Follow These 6 Easy yet Effective Dietary Tips to Combat Tuberculosis

Tuberculosis (TB) is one of the leading health concerns affecting millions of individuals worldwide. It’s an infectious respiratory disease that deteriorates your health badly. As per WHO, about 25, 90,000 million cases of TB were estimated to occur in India in 2021. This respiratory infection occurs due to bacteria known as Mycobacterium tuberculosis. The bacterial infection affects the lungs primarily and other body parts as well. In several cases, where the patient does not experience any symptoms, the condition is called latent tuberculosis. When people suffer from all the symptoms of TB, it’s called active tuberculosis infection. People of all age groups can suffer from this respiratory infection. Long-term treatment is essential for tuberculosis patients. In this phase, the patient needs to boost his immunity and restore his energy and strength with the right nutrition. Malnutrition elevates the risk of catching this infection and its relapse. So, it is very important to care for your immunity to battle this disease. For this purpose, World Tuberculosis Day is observed on 24^th March every year. It aims to spread awareness about this global health issue of tuberculosis and make the best efforts to eliminate it. The theme of World Tuberculosis Day 2023 is “Yes! We can end TB!”. It aims to inspire, hope, and encourage efforts to curb the spread of the disease. Healthy dietary modifications can help strengthen your immune system and promote recovery from tuberculosis effectively. You need to monitor your nutritional intake closely.

A healthy dose of minerals, vitamins, proteins, and other nutrients in your diet can help you regain your strength, health, and stamina smoothly while recovering from TB. Consulting certified nutritionists and dieticians can help you have a diet plan high in calories, proteins, vitamins, and minerals. So, you might be wondering which dietary modifications can help you battle tuberculosis by boosting your immunity and strength, aren’t you? Discover everything about nutritional dietary measures for combating tuberculosis below.

6 Dietary Measures for Speedy Recovery of TB Patients

Here are dietary measures that can help people battling tuberculosis heal smoothly.

1. Savour High-Energy Foods

Eating high-energy foods signifies eating nutritious foods providing energy and nutrients. It focuses on eating fresh fruits, vegetables, protein food sources, nuts, seeds, eggs, and other nutrient-dense foods. These foods boost your energy levels while supplying you with a healthy dose of nutrients. Avoid eating foods offering empty calories, such as pizza, burgers, fries, and carbonated drinks. You may have oatmeal with seeds, daal, sprouts, vegetables, ragi porridge, dal khichri with ghee, and fruits with peanut butter.

2. Relish Protein Food Sources

You may feel quite weak and lethargic when down with TB. The intake of foods high in proteins helps promote the smooth recovery of TB patients. Non-vegetarians can eat fish, chicken, lean meat, and eggs. You may have a whole egg. Also, eating 3-4 pieces of chicken or a good portion of fish once in a while is safe and beneficial.

If you are a vegetarian, make sure that you eat a variety of pulses every week. Consume a couple of bowls of daal daily in your meals. Also, you can devour sprouts and beans. Milk and milk products, such as curd and paneer, can also help you have a healthy dose of proteins.

Add only 1 protein-abundant food to your meal. For instance, if you eat an egg for your breakfast, have a small bowl of curd or a glass of buttermilk in the midmorning, have fish at lunch, eat sprouts as evening snacks, and have a small bowl of daal at dinner.

3. Choose Healthy Carbohydrates

When trying to overcome this serious respiratory infection, you need to ensure that your diet comprises healthy carbohydrates. A person may lose a lot of weight when down with tuberculosis. 50% to 60% of your daily energy should come from carbohydrates. For this purpose, choose whole grain cereals in your daily diet. Whole grain cereals are abundant in fibre and micronutrients. You may include whole wheat flour preparations, brown rice, dalia, suji, quinoa, oats, beets, and oranges. These carbohydrate-rich foods help you gain a healthy weight and also nourish your body with essential nutrients.

4. Go for Healthy Fats

Healthy fats are rich in omega-3 fatty acids and they help tuberculosis patients in several ways. Here are various ways healthy fats help TB patients:

• Aids in the better absorption of fat-soluble vitamins
• Improves the calorie value of your daily diet.
• Improves your appetite
• Supplies you with omega-3 fatty acids

This does not allow you to eat fried foods. Avoid colourless vegetable refiled oil. Also, avoid foods containing hydrogenated fats, such as ready-to-eat foods. Also, make sure you avoid eating foods containing trans fats and saturated fats.

Instead, choose to eat foods containing unsaturated fats. You may include olive oil and virgin coconut oil in your diet in place of margarine and butter. Also, you can add a teaspoon of ghee to both meals. Besides these, you may snack on a handful of soaked nuts and seeds daily.

5. Fill Up on Vitamins

Micronutrients, which include a variety of vitamins, play a vital role in strengthening your immune system. Vitamins A, D, E, and C are crucial for boosting your immunity while battling tuberculosis. Vitamins A, E, and C also act as antioxidants and neutralize free radicals. This helps safeguard you from oxidative stress and chronic health conditions. Vitamin D plays a crucial role in improving your immunity. If you are unable to receive sufficient vitamin D from your dietary food sources, your dietician might recommend multivitamin supplements to ensure adequate intake of vitamins while combating tuberculosis. Foods that are abundant in various vitamins include carrots, sweet lime, guava, orange, soy, papaya, nuts, and mushrooms. So, enrich your diet with these nutritious foods when trying to beat tuberculosis.

6. Ensure Intake of Ample Minerals

Minerals, such as iron, zinc, calcium, selenium, and potassium, play a pivotal role in the recovery from tuberculosis. So, along with vitamins, you need these minerals daily for healing. Have plenty of carrots, beetroots, pomegranates, and oranges in your diet. You can also have banana, mango, and Jamun. Make it a habit to eat two fresh fruits every day. All these fruits ensure you receive adequate minerals daily and experience a speedy recovery.

Simple Helpful Diet Tips to Follow when Battling Tuberculosis

• Have ample water daily to stay hydrated.
• Have small nutritious meals frequently instead of two heavy meals.
• Enrich your major meals with one energy-dense food. For instance, have nuts in breakfast and ghee in both meals.
• Avoid eating oily, greasy foods.
• Have all doctor’s prescribed medicines daily on time. Complete your course of medication.
• Say no to alcohol and smoking. Don’t go for tobacco.
• Go for a herbal tea or green tea.
• Avoid ultra-processed foods. Also, avoid foods containing trans fats and excess added sugar.
• Don’t drink carbonated drinks.

So, if you or your near and dear ones are battling tuberculosis, follow these healthy dietary measures to experience a speedy recovery. Let’s spread the word this World Tuberculosis Day to help maximum TB patients experience improved immunity and heal effectively. Consulting certified dieticians and nutritionists, such as health experts at Health Total, can help you receive a personalized diet. Our diet plan will help strengthen your immune system, nourish you with all essential nutrients, improve your weight, increase your energy, and lower or prevent potential health risks. So, be quick, get in touch with us, and heal smoothly by nourishing your body with all essential nutrients with our customized diet plan.

Sign up for a FREE consultation with Health Total experts to get more tips for improving your immunity, respiratory health, and recovery from TB with the right dietary measures or managing any other health condition. Call toll-free at  1-800-833-171709 and Book Free Consultation!