Charlie Smigelski is a Registered Dietitian at Harvard University. He is also affiliated with the Boston University School of Public Health and has been involved in the Framingham Heart Study and other research projects for more than 10 years. With several other Boston area dietitians, he runs the HIV Nutrition Coalition, a nutrition education group serving both medical professionals and the public.
He is also a dietitian at The Fenway Community Health Center in Boston, one of the city's primary care sites for people with HIV and AIDS, and co-edits the Nutrition for Healthy Living (HIV Nutrition) Newsletter published by Tufts University School of Medicine.
How to order Eat Up!:
The short answer is: Contact Charlie directly by E-mail. Evem though we have ".com" in our URL, Jennifer Jensen's Nutrition Power is not a commercial web site and we do not have anything to sell. Hence, no on-line ordering capability. HOWEVER, because we think Charlie's workbook Eat Up! is such a wonderfully useful tool, we are making you aware of its availability and telling you how to get it. The cost is $12.00US and checks should be made out to Charlie Smigelski. The $12.00 includes the cost of postage to send it to you. But to find out more, including where to send your check, E-mail Charlie.
The Changing Picture of Nutrition
Care in HIV Infection
Chart: Range of Nutritional Care in HIV Disease
Nutritional Status Questionnaire
The Most Important Nutritional Advice
Weight Loss Patterns in People with HIV
Chart: Tracking Your Weight
Getting Started: Improve How You Eat
Diagram: Food Guide Pyramid
What the Food Guide Pyramid Means
#1 Day of Healthy Eating (Menu)
#2 Day of Healthy Eating (Menu)
Vitamin and Mineral Supplements
Antioxidants
More Nutrition Supplements to Know About
Eat Lots of Protein to Help Your Body Fight Infections
A Personal Eating Plan
Food Safety: Preventing Food Poisoning
Special Eating Problems for HIV Disease "Feed a Fever" Eating to Regain Lost Weight High-Caloric, Easy Foods
Eating Hints for Sore Mouth and Throat
Some Good-Tasting, Soft, Thick Food Combinations
Eating Hints for Nausea and Vomiting
Munch Your Way All Day Through This List of Snacks
Managing Loose Bowels Food Hints for People with Diarrhea Reducing the Fat in Your Favorite Foods Managing Severe Diarrhea The Steps to More Solid Foods
#1 Food Plan for Nausea and Diarrhea
#2 Food Plan for Nausea and Diarrhea
Rice, Rice, and More Rice
Eating When Fatigued
Quick, Easy Food Ideas
Shopping List
Supplements You Should Know About
When Your Intestines Can't Tolerate Much at All Tube Feedings and Intravenous Feedings
When Friends Offer to Cook
Why You Can't Afford to Skip Exercise
A Personal Strategy for Sick Days Calculate Your Calorie Needs
If You Are Helping Shop & Cook for Someone with HIV
This workbook is designed to teach you about caring for your nutritional needs when you have HIV disease.
Your doctor and nurse are busy worrying about fevers and infections and medications - so you need to be the one looking after your nutritional health.
Books about "good nutrition" do not deal directly with the nutrition problems that accompany infection with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV).
Also, nutritional counseling is a service rarely covered by insurance companies, so few people are able to receive personal diet instructions. Ask your doctor for information about dietitians in your area.
This workbook can provide you with the nutritional information that can help you feel stronger and healthier, and live longer.
HIV nutritionists recommend that you eat enough calories to maintain your weight and eat enough protein to prevent the muscle loss that frequently occurs during HIV infection.
Following a plan of good eating is an important part of how you can fight NIV and keep your immune system vigorous.
This book provides information on the three most important things that you can do to fight the HIV virus every day.
Take vitamin and mineral supplements to stay healthy longer. How much is enough? (See page 18.)
Eat extra calories to fuel your immune system. How much is enough? (See page 28.)
Eat extra protein to fight the virus and prevent muscle wasting. How much is enough? (See page 22.)
Information in this book also focuses on how to eat when you don't feel well, but still want to nourish yourself.
Sample Page 4
The Link Between Nutrition and Immunity
Nutrition involves eating foodstuffs essential to body functions.
The body must obtain nutrients through food or from supplements because it cannot manufacture these crucial elements itself. If low on nutrients, the body's systems slow down and may stop altogether.
The human immune system requires a number of nutrients to keep it healthy and vigorous.
This nutrition workbook is designed to teach you about the nutrients you need, and help you choose the food and supplements your immune system needs to do what it is trying to do. HIV researchers have established that nutritional deficiencies weaken the immune system and affect health status. So, nutrition information and counseling may provide the key to improving your health, particularly if you are taking testosterone or growth hormone.
Why worry about nutrition and HIV?
Being well nourished helps you feel better and helps your body operate at its best. Good nutrition helps a body fight disease. As you know, HIV slowly destroys the immune system so that it cannot fight infections as well. When people go through long periods of eating poorly, they become malnourished. Malnutrition can cause even greater lowering of immune function. What happens looks like this:
Sample Page 58
Symptom Reduction Series Tirediness, Fatigue, No Energy
Nutritional remedies to common problems associated with HIV effectively reduce symptoms for certain conditions. Information from other parts of this workbook are reassembled under specific topics so that they can be readily available as quick reference sheets.
Have your doctor check for anemia. This means having low levels of red blood cells, low hematocrit, or too little iron in your blood cefl system.
Be sure you are eating enough calories. Not getting enough to eat can leave you tired. You need to eat 17-20 calories for every pound you weigh to maintain your current weight. Use the higher number if you are physically very active and/or know from special testing that your resting energy expenditure is high or if you are fighting an infection. For example, 140 lb. x 20 calories = 2800 calories, therefore a 140 lb. person needs to eat at least 2800 calories per day to maintain their weight. Review your eating pattern with a registered dietitian, nurse, or physician. They can help you evaluate your food intake and teach you how to select nutrient-dense foods.
Be sure you are eating enough protein. Chicken, turkey, eggs, cheese, red meats, peanuts, kidney beans, black-eyed peas, lentils, cottage cheese, and tofu are protein foods. Refer to the protein food list on page 22. HIV+ people especially need to eat a minimum of three servings of protein foods daily to keep their body in good repair and maintain optimum strength. Drinking milk is an easy way to increase your protein intake.
Start taking two kinds of vitamins every day, B-complex 25 and Co-Enzyme QIO. B complex 25 is a vitamin pill that contains 25 milligrams of vitamin BI, B2, B3, etc. Also, Co-Enzyme Q IO, which is packaged in 60 or 100 mg, may boost your energy. Refer to page 20 for more information about Co-Enzyrne Q IO.
Another vitamin supplement that may boost your energy, especially if you have been taking AZT or D4T, is L-Carnitine, 2000 mg daily. Persons taking AZT who are experiencing muscle pain sometimes find that L-Carnitine provides relief. For this problem, only take it for one month. Also, L-Carnitine may reduce triglycerides.
Refer to page 20 for more information about L-Carnitine. This is available in health food stores, but your doctor can also write a prescription for it in the form of Carnitor if your insurance will cover it.
Charlie Smigelski is a Registered Dietitian at Harvard University. He is also affiliated with the Boston University School of Public Health and has been involved in the Framingham Heart Study and other research projects for more than 10 years. With several other Boston area dietitians, he runs the HIV Nutrition Coalition, a nutrition education group serving both medical professionals
and the public.
He is also a dietitian at The Fenway Community Health Center in Boston, one of the city's primary care sites for people with HIV and AIDS, and co-edits the Nutrition for Healthy Living (HIV Nutrition) Newsletter published by Tufts University School of Medicine.
