AIDS Treatment News: What are some of the most

AIDS Treatment News: What are some of the most important lessons you have learned about nutrition and HIV treatment, both for Africa and elsewhere?

Lynde Francis: In the developing world, nutrition is often the only form of therapy available. We have learned that with correct nutrition, which includes vitamin supplementation and a holistic approach to HIV, you can maintain health almost indefinitely if you start early enough. And if you start when someone is already ill, nutrition together with treatment of opportunistic infections can put them back on their feet and back in employment.

Also, when people are on pharmaceutical treatment, nutrition supports them; you can use nutrition as a way of avoiding side effects, and reconstituting the immune system together with the drugs.

ATN: What approaches to nutrition do you recommend?

Francis: The rule of thumb is unrefined, unprocessed foods, low fat, no sugar, and avoiding stimulants like caffeine. By unrefined food I mean, if you eat bread, it should by whole wheat bread; if you eat rice, it should be unpolished, brown rice. If your staple is maise meal, as it is in many parts of Africa, it should be stone ground maise meal. It could include other grains like rye, like wheat used as a rice which is delicious; it could include sorghum, which is the traditional grain which was used throughout Africa before maise came in.