Making the right food choices is important for everybody. For a person with COPD—the right food choices become even more important. If you have COPD your body uses food as a fuel and gives you energy to perform different activities, including breathing. People with COPD need more energy to breathe, therefore they will need 10 times more calories when breathing than people who do not have COPD.

What you eat can have serious effects on how your immune system works and how your body fights infection. Why?... Depending on the type of nutrient you consume and how much of the nutrient you have, your immune system can be strengthened or weakened. Good nutrition helps you fight infection better.

Because COPD makes your lungs and heart work harder to carry oxygen to all parts of your body, controlling your weight can help reduce heart and lung strain. Many people who are overweight carry the extra weight around their stomach or in the upper part of the body. This added weight can make it difficult to breathe, which strains the heart and lungs. If you are overweight, you can do special exercises to help you lose weight and to help strengthen your chest muscles, which can improve your breathing. On the other hand, if you are underweight, you may feel weaker and more tired than usual. By consuming an adequate amount of calories you are able to fuel the muscles in your body which can prevent these muscles from wasting or your diaphragm from becoming weak. The diaphragm is the muscle that sits below your lungs and helps pull air into your lungs and push air out during normal breathing.

When the diaphragm is weak, a person has trouble breathing and becomes tired easily. For these reasons, weight monitoring is recommended for people with COPD. At your next doctor’s visit, talk with your doctor about the best weight range for you.

What are the best foods for people with COPD to eat?... Foods that are high in fiber--such as, vegetables, cooked beans and dried peas, whole-grains, cereals, pasta, rice and fresh fruit. Why?... As a plant, fiber helps move your food through your digestive tract, helps to control blood glucose, and may even reduce your cholesterol level. Everyone should aim to eat 20-35 grams of fiber everyday. For example, in one day you could eat the following meal to help you get a day’s worth of fiber: 1 cup of all-bran cereal for breakfast, a sandwich made with two slices of whole-grain bread and one medium apple for lunch, and 1 cup of peas, dried beans, or lentils with your dinner.

If you use oxygen, wear your cannula during and after eating so that your digestive muscles have the oxygen they need to digest your food. Avoid overeating, and foods that give you gas or bloating. When you are full or bloated you may have difficulty breathing. Because, a full or bloated stomach pushes up on the diaphragm, this makes it hard for the diaphragm to move, which can cause you to feel short of breath. Some foods that may give you gas or make you feel bloated include: fried, greasy foods, apples and melons, beans, broccoli, cabbage, corn, and other vegetables.

Try to eat a variety of foods from each food group so that you get all of the nutrients your body needs. Avoid foods or beverages that do not have any nutritional value such as alcoholic beverages. What is worse, alcohol depresses the body, which may cause you to breathe slower and have problems coughing up mucus.

Controlling the amount of salt (sodium) you eat each day is also important. Your body holds onto water when you eat too much salt. This causes swelling, which makes it harder to breathe. What should you do?... Remove the saltshaker from the table for starters. You can also use herbs and no-salt seasonings when you are cooking. Also check the food labels to see how much sodium the food contains. Try to avoid eating foods that have more than 300 mg of sodium per serving.

It is also recommended that people with COPD drink plenty of liquids. This helps to keep your mucus thin which makes it easier to cough up mucus in the lungs. For most people with COPD it is best to drink at least 6-8 oz. of fluids daily. However, you should limit the amount of caffeinated drinks you consume because caffeine can interfere with some of your medicines. If you have other health problems, such as chronic heart failure – your doctor may advise you to limit the amount of fluid you drink each day.

Always follow other recommendations or suggestions that your doctor makes.