[Modified texture diet and useful in patients with nutritional risk]

In the nutritional management of patients with dysphagia and/or elderly must make a multidisciplinary approach and a main tool is changing the texture of food. Patients with dysphagia, who need a texture modified diet, generally do not have a calorie and nutrient requirements different from those exhibited by people of the same age and sex, unless a condition or disease coexist. In these patients, Texture of foods should be individualized according to the patient and the time course of their disease. The use of texture modified diets without specifying produces a clear decrease in caloric and protein intakes and nutritional disorders. These patients may have other characteristics associated diseases, which would require special modification, as in the case of diabetes mellitus, hypertension, osteoporosis and constipation. Sometimes it is necessary to use artificial products to achieve different desired textures and precooked dishes, too.