Neutropenic Diet: Important Notes to Know - Having arrived at this article, you must look for what neutropenic diet is about. However, before you know deeper about this diet, better for you to learn first about several aspects below.
Neutropenia refers to a condition where someone has a low number of neutrophils consisting of white blood cells that aim to help people to fight off infections. And when you are in this condition, you are highly prone to develop infections. The average level of neutrophils count in a blood sample starts from 2.5 up to 6.5, and this number is more than enough to prevent and fight off the infections. You are considered as neutropenic when your neutrophils level is between 0.5 and 1.5 or even 2.0 in some hospitals. Neutropenia can also occur when you are during the treatment of lymphoma.
Two factors may cause neutropenia develop in people with lymphoma. First, the presence of lymphoma in the bone marrow, which means that there is not sufficient room left for producing healthy blood cell. Second and the last is due to an unavoidable side effect of several radiotherapies or chemotherapy treatments where during the process, it may destroy healthy cells. In other words, neutrophils can be destroyed by having these kinds of therapies.
Several ways can help the neutropenic to avoid the infections, one of which is by taking the neutropenic diet.
b. What are the neutropenic diet steps?
Neutropenic diet foods
For cooking foods, it is important to notes for you to
Not to shorten the cooking times.
Ensure that the foods should be above the 75 ° C in the middle.
Well, cook the meat until the juices run clear.
Never reheat the cooked food.
Hot foods should be consumed within 2 hours of cooking. While for the cold food, it should be eaten within 4 hours of preparing or else you can keep it in the fridge.
For eating out, neutropenic diet recommends you to make sure several things below
Choose the popular restaurant and ensure that the food to eat is hot all the way through, especially for barbecued meat. Also, do not eat foods that have been served under heat lamps.
It is recommended for you not to eat salad bars from market stalls or any food comes from ice cream machines.
It is not recommended for those who are severely neutropenic to eat barbecues and picnics.
Several neutropenic foods diet you should avoid for dairy products including soft whip ice cream from machines or vans, probiotic yogurts, unpasteurized milk, cream or cheese and blue-veined cheese). Next, for eggs, avoid eating raw or lightly cooked eggs. For meat and poultry, avoid eating smoked meats, read-cooked hot chicken or undercooked meat.
Instead, as the alternative for neutropenic foods diet, you can eat hard or processed cheeses (cheddar or dairyless), pasteurized milk, mozzarella and tubs of ice cream, wrapped bars or frozen yogurt. Also, you are allowed to eat well-cooked eggs cook for at least 10 minutes) or shop bought ice cream and mayonnaise. For meat and poultry, you can also eat tinned, vacuum-packed, pasteurized or well-cooked meat.