Nutrition is an integral part of disease management

EPF has published a new factsheet on clinical nutrition guidelines and information about food to patients. The factsheet builds on EPF’s long-standing work on raising awareness of the role of nutrition and diet in preventing and managing long-term conditions, and maintaining optimal health and quality of life.

The EPF factsheet details the importance of good quality food and medical nutrition to patients. In the interest of better prevention, and in the face of Europe’s growing burden of chronic disease, EPF considers better public awareness on these issues essential, and promotes improving related policies and practices.

However, for many patients, maintaining a good nutritional status is not possible through healthy eating habits only. For example, some patients may need to supplement or replace food with medical nutrition following swallowing problems.

To this end, the EPF factsheet details that it is of utmost importance that healthcare professionals use evidence-based guidelines when selecting the most appropriate method of nutritional support, and that patients are involved in designing these.

EPF supports this patient involvement through its collaboration with ESPEN, European Society for Clinical Nutrition and Metabolism. The EPF-ESPEN collaboration started in 2018, and it oversees the development of clinical nutrition guidelines and lay summaries in 14 disease and care areas, with the help of patients.

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