Medical expert of the article
New publications
Ideal nutrition, elemental, parenteral nutrition
Last reviewed: 04.07.2025
All iLive content is medically reviewed or fact checked to ensure as much factual accuracy as possible.
We have strict sourcing guidelines and only link to reputable media sites, academic research institutions and, whenever possible, medically peer reviewed studies. Note that the numbers in parentheses ([1], [2], etc.) are clickable links to these studies.
If you feel that any of our content is inaccurate, out-of-date, or otherwise questionable, please select it and press Ctrl + Enter.
One of the ideas that is a consequence of the theory of balanced nutrition is the creation of ideal food and ideal nutrition. At the end of the 19th - beginning of the 20th century, the basic concept concerning the improvement of food and nutrition emerged. Thus, already in the 19th century, the idea arose of creating the most improved food by enriching food products with substances directly involved in metabolism and by discarding ballast substances.
[ Elemental nutrition
The idea of creating an ideal, maximally useful food already at the end of the 19th - beginning of the 20th century transformed into the idea of constructing a mixture of substances necessary for maintaining life and not requiring an optimal ratio, that is, into the idea of creating so-called elemental, or monomeric, substances. The idea of elemental nutrition boiled down to the fact that the oligo- and polymeric food that we consume should be replaced by food consisting of elements participating in metabolism. This food should consist of sets of amino acids, monosaccharides, fatty acids, vitamins, salts, etc. It was assumed that such food would satisfy human needs in exact accordance with the peculiarities of his metabolism.
Parenteral nutrition
A consequence of the theory of balanced nutrition is the idea, clearly formulated back in 1908 by P.-E.-M. Berthelot, that one of the main tasks of the twentieth century is the direct introduction of nutrients into the blood, bypassing the gastrointestinal tract. Currently, direct (intravascular or parenteral) nutrition has become a widespread and very effective means of directly introducing nutrients into the blood, used in the treatment of various diseases for fairly long periods of time. In particular, the review by P.S. Vasiliev (1988) provides characteristics of a number of specialized mixtures used in clinical practice for parenteral nutrition, and highlights their positive role in the correction of various diseases (metabolic disorders, in particular protein; various injuries, including burns; gastrointestinal tract disorders, in particular surgical interventions; oncological diseases; pathology of the liver, kidneys and a number of others).