What is the diet of children and adolescents with chronic neurological diseases?Professor Lee Young-mok and Na Ji-hoon's mortgage index meal guide is published
Jun 10, 2025
Professor Lee Young-mok and Na Ji-hoon of the Department of Pediatrics and Adolescents at Yonsei University Gangnam Severance Hospital published a `Mortgage Index Meal Guide for Neurological Diseases in Pediatric Adolescents'.
This new book is the first practical book and specialized book to organize meal guides that children and families suffering from chronic neurological diseases can practice in their daily lives, focusing on Low Glycemic Index Treatment (LGIT).
Eating habits in childhood and adolescence play a big role as a treatment strategy beyond just nutritional supply. In particular, for chronic neurological diseases in children and adolescents, therapeutic dietary therapy is attracting attention as an important alternative because it is difficult to find a standardized treatment or the treatment effect varies from patient to patient.
Therapeutic dietary therapy is a treatment that improves neurological symptoms and promotes neurodevelopment by changing the energy metabolism method of the patient's body through a specific diet. Representatively, ketogenic dietary therapy is available.
The low-sugar index diet therapy introduced in the book is a relaxed ketogenic diet therapy that minimizes blood sugar fluctuations by organizing a diet centered on foods with low blood sugar index. While pursuing the advantages of ketogenic dietary therapy as much as possible, it is easy for patients to practice in real life, and the frequency and severity of side effects have been significantly reduced.
Mortgage-indexed dietary therapy has been proven to have medical effects through various studies since about 20 years ago. Positive effects have been reported in various chronic neurological diseases, especially epilepsy, migraines, autism spectrum disorders, attention deficit hyperactivity disorders, and mitochondrial diseases.
The book consists of four parts in total. The first theoretical piece introduces the principles and scientific mechanisms of mortgage-indexed dietary therapy, and the second support guide deals with psychosocial difficulties and solutions experienced by children and their families during the practice of mortgage-indexed dietary therapy. The third practice guide specifically guides diet plans and recipes in daily life. The final recipe section contains more than 100 dishes that children will like, making it easy for anyone to follow.
In addition to the pediatric and adolescent medical staff, food experts from Gangnam Severance Hospital's nutrition team, social work team, and CJ Freshway participated in the writing. The difficulty of cooking was lowered and various menus considering nutritional balance were included to enhance the completeness of the diet. Various alternative ingredients were used to control carbohydrate intake, and snacks, lunch boxes, and alternative menus for eating out were included to facilitate actual dietary application.
Professor Na Ji-hoon "After years of discussion and research with nutrition teams, social work teams, nursing teams, and food experts, we have increased the continuity of our diet with flavors and compositions that children can actually like. I hope it will be a practical treatment for experts such as doctors, nurses and nutritionists, and a guide to understanding and implementing dietary therapy without burden for caregivers."
Professor Lee Young-mok said, `It is often difficult for children and adolescents suffering from neurological diseases to expect sufficient improvement only with drug treatment. As a result, not only the patient himself but also his family suffer greatly psychologically and emotionally. This book is of great significance in that it expands the scope and accessibility of treatment through the daily mediation of 'food' in addition to conventional treatment methods. For carers who relied solely on drug-focused treatment, we expect it to be a new care strategy and a viable hope," he said.
This new book is the first practical book and specialized book to organize meal guides that children and families suffering from chronic neurological diseases can practice in their daily lives, focusing on Low Glycemic Index Treatment (LGIT).
Eating habits in childhood and adolescence play a big role as a treatment strategy beyond just nutritional supply. In particular, for chronic neurological diseases in children and adolescents, therapeutic dietary therapy is attracting attention as an important alternative because it is difficult to find a standardized treatment or the treatment effect varies from patient to patient.
Therapeutic dietary therapy is a treatment that improves neurological symptoms and promotes neurodevelopment by changing the energy metabolism method of the patient's body through a specific diet. Representatively, ketogenic dietary therapy is available.
The low-sugar index diet therapy introduced in the book is a relaxed ketogenic diet therapy that minimizes blood sugar fluctuations by organizing a diet centered on foods with low blood sugar index. While pursuing the advantages of ketogenic dietary therapy as much as possible, it is easy for patients to practice in real life, and the frequency and severity of side effects have been significantly reduced.
Mortgage-indexed dietary therapy has been proven to have medical effects through various studies since about 20 years ago. Positive effects have been reported in various chronic neurological diseases, especially epilepsy, migraines, autism spectrum disorders, attention deficit hyperactivity disorders, and mitochondrial diseases.
The book consists of four parts in total. The first theoretical piece introduces the principles and scientific mechanisms of mortgage-indexed dietary therapy, and the second support guide deals with psychosocial difficulties and solutions experienced by children and their families during the practice of mortgage-indexed dietary therapy. The third practice guide specifically guides diet plans and recipes in daily life. The final recipe section contains more than 100 dishes that children will like, making it easy for anyone to follow.
In addition to the pediatric and adolescent medical staff, food experts from Gangnam Severance Hospital's nutrition team, social work team, and CJ Freshway participated in the writing. The difficulty of cooking was lowered and various menus considering nutritional balance were included to enhance the completeness of the diet. Various alternative ingredients were used to control carbohydrate intake, and snacks, lunch boxes, and alternative menus for eating out were included to facilitate actual dietary application.
Professor Na Ji-hoon "After years of discussion and research with nutrition teams, social work teams, nursing teams, and food experts, we have increased the continuity of our diet with flavors and compositions that children can actually like. I hope it will be a practical treatment for experts such as doctors, nurses and nutritionists, and a guide to understanding and implementing dietary therapy without burden for caregivers."
Professor Lee Young-mok said, `It is often difficult for children and adolescents suffering from neurological diseases to expect sufficient improvement only with drug treatment. As a result, not only the patient himself but also his family suffer greatly psychologically and emotionally. This book is of great significance in that it expands the scope and accessibility of treatment through the daily mediation of 'food' in addition to conventional treatment methods. For carers who relied solely on drug-focused treatment, we expect it to be a new care strategy and a viable hope," he said.
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This article was translated by Naver AI translator.
