11

CHAPTER

183

Nutritional Support

Therapies

You probably ignored your mom when she told you to eat your veggies so you

can grow big and strong. Yet today you’re probably eating more nutritional

foods—foods you wouldn’t touch when you were a kid—because you’ve learned

that healthy foods provide the balanced nutrition needed to fend off diseases.

You might wonder how a chapter on nutrition slipped into a book on phar-

macology. Nutrients are given to patients who are at risk for malnutrition caused

by disease and caused by treatments given to cure diseases. Nutrients are also

given to strengthen the patient following a trauma such as surgery.

In this chapter, you’ll learn about nutritional support therapies, how to pre-

pare them, how to administer them, and how to avoid any complications that

might arise.

Nutrition

Nutrition is a three-step process that gives the body materials needed to make

the body grow and function. The process begins when food is ingested. Chemical

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