A comprehensive approach to nutrition in cystic fibrosis

The newest branches of human nutrition science study the potential impact of nutrition on the health and functioning of the human body: nutrigenomics and nutrigenetics. In general, we can say that proper nutrition significantly improves the prognosis of a CF patient, especially because it delays the onset of pulmonary complications. Conversely, malnutrition accelerates the time of infection and chronic colonization of Staphylococcus aureus.

With this disease, the patient needs to eat as often as possible and consume as many calories and fat-soluble vitamins as possible: A, D, E, F, K (these groups of vitamins are poorly absorbed by patients, so the dose of their consumption must be increased).

All these necessary vitamins are contained in the following products:

1. Animal origin:

• dairy;
• yolk;
• liver;
• caviar;
• butter;
• fish and fish oil (especially marine: salmon, squid, mackerel, sardines, eel, mackerel, tuna, trout, also useful: herring, zander);
• meat (especially pork, beef, lamb).

2. Plant origin:

• vegetables (carrots, sweet and hot peppers, any cabbage, tomatoes, cucumbers, pumpkin);
• greens (parsley, dill, lettuce, garlic, greens and onions, nettles, celery, sorrel, rhubarb, spinach);
• fruits and berries (bananas, apples, pears, mountain ash, apricots, peaches, melons, persimmons, sea buckthorn, viburnum, currants, avocados);
• mushrooms;
• oils: corn, sunflower, olive, nut, soybean, pumpkin, walnut, linseed;
• dried fruits: dried apricots, prunes, raisins;
• seeds, nuts (peanuts, walnuts, pistachios, cashews, hazelnuts, almonds), sesame;
• cereals: wheat, oat, buckwheat, barley;
• sprouted wheat;
• salt (to fill the lost, especially with the “salty child” syndrome).

To avoid constipation, it is necessary to drink a lot of liquid (at least 2 liters of water per day, except for juices, compotes, decoctions).