Take care of your diet to manage HIV infection

Proper nutrition is an important component if one is to lead a healthy lifestyle. It reduces the risk of contracting disease and promotes overall health.

Unhealthy eating habits are associated with many health risks that result in maladies and in some, unfortunate, cases even death. They increase the body’s vulnerability to infection by weakening the immune system and reducing its ability to fight infections. Proper nutrition is especially critical for persons living with The Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV).

Malnutrition hastens progression of HIV infection and malnourished people tend to experience frequent severe infections with a longer treatment period compared to better-nourished individuals.

HIV infection progressively destroys the immune system causing recurrent episodes of opportunistic infections. At the same time, HIV infection increases the risk of undernutrition by increasing a person’s nutritional needs, reducing food intake, and impairing nutrient absorption and utilisation through metabolic changes. An adequate, well-balanced diet that contains foods from all food groups can break this vicious cycle, improve health, and delay the progression of HIV. Good nutrition helps people living with HIV improve and maintain their nutritional status. It also strengthens their immune system, better manages opportunistic infections, and improves effectiveness of anti-retroviral therapy and other medicines.

Opportunistic infection

HIV and other infections increase the body’s energy needs depending on how severe the infection is. Energy needs for people living with HIV increase with the disease’s progression, especially during episodes of opportunistic infections. Age, physiological changes like pregnancy, level of physical activity, and an individual’s clinical state of health are all factors that affect the nutritional needs of a person living with HIV. Inadequate nutrient and energy intake will result in malnutrition, weight loss, and muscle wasting.

In order to meet their daily nutrient and energy requirements, people living with HIV should consume balanced and diversified diets with adequate intake of both micro and macro nutrients. This can be achieved through various approaches like adoption of food preparation methods which could involve precooking, soaking, sprouting, and fermentation, especially of legumes that greatly improve the nutrient value, digestibility, and bioavailability of nutrients in foods.

People living with HIV do not necessarily require a special diet. Due to increased energy requirements, however, they should ensure intake of the three main meals—breakfast, lunch and dinner. They should also eat at least two snacks that are energy and nutrient dense in between meals to cater for the increased energy requirements. The body gets energy from the food we eat and skipping meals means the body lacks sufficient energy to perform its normal functions or even cope with the effects of the infection. This essentially also means that the immune system will not get the much-needed boost to fight off infections. Skipping meals can have a detrimental effect on the health of a person living with HIV. Inadequate food intake leads to weight loss which is an independent risk factor for Aids-related mortality.

Unlikely danger

Even if it might seem odd, there is a rise of obesity cases among HIV-infected individuals globally. Closer home, a survey titled “Nutrition and HIV Survey”, commissioned by various organisations, including Kemri, MOH, Nascop and WFP, confirms this rise in Kenya. Obesity is a risk factor for many non-communicable illnesses such as diabetes, hypertension, and cardiovascular diseases. To avoid multiple disease burdens, people living with HIV should adopt a healthier lifestyle by eating right, engaging in physical activity; avoiding alcohol, smoking, and other recreational drugs.

HIV infection is not a death sentence. With the appropriate treatment, regular clinical follow-up and adoption of a healthy lifestyle, one can live a long, comfortable life.