Health Education

Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is a chronic autoimmune disease that cannot be cured by medicine or food, but can be controlled steadily with medications as well as good care. In addition to regular visits to the outpatient clinic, taking medications on schedule and self-care in daily life are the best guarantee for disease control.

Patients must have a balanced diet and adequate nutrition. In the market, some superstitious prescriptions that emphasize immunity enhancement, such as food supplement or herbal medicine (traditional Chinese medicine), are not suitable for consumption as blindly enhancing immunity may lead to more dysregulation of immune responses, which may be harmful to disease control.

Because SLE may involve the whole body's organs, resulting in organ dysfunction, it has become an important topic in nutrition care to correct the eating habits based on a balanced diet. The treatment of SLE is often steroid based, so the side effects may be alleviated by dietary adjustments.

How to ingest a balanced diet

There are a wide variety of foods. To achieve a balanced diet, you should eat foods from the six main food groups every day. The recommended daily intake is:

1. Our bodies need nutrients in food to stay alive. These nutrients are carbohydrates, fats, proteins, vitamins and minerals.
2. The energy of daily life comes from the calories produced by carbohydrates and fats.
3. Protein is the essential material for human growth, development and metabolism.
4. Vitamins and minerals can regulate physiological function.
5. Therefore, we need to eat sufficient foods from the six main food groups every day to ensure that carbohydrates, proteins, fats, vitamins and minerals are not in short supply to maintain our health.

The nutrient intake of SLE patients is as important as that of ordinary people. Balanced and sufficient nutrition is an important way to combat the disease. If you have a poor appetite due to discomfort, you can increase your intake by ingestion of several small meals a day to meet the basic nutritional needs, such as noodle soup, salty porridge, dumplings, wonton, juice, etc. A low intake will aggravate anorexia, weaken physical strength and worsen the condition. SLE is an autoimmune disease, not caused by diet, so it is not necessary to abstain from meat, as long as you eat a balanced diet with fresh food.

Dietary coordination for the used corticosteroids

Corticosteroids may cause side effects such as weight gain, increased blood sugar, osteoporosis, and hyperlipidemia. Please do not be alarmed. In addition to taking medication as prescribed, dietary modifications can be made to reduce symptoms and achieve disease control.

1) When you have lupus nephritis

• Lupus nephritis (LN) is a kidney syndrome characterized by the presence of glomerulonephritis with a large amount of protein loss from urine, resulting in proteinuria, hypoalbuminemia, hypercholesterolemia, and edema due to water retention.
• Moderate restriction of protein intake is required to delay or prevent further deterioration of renal function. Do not supplement an additional protein due to loss of protein in the urine. The main sources of protein are animal products, such as meat, milk, eggs, and plant-based foods, such as tofu, dried beans, soy milk, etc., among which the quality and utilization of animal protein is better. Starchy foods such as noodles, steamed buns, dried rice and rice porridge also contain a small amount of protein.
• In case of edema, low salt diet shall be adopted to avoid pickled, processed products, fast food, etc.; low sodium salt or thin salt soy sauce shall not be used. When cooking, onion, ginger, garlic, tomato, pineapple and lemon can be used to add food flavor and reduce salt consumption.
• Your daily caloric intake must be sufficient to ensure that a small amount of protein functions optimally. Low nitrogen starch (transparent after cooked) can be used to increase the calorie intake, such as stir-fried cellophane noodles, tapioca pancake, tapioca balls soup, lotus root starch and other foods.
• For strict vegetarians, in addition to the intake of vegetables and bean products, it is advised to switch to ovo-lacto vegetarianism, which can make the protein intake more complete and nutrition more balanced, but avoid excessive oil!
• Low protein snack recipe

• If your doctor tells you to limit your potassium intake, avoid foods high in potassium in your diet. Potassium is mainly found in vegetables and fruits.

2) Dietary restrictions to avoid overweight

Taking corticosteroids will redistribute fat deposition in the body, mainly concentrated on the face (so-called moon face), shoulders (so-called buffalo shoulder), waist and buttocks (so-called central obesity), and increase appetite, so it will often cause weight gain. Limit calories when you are overweight or want to avoid it.

1. Based on a balanced diet, avoid sweetness, alcohol and oil.
2. Maintain a long-term moderate, simple and feasible exercise, about 30 minutes each time, at least three times a week, with aerobic exercise recommended, such as fast walking, swimming, walking, etc.; and distinguish between exercise and physical labor.
3. Do not eat any high calorie and concentrated food, such as pastry, cakes, drinks, ice cream, etc.
4. Reduce cooking oil and avoid deep-fried and high-calorie nuts, such as peanuts, sunflower seeds, pistachios, etc.
5. In low oil cooking, steaming, boiling, roasting, stewing, marinating and cold mixing are used instead of deep-frying or frying.
6. Eat three meals a day without snacks, and develop a habit of chewing slowly.
7. Avoid soup thickeners, sugary drinks; food should be light and not too salty to avoid slowing down weight loss.

3) Osteoporosis

Preventive measures include calcium supplementation and increased weight bearing exercise.

1. Consume about 1,000 mg of calcium per day on a balanced diet.
2. A cup of 240cc milk has about 300 mg of calcium.
3. Proper weight bearing exercise such as walking and Taijiquan, can prevent osteoporosis.
4. Abstinence from tobacco and alcohol can inhibit bone loss.
5. Excessive coffee intake will cause a large amount of bone loss.
6. Foods rich in calcium include milk, beef, pork, dried fish, shrimp, clams, oysters, etc.

4) Hyperlipidemia

If your blood lipids are too high, please limit the intake of high cholesterol foods in your diet, such as animal viscera, crab roe, mullet roe, shrimp eggs, etc., with no more than two to three yolks per week.

1. Because soluble fiber can accelerate the excretion of cholic acid, reduce the synthesis of cholesterol, so we must increase the intake of dietary fiber, such as vegetables, fruits, barley, oats, etc.
2. An excessive intake of monosaccharides and sweets will cause the increase of triglyceride in blood. Therefore, the intake of sweets should be limited when the blood lipids are increased, such as refined sweets, drinks containing sucrose or fructose, all kinds of candies or cakes, canned fruits and other sugar products.
3. Control the intake of animal oil, eat less deep-fried, fried or crisp food, and chicken skin, pig skin, duck skin, goose skin, fish skin and other animal food skin.
4. Vegetable oil should be used for stir-fries instead of animal oil and reduce oil consumption during cooking.
5. Weight control can significantly reduce the triglyceride concentrations in the blood.
6. Adjust your lifestyle appropriately, such as quitting smoking, exercising, and adjusting to stress.

Anemia

Folic acid, vitamin B12, zinc and iron are absolutely necessary nutrients for the treatment of various anemia.

Nutrient-rich foods:

High-iron foods