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Helping You Feel Your Best!
Nutrition Tips for People with Hepatitis C

Contents:

• Healthy eating and moderate physical activity
• Eat well
• Supplement carefully
• Take care
• If You Have Complications...
• Low-Cost Nutritious Choices
• Some Useful On-line Resources
• How to Find a Registered Dietitian
• Handout
• Organizations

Healthy eating and moderate physical activity

Hepatitis C harms your liver. Your liver plays many important roles. It deals with everything you eat and drink. A healthy lifestyle can help you feel your best and help your body cope with the hepatitis C virus.

Healthy eating and moderate physical activity can:

• give your body the energy it needs to work well,

• boost your immune system,

• help your liver renew itself, and

• decrease some of the symptoms of your hepatitis C and the side effects of treatment, such as feeling tired and sick.

Eat well

• Choose a variety of foods from all four food groups of Canada's Food Guide to Healthy Eating.

• Get plenty of Grain Products and Vegetables & Fruit.

• Eat at least 2 servings from the Meat & Alternatives food group (such as meat, fish, poultry, eggs, peanut butter, and dried beans, peas and lentils).

• Focus on lower fat choices within each food group.

• Drink 6 to 8 glasses of fluids every day.

• Keep your energy level up by eating smaller meals and snacks more often.

Supplement carefully

• Use only herbal products that your health care provider has told you are safe.

• Do not take more than one multivitamin per day - and you may need one without iron. Talk to your health care provider about which vitamin and mineral supplements are best for you.

Take care

• Avoid alcohol.

• Enjoy light to moderate physical activity, such as walking, swimming, gardening and stretching.

• Build up slowly to 30 to 60 minutes of activity, at least 4 times a week.

• Avoid food poisoning by storing and preparing foods safely. Wash your hands often.

• Talk to your health care provider if depression affects your ability to eat well.

If you have complications...

… such as cirrhosis or fluid retention, you need to pay even more attention to nutrition.

• Get tailored advice from your doctor or dietitian.

• Eat smaller meals every few hours. This may be easier for your body to handle and will help keep your energy level up.

• You may need to limit your intake of salt if you have swelling of the abdomen (ascites) or legs (edema).

• Try extra-strength liquid nutrition supplements, available from your local pharmacy. Some examples are: Boost Plus Calories^®, Ensure Plus^®, Resource Plus^®.

Low-Cost Nutritious Choices

Eating well doesn't have to be expensive. Low-cost nutritious choices can be found in each food group:

• bread, rice, pasta, rolled oats

• carrots, potatoes, frozen vegetables, apples, in-season berries

• milk powder, plain milk or yogurt

• baked beans, eggs, dried beans, peas and lentils, canned fish, ground beef

Some Useful On-line Resources

Canada's Food Guide to Healthy Eating
Call your local public health unit
www.hc-sc.gc.ca/fn-an/food-guide-aliment/index-eng.php

Canada's Physical Activity Guide to Healthy Active Living
Call your local public health unit or 1-888-334-9769  
www.paguide.com

Dietitians of Canada: Eat Well, Live Well section
Includes Your Nutrition Profile, Meal Planner and Virtual Kitchen tour, nutrition information and tools to compare food choices to recommendations, and personalized advice for making improvements.
www.dietitians.ca/eatwell

Food Safety information and materials
www.canfightbac.org

Nutrition labelling education materials
www.healthcanada.ca/nutritionlabelling

National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine
nccam.nih.gov/health/hepatitisc/index.htm

Heppo Recipe Exchange
Recipes submitted by other people infected with the hepatitis C virus; not specifically "HepC healthy" unless noted.
www.hepcnet.net/recipes/recipeindex.html

Hepatitis C and Food
Hepatitis C Council of New South Wales, February 2002
www.hepc.org.au/documents/HepC-Food-980KB.pdf

Health Canada hepatitis C information
www.healthcanada.ca/hepc

Other Resources
Consult the organizations listed across the bottom of this handout.

How to Find a Registered Dietitian

• Visit www.dietitians.ca and search "Find a Nutrition Professional."

• Call your local public health department, hospital or community health centre.

• Call the Consulting Dietitians Network at 1-888-901-7776.

Registered Dietitians can help you meet your nutrition needs by designing a personal meal plan.

You definitely should see a Registered Dietitian if you have:

• complications related to advanced liver disease, such as cirrhosis or fluid retention

• another medical condition, such as diabetes or HIV

• a problem with weight loss or weight gain

• diarrhea for more than 3 days

• trouble eating well

• diagnosis of fluid retention requiring a low salt diet

This handout is based on Hepatitis C: Nutrition Care - Canadian Guidelines for Health Care Providers, 2003.

www.dietitians.ca/public/content/resource_centre/index.asp

Another handout in this series is available, Dealing with Discomforts: Nutrition Tips for People with Hepatitis C.

This information is not meant to replace the medical counsel of your doctor or consultation with a Registered Dietitian.

© Dietitians of Canada, 2003. May only be reproduced in its entirety and provided source is acknowledged. Produced with funding from Health Canada. The opinions expressed in this document do not necessarily reflect the official policies or views of Health Canada.

Organizations

Canadian Association for the Study of the Liver
www.lhsc.on.ca/casl

Canadian Association of Hepatology Nurses
www.livernurses.org

Canadian Hemophilia Society
www.hemophilia.ca
1-800-668-2686

Canadian Liver Foundation
www.liver.ca
1-800-563-5483

Hepatitis C Society of Canada
www.hepatitiscsociety.com
1-800-652-HepC (4372)

Brought to you by:

Dietitians of Canada