movements, such as breatharianism, claim that food and even water are not necessary for living. Believers claim that human life can be sustained by a vital force whose energy comes from sunlight and by the nutrients of fresh air. Another diet therapy based on religious beliefs is fruitarianism, which involves a diet based solely on the intake of fruits, nuts, and seeds. This diet therapy is practiced by people who call themselves fruitarians and who believe that fruits are the original diet of humankind, a diet that stems from the time of Adam and Eve. Some followers of this practice will eat only fallen fruits.
Regardless of philosophical or religious beliefs, however, humans need a balanced diet to be healthy. People with chronic diseases and some types of cancer can enhance their quality of life by improving the quality of their daily meals, shifting or replacing eating habits, and being more aware about calorie intake.
Mechanism of Action
Some studies show that several diets based on fruits can improve lipid profiles and glucose tolerances and can stop the weight-gain tendency in some people. The intake of nuts, olive oil, and fish can reduce bad cholesterol. Reducing saturated fats in daily meals can reduce triglycerides in the blood. Potassium from fruits can also reduce muscle pains. It is well known that a diet low in salt (sodium) can help to reduce blood pressure.
Uses and Applications
Diets have been used to treat hypertension. One of the most important
science based-diets designed to control blood pressure is the Dietary Approaches
to Stop Hypertension (DASH) diet, which is promoted by the National Heart, Lung,
and Blood Institute, part of the National Institutes of Health
(NIH).
The DASH diet is a plan that is low in saturated fats, cholesterol, and total fat. It emphasizes the intake of fruits, vegetables, fat-free or low-fat milk and milk products, whole grain products, fish, poultry, and nuts. The diet is low in lean red meat, sweets, added sugars and sugar-containing beverages. It is rich in potassium, magnesium, calcium, protein, and fiber.
Type 2 diabetes is another chronic disease that can be partially controlled by diet. The ideal diabetic meal consists of a combination of foods, such as bread, products that are high in fat, dairy items that provide protein, and starchy vegetables. Most of the protein in a diabetic diet comes from chicken, fish, lean beef, or dairy. Servings and portions in diabetic diets depend on a person’s level of physical activity.
Cardiovascular diseases can also be prevented and controlled by diet. Histological studies show that vascular injury accumulates from adolescence, making it extremely important to monitor one’s lifestyle and diet from childhood to prevent a heart condition in the future. Any diet designed to control or prevent cardiovascular disease most be low in saturated fats (less than 7 percent of the daily diet) and low in cholesterol (less than 300 milligrams per day for healthy adults and less than 200 milligrams per day for adults with high levels of low-density lipoprotein, or bad, cholesterol).
The American
Cancer Society recommends that people with cancer not
undertake a dietary program as an exclusive or primary means of treatment. A
macrobiotic
diet is one of the most common diets followed by persons with
cancer. It is based on whole cereal grains, especially brown rice, and is low in
processed foods. Another diet used in cancer treatment is the Gerson diet, which
is part of the Gerson therapy. The Gerson diet is said to cleanse the body,
boost the immune system, and stimulate metabolism. The Gerson diet in general
requires following a strict low-salt, low-fat, vegetarian diet containing a lot of
fluids.
Scientific Evidence
NIH studies have demonstrated that a low level of salt combined with the DASH diet is effective at lowering blood pressure. The effect of this combination (at a sodium level of 1,500 milligrams per day) was an average blood pressure reduction of 8.9/4.5 millimeters of mercury (systolic/diastolic) in normal subjects. Persons in the studies who were hypertensive experienced an average reduction of 11.5/5.7 millimeters of mercury.
A low intake of saturated fats will reduce triglycerides in the blood. Studies have claimed that some diets designed for persons with cancer dramatically increase life expectancy, but many physicians counter this claim, saying that a lack of control groups means that there is insufficient scientific evidence to support those observations.
Choosing a Practitioner
A nutritionist is the recommended professional advisor for the selection of a diet for a specific chronic condition. For persons with cancer, diets must be chosen and recommended by an oncologist.
Safety Issues
When beginning a therapeutic diet that involves a dramatically different way of eating, people should receive expert supervision so that they can avoid nutritional deficiencies. The human body, which needs carbohydrates, fats, and proteins for healthy function, burns its own reserves of energy in the absence of calorie intake. Fasting for extended periods leads to starvation, dehydration, and eventual death.
Diets based on one type of food, such as those based solely on fruits, can cause protein deficiencies, which inhibit growth and development in children. Fruit-based diets can also cause deficiencies in vitamin D, vitamin B12, calcium, iron, zinc, and essential fatty acids.
Bibliography
American Cancer Institute. “Questions and Answers About the Gerson Therapy.” Available at http://www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/pdq/cam/gerson/patient/page2.
“DASH Diet Action Plan: The User-Friendly Book for the DASH Diet.” Available at http://www.dashdiet.org.
Food and Nutrition Information Center. http://fnic.nal.usda.gov.
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