To help the patient with COPD maintain adequate nutrition,the nurse explores the patient's and family's usual dietary habits and counsels the patient to select foods that provide a high-protein, high-calorie diet.
It is important to counsel the patient to select foods that derive their calories from high fat rather than high carbohydrate levels.
Persons with advanced chronic bronchitis or emphysema are unable to exhale the excess carbon dioxide that is a natural end product of carbohydrate metabolism.
Therefore calories obtained from high-carbohydrate foods may elevate PaCO2 levels in persons with COPD.