Do shiitake mushrooms have certain anti HIV effects? How to Eat for HIV Infected Patients

What should be paid attention to in dietary health care for HIV infection? AIDS virus infected people and patients should actively carry out nutritional support while conducting drug treatment. The main purpose of nutritional support is to promote protein synthesis in the body, provide necessary nutrition for the recovery of human immune function, store energy, and maintain the function of human organ. In a sense, nutritional support plays an auxiliary role in drug treatment to improve the quality of life of AIDS infected people and patients.

Focusing on a high protein and calorie diet

Usually, people infected with AIDS virus and patients will have increased protein consumption, decreased intestinal absorption capacity, weight loss and other phenomena due to physical changes. In addition, taking medication can also affect the patient's hematopoietic function. In response to these characteristics, patients and infected individuals should prioritize high protein and high calorie foods in their diet, following the principles of diversity, small amounts, and balance. The beneficial high protein foods include shrimp, such as marine fish, shrimp, cuttlefish, shellfish, crab and other poultry, such as chicken, pigeon meat, rabbit meat, milk and dairy products, such as high-quality cheese and eggs, such as eggs, duck eggs, beans, such as bean curd, soybean milk and other meat products. A high protein diet will increase the burden on the kidneys. If you feel unwell, please contact your doctor and dietitian to adjust your diet appropriately.

Pay attention to supplementing vitamins and minerals

You should eat more fresh fruits and vegetables, especially spinach, mustard, sweet potatoes, pumpkins, carrots, and other rich carotenoids (green peppers, oranges, cauliflower, spinach, etc.), vitamin E (grains, pine nuts, happy fruits, almonds, etc.). Try not to eat high fat foods and avoid sweets. There is currently no conclusive evidence that foods with special effects can prevent or reduce HIV infection, but some foods can enhance patients' immunity and reduce complications. Scientists have found in experiments that vitamin C and glutathione can inhibit HIV, with glutathione inhibiting the virus by up to 90%. The relatively low content of glutathione in infected individuals suggests that glutathione may help inhibit virus replication. Glutathione is present in many foods, including asparagus and watermelon, which are high in content. Fresh grapes, oranges, strawberries, peaches, pumpkins, cauliflower, etc. also contain glutathione. It should be pointed out that the content of glutathione in canned and processed food is only 1/8 of that in fresh food. In addition, heating, grinding, or juicing the aforementioned foods can also result in a loss of some glutathione. Mushrooms can also enhance immune function. According to the experimental results in Japan, shiitake mushrooms have certain anti HIV effects.