Nutrition after covid, practical tips and quicker recovery

-


 Recovering after covid is often a slow process so here some practical tips from a nutritional point of view on how to recover faster and useful advice on how to deal with common side effects after the infection


Once again is not about the quantity but the quality of food used, so when thinking about increasing your energetic intake through food is important to prefer good quality protein without increasing eccessevily the carbohydrates and fats that can be contained in the product





Some examples of nourishing meals are:

- Cottage cheese

- Low fat and low sugar nordic style yogurt (high in protein) 

- No added sugar baked beans 

- Lentil soups/ Dhal 

- Stew made with meat or Tofu/quorn as a alternative 

- Handful of nuts 

- Some other high quality protein includes: lean meat, non-fatty fish and pulses 

- Green leafy vegetables 



Another side effect is getting tired easily so how to deal with fatigue:


- Considering to introduce Vitamin and supplements if you are not taking them already could be a good idea to reach your daily dosage of essential nutrients 

- Liquid nutriticious intake could be a good compromise to stay hydrated and introducing more energy when didn't get enough through food (loss of appetite could be one reason) so milkshakes or smoothies with added vitamins and minerals are quite handy in this case, you will find a link below with more info on how to make this at home in case you are interested 





Practical advice on the most common long term side effects:


If you are taste or smell is still different some ideas to deal with this are:

- Trying to eat little and often, because small portions can help to not trigger nausea or feel forced to eat which a psychological trigger, but at the same time is essential to have an intake of nutrients and continue the recovery process

- Separate the drinks and trying to keep them far from the meal again avoid nausea as a side effect 

- The texture of the food can help too, soft/semi-liquid food can be easier to mange in these circumstances 

- On the other side "training" your smell for the next few months will help to recover faster and the process is about choosing a few ingredients and smelling the same every day by focusing on this until the smell improves or returns to normal, this is a sort of "physiotherapy for your nose"


Now let's mention some of the food to avoid or reduce in this case:


- Refined grains because of the lack of nutrients and high carbohydrates and glycemic index value

- Sweetened products including beverages and ready made food

- High content of fat will make the amount of oxygen even lower and will not help with common side effects like fatigue and shortness of breath 


Here are some more links related to the above content:


https://www.safdietitian.com/2020/03/covid-19-recipes-dietetic-advice-and.html



https://www.safdietitian.com/2021/08/home-made-meal-replacement.html

Comments

  1. URBAN DIET16/05/2022, 07:54


    Wow, excellent post. I'd like to draft like this too - taking time and extremely hard work to make a great article. Visit Dietitian Near me. This post has inspired me to write some posts that I am going to write soon.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

What is the LOW GI (Glycemic index) and how to achieve this and a handy food list to use

-
Image
  GI stands for Glicemin Index  This is used to measure how a specific food intake is going to rise your blood sugar levels The point is that having a low GI or slow release carbs will help to keep this level low and avoid having peaks with your glucose and therefore the hormones produced by the body during a peak of sugar in your blood The benefits is not a simple weight loss, this plan has a wide range of positve aspects including: - Lower the cholseterol levels  - Reducing the risks of heart diseases - More energy during the day thanks to the slow release of it  - Reducing the risk of developing Diabetes, or keep that under control if already diagnosed Anything that has a GI level can be classified in: LOW GI - under 55 MEDIUM GI -  56-69 HIGH GI - over 70 I will provide a list of food for each of these levels, to have an idea of what to reduce and what to prefer, for any particular ingredient you can also check this trustable source: https://glycemicindex.com/ Things to consider: -
Read more

GL - Glycemic Load what is it, how to calculate this for each food and why can be more accurate than the GI - Glycemic Index

-
Image
Similar to the GI we can divide food based on GL that can be: LOW:  under 10 MEDIUM: 11-19 HIGH: over 20   In the previous post we discussed about the GI - Glicemic Index and you might have noticed that sometimes could be confusing and has some flows : - It doesn't consider a portion of that food , so is just giving a generic number to it and sometimes is not that accurate - An example is: watermelon which appears to have a high GI but is actually not becuase it reaches that level only with a very large portion  - GI is a good way to make quick food choices but GL is more accurate and is the next step for a better understanding on what kind of food choices to make - The preparation and other ingredients change the GI for example fibers or a longer cooking method will lower the GI level from the one you will see reported officially There are many tables you can find online basically for any kind of food and here some: http://dietdatabase.com/glycemic-index-and-glycemic-load
Read more

10 cal fruit jelly one of the snack lowest in sugar and calories, also suitable for vegetarian

-
One of the first snack alternative I usually discuss with patients is this one: The low sugar Jelly WHY? Suitable for vegetarian ,  which means is suitable for lot of different dietary choices that could be due to religion or ethic reasons, but I would recommend to always double check the label to confirm this. Flexible to mix with other products like yogurt or even ice cream , to still have something that you like but with a considerable reduced amount of sugars and calories Easy to transport as a snack when you are out to avoid a high in calories snacks from the shop  Doesn't require any preparation at all WHICH ONE TO CHOOSE: There are different brands let's see the differences: Hartley's 10 cal jelly: Calories: between 5 and 10 calories depending on the flavour Sugar: 0.1 gr Fat:  0.1 gr Protein: 0.1 gr Flavours:  - Lime - Mango - Orange - Blueberry - Cranberry - Raspberry - Strawberry - Waterm
Read more