Dietetics is the science of special nutrition for humans. Dietetics as a science deals with the study, observation and substantiation of the principles of nutrition for all kinds of pathological conditions that can be corrected or changed with the help of certain nutritional rules. The study of the nutritional characteristics of relatively healthy people is the subject of such a branch of dietetics as food hygiene.
The Development of Dietetics
In times past, the science of health was called dietetics; at the beginning of the 19th century, science narrowed down to the topic of rational nutrition and from the beginning of the last century acquired the features of modern dietetics. Dietetics today is studying diet therapy, or nutritional correction therapy.
Fundamentals of Dietetics
Since the last century, the theory of good nutrition has been known as dietetics. She is engaged in the scientific justification of dietary therapy, or nutrition to get rid of disease. The practical part of the science of diet therapy is diet cooking , which substantiates the requirements of diet therapy for the features of heat treatment of products or its absence in order to correct health in various pathologies.
The history of dietetics
The first known doctors of the ancient world, such as Hippocrates and Asclepiades, paid great attention to the selection of the right food products depending on various diseases . It is Asklepiad who is considered the founder of dietetics as a science, which, in his opinion, is ahead of all the pharmacology of that time. He elaborated in detail recommendations for the therapeutic use of effective food components for the treatment of various pathologies.
With the fall in the rating of Roman and Greek culture, there was a fall in the culture of food; receded into the background and treatment with diet.
A new wave of the revival of dietetics
One of the founders of clinical medicine, the Englishman Thomas Sydenham , in the 17th century developed the theory of diet treatment, while urging not to get carried away with medicinal products, but to give preference to properly prepared food. He paid particular attention to the development of dietary nutrition for obesity and gout. The development of dietetics has gained wide scope since the end of the 18th century. A huge contribution to its development, especially in the second half of the 19th century, was made by the children’s doctor Nikolai Lunin, as well as the biochemist Funk , physiologist Gustav Bunge . In their research and development of dietary nutrition, they were helped by the discovery of vitamins, trace elements and minerals in the composition of foods. Much credit goes to the research activities of Leiden, Klemperer , Norden. Their works have significantly enriched and advanced the modern nutritional science of correct, rational and therapeutic nutrition.
Modern dietetics
A huge contribution to dietetic science was made by domestic scientists, thanks to whom dietetics in many respects has the form we know. The father of modern nutritional physiology can be called the Russian physiologist Pashutin, clinicians Botkin, Ostroumov, Zakharyin and many others. These scientists viewed diet as an integral component of comprehensive therapy.
The research of the naturalist – physiologist Pavlov can be considered the most important milestone in modern dietetics. The main pillars of modern dietetics were his fundamental studies of the conditioned – reflex conditions of the digestive system. On the basis of an experimental study of the activity of the glands of the digestive system, many principles of modern dietetics as a science have been established.
Foundations of Scientific Dietetics Dietetics was established
on a serious scientific basis in the first decades of the last century. Clinics for therapeutic and dietetic nutrition were established , and the achievements of dietetics were introduced in resort and medical institutions. Whole institutes of therapeutic nutrition were created in the big cities of the Soviet Union.
Mikhail Isaakovich Pevzner developed nutritional methods for all major groups of diseases. Subsequently, after further development and improvement, its developments have been successfully applied in the therapeutic practice of different countries of the world.
Basic principles of dietetics
The basic set of food products of a person has a serious impact on all basic functions of the body. Nutrition can both saturate with energy and strength, and take it away. Changing the diet entails a serious restructuring of the whole organism. A properly selected diet directs its impact not only on the affected organs, but also affects the entire body as an integral system. In the arsenal of modern dietetics there are all the progressive achievements of medicine, human physiology, biochemistry, which, together with the developments of dietetic science, make up a successful medical complex.
The main methodological direction of dietetics
Dietetics arose on the basis of experimental experiments on animals, as well as clinical observations of people. It is based on dynamic observation of clinical conditions and experiments on animals, it is a very lively and mobile branch of medicine.
Nutritional problems It is
not always easy to compose a perfect therapeutic diet, taking into account a balanced diet and the peculiarities of pathology. There are difficulties of an individual nature: it is difficult to determine how long a person has been eating monotonous products of little use, how strictly it is possible to control the implementation of recommendations. It is also difficult to avoid one-sided types of nutrition in various pathological conditions, to take into account the peculiarities of diets in complex cases of treatment with rays and chemotherapy.
Selection of a diet in combination with antibiotic treatment, endocrinology drugs; selection taking into account the motor regime of each patient. An important subject of the study of dietetics is the scientific substantiation of the feasibility and admissibility of complete rejection of food as a therapeutic measure. To the general problems of dietetics is added the problem of food allergy in the formulation of diets and attempts with their help to overcome allergic manifestations to food.
Methods and principles of dietetics as a science of therapeutic nutrition are widely used in modern medical practice. Medical, spa and sanatorium institutions use the methods developed by nutritionists as an integral way to achieve a therapeutic effect. When listing treatment recommendations, the attending physician must indicate the recommended food and those products that should be discarded during treatment. Dietsester positions and physicians – nutritionists are mandatory and medical, sanatorium – resort and schools.