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When a person is wounded or injured (including recovery from surgical procedures), the body has conditional increases in nutrients to facilitate proper and rapid healing.
You can help your doctor do a better job by following this simple advice:
1) Drink extra water. Add a large glass as soon as you wake up in the morning, before lunch, and before dinner.
2) Eat a high-protein diet. Have at least three servings a day of foods such as fish, chicken, turkey, and low or nonfat dairy. Beef and pork are also good
sources of protein but tends to be high in fat: therefore, use them in moderation. You can also acquire extra protein in your diet by using protein powder to make shakes and
smoothies. This is especially recommended if you are a vegetarian. Use 25-40gm of protein per drink.
3) Take a multivitamin, multimineral formula that provides you with at least 100% of RDA for all vitamins and minerals. Read labels carefully. If you use
one-pill-a-day formula, you will probably need to take additional calcium and magnesium. Other formulas require that you take three or more pills a day to achieve amounts
listed on the label. Make sure to take your vitamins with food for maximum absorption.
4) Take extra vitamin C. During your recovery, multiply your body weight by 10 and then round to the nearest 100 to find out how many milligrams of vitamin
C you need per day. For example, 152 pounds x 10 = 1520, rounded to the nearest hundred = 1500 mg per day.
5) Do your best to stay away from junk food. Eating less junk food is always good to do but is especially important when you are recovering. Foods like soda,
chips, candy, cake pies, doughnuts, and cookies are low in quality sources of calories. If you have a sweet tooth, try snacking on fresh fruit or sports bars
such as Clif, Power, Balance, or Met-Rx. Ice cream lovers are advised to eat low or nonfat yogurt instead.
6) If you are on a weight-loss diet, put it on hold until you feel better. Increase the number of calories you eat to a level where you maintain your current
weight. Trying to lose weight and recover at the same time will slow down the healing process. This, in turn, will inhibit your weight-loss goals by extending
the time you are unable to exercise at times and intensities required to burn body fat.
7) When you are better:
• Continue to drink plenty of water.
• Reduce your protein back to two servings a day unless you are involved in heavy athletics.
• Try to maintain healthy snacking habits.
• If you are on a weight-loss program, resume it.
• Continue using a good multivitamin-multimineral supplement.
• Reduce your vitamin C intake to 500 mg per day.
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