Dietetics: Treatment, Effect & Risks

Originally called dietetics all measures to cure and maintain health, today the term includes the advice or care of people with regard to their diet, whereby certain diseases are to be cured.

What is dietetics?

The term dietetics includes all nutritional therapeutic measures that aim to prevent or treat diseases. The term dietetics includes all nutritional therapeutic measures that pursue the goal of preventing or treating diseases. In this context, dietetics is mainly concerned with the correct diet for various diseases such as anorexia, diabetes mellitus or obesity, but also with nutrition in special life situations such as during pregnancy. The term dietetics can be traced back to the Hippocratic tradition, where, in addition to a healthy diet, a regular life or sufficient physical activity was required. In the Roman imperial period, Galenus took up this approach again. In doing so, he summarized six things that were particularly important:

  • Stimulation of the mind
  • Excretions and secretions
  • Sleep and waking
  • Rest and work
  • Food and drink
  • Air and light

Treatments and therapies

Also at the time of the Renaissance appeared many guidebooks that dealt with the healthy lifestyle. This teaching then experienced another high at the beginning of the 19th century, where, for example, Christoph Wilhelm Hufeland or Bernhard Christoph Faust dealt intensively with nutritional issues. In the 20th century, completely new concepts emerged, such as the Bircher-Benner diet of Maximillian Oskar Bircher-Benner or the wholefood diet of Werner Kollath. Various diseases require adherence to a special diet plan. Depending on the illness, dieticians or dietologists then put together a specific dietary diet that is precisely tailored to the patient’s needs. The aim of dietetics or nutrition therapy is to change eating behavior. Ingredients can either be omitted or increased in intake. For example, a higher intake of fruits and vegetables is often necessary, whereas certain foods may not be included in the case of allergies. The nutritional therapist deals with the patients and their illnesses individually and takes into account the nutritional behavior as well as their personal situation. In this context, dietetics is applied to the following diseases:

  • Gastrointestinal diseases
  • Malnutrition
  • Rheumatism
  • Gout
  • Liver and kidney diseases
  • Food intolerances and allergies
  • Osteoporosis
  • Hypertension
  • Dyslipidemia
  • Diabetes mellitus type 2
  • Eating disorders such as bulimia or anorexia
  • Underweight or overweight

For example, people suffering from elevated hypertension can lower their blood pressure by losing weight. In the case of gout disease, a low-purine diet can help, while increased fiber intake reduces the risk of colon cancer. A special diet is also recommended during pregnancy or breastfeeding, and the same applies to athletes or the elderly. To prevent or cure diseases, patients can choose from a number of nutritional teachings in this regard:

  • Whole food diet (prefers mainly unprocessed and fresh foods).
  • Vegetarianism (consumed only plant foods and foods from live animals).
  • Veganism (renounces all foods of animal origin).
  • Raw food (consumed mainly unheated and fresh foods).
  • Macrobiotics (a lifestyle that should lead to a long and healthy life).
  • Food separation diet (preference is given to carbohydrate and protein foods).
  • Chinese dietetics (here you qualify food according to temperature behavior and flavors).
  • Ayurveda (special dietary recommendations for individual dosha types).

Diagnosis and examination methods

Dietetics or nutritional therapy is offered either as an outpatient or inpatient.Thus, there are special practices in which corresponding experts are active, but it is also used in hospitals as a therapeutic measure. Nutrition therapy always begins with the client’s medical history, whereby a distinction is made here between a cognitive counseling approach and a client-centered approach. The cognitive approach was considered the approach of choice for a very long time. The latter assumed that it would be sufficient to educate patients about the possible negative consequences of malnutrition in order to raise awareness for a healthier lifestyle. In this context, content was mainly conveyed in the form of a lecture, but little attention was paid to the affective and sensorimotor levels. Eventually, however, there was a shift to the so-called client-centered approach to counseling, in which the therapist also focuses primarily on the patient’s wishes. Here, in addition to counseling, the focus is also on practical exercises, which means that clients also have the opportunity, for example, to weigh food or prepare menus. There is no prescribed solution, but the patient takes the main part of the conversation himself. It is also important to take the patient’s nutritional history, which reflects his or her eating habits. In this way it is possible to precisely formulate the problem or the goal. With the help of the therapist, various proposed solutions can then be worked out, but the patient must ultimately decide on a path. In this way, the client is not pushed in one direction, but his or her concerns can be addressed individually. The corresponding diets pursue the goal of curing the disease or delaying the onset of disease. Especially in the case of chronic diseases, a healthy diet can support the body’s self-healing powers. Absolutely necessary are special diets for disease patterns that can be influenced by diet, including, for example, elevated cholesterol or diabetes.