Journal of the American College of Nutrition, Vol. 17, No. 4, 400 (1998)
Published by the American College of Nutrition
Eating Positive: A Nutrition Guide and Recipe Book for People with HIV/AIDS
Anita B. Lasswell, PhD, RD
Department of Dietetics and Nutrition, Florida International University, Miami, FL
 |
INTRODUCTION
|
|---|
 TOP
 INTRODUCTION
|
|---|
Eating Positive: A Nutrition Guide and Recipe Book for People with HIV/AIDS, edited by Jeffrey Huber and Kris Riddlesperger. The Harrington Park Press, Binghamton, New York, 1998, 109 pages, $29.95.
This book is a compendium of special diets that HIV positive patients may be on at some time during the course of their disease and has accompanying recipes for each special diet. It is written in a very informal, friendly style that has a comforting tone. The authors are a research information scientist and a clinical nurse specialist. They both have a personal interest in HIV and AIDS and collaborated to write this book.
The book is described as a nutrition guide and recipe book for people with HIV/AIDS. It is divided into broad diet types such as bland, clear liquid, full liquid, low fiber, and high calorie/high protein. Each chapter contains a brief description of the diet and a sampling of five to ten recipes. Each recipe has a nutritional breakdown for calories, protein, carbohydrate, and fat per serving. Chapters also contain eating tips and suggestions for altering recipes to increase nutritional value.
Unfortunately, this book that is designed to be a helpful guide may be more confusing to the person with HIV/AIDS as the authors neglect to point out (or perhaps are unaware) that patients may be or should be on combination diets; for example someone may require a full liquid diet but also has high calorie and protein needs as well. AIDS is a disease that brings with it many secondary infections and problems in which a patient may have multiple medication regimens, multiple nutritional needs, and multiple treatment protocols. On a similar note, the nutrition information presented is scant. Persons with HIV/AIDS might receive more nutrition information by accessing a number of websites devoted to nutrition such as the American Dietetic Association’s eatright.org address. This book would be more helpful for its intended audience if it had been formatted differently and if a qualified nutrition professional had been consulted or had been a co-author to remedy the existing problem.
Despite its shortcomings, this book contains some very interesting recipes that seem easy to prepare and inexpensive to make. As a recipe book I recommend it highly, as a nutrition guide it fails to meet what is required to be complete and helpful.
Received April 1, 1998.
