Clinical nutrition focuses on the prevention, diagnosis and management of nutritional changes in patients related to chronic diseases and conditions, primarily in healthcare.
Clinical nutrition
can be defined as the study and general analysis of the relationship between food eaten and the general well-being of the human body. Nutritionists are responsible for evaluating all patients' nutrients and, more specifically, how these nutrients are digested, transported, absorbed, stored, metabolized and utilized before and after they are excreted as human waste. Clinical nutrition deals with the diagnosis and treatment of diseases that affect the intake, absorption and metabolism of dietary components and health promotion through the prevention of diet-related diseases.In addition, clinical nutrition aims to maintain a healthy energy balance, while providing sufficient amounts of nutrients such as proteins, vitamins and minerals to patients. However, despite the prevalence of nutritional disorders in clinical medicine and the growing scientific evidence on the importance of dietary modification for disease prevention, today's medical professionals are not trained in the relationship of diet to health and disease. Medical nutrition therapy (MNT) is the use of specific nutrition services to treat an illness, injury, or condition. Clinical nutritional diseases in adults encompass the most common causes of mortality in the developed world and include obesity with its comorbidities of hypertension, diabetes, dyslipidemias, increased risk of cardiovascular disease, some types of cancer and lung failure; intestinal disorders related to nutrient absorption, eating disorders and malnutrition associated with chronic diseases and surgical trauma.
Clinic in this sense refers to the management of patients, including not only outpatients in clinics and in private practice, but also patients hospitalized in hospitals.
