Tracy Norris
Diet is very important after a heart attack because it can reduce the risk of further cardiovascular problems. These five tips will help heart patients eat healthily.
Diet plays a major role after a heart attack. Because obesity, diabetes mellitus, high blood pressure, and disturbed lipid metabolism are among the greatest risk factors for heart problems that you can influence yourself. If they all occur together, doctors speak of the so-called metabolic syndrome. All of these factors can be influenced to varying degrees by a balanced diet, which is particularly important after a heart attack.
Is a diet recommended after a heart attack?
Being overweight is in itself a risk factor for cardiovascular disease. Excessive body weight also hurts diabetes, high blood pressure, and dyslipidemia. Better values are often recognizable after losing a few kilos. Heart attack nutrition should therefore include a diet if you are overweight.
The decrease should be slow and sustained. 1.5 kilograms per month are considered harmless. This can be achieved if the daily calorie intake is about 500 kilocalories below the requirement. Otherwise, trying to lose weight faster can lead to the organism trying to reduce consumption. This makes it more difficult to lose weight or there is a risk of the yo-yo effect. That means: The weight goes back up significantly as soon as the diet is over.
Diet after a heart attack: The 5 best tips
Doctors recommend patients orientate themselves to Mediterranean cuisine. Studies have shown this to be more effective than simply reducing the amount of fat in the diet. The German Heart Foundation has published a cookbook containing recipes for a special diet after a heart attack.
What else is important when it comes to nutrition after a heart attack? We have the 5 best tips:
1. Lots of fruits and vegetables for a healthy heart
One should eat five servings of fruits and vegetables a day. Vegetables and salad should outweigh fruits. It is ideal to eat at least some of the vegetables raw. Legumes and nuts are particularly healthy. They also provide valuable vegetable fats.
2. Avoid sugar against vascular calcification
Simple sugars have a bad effect on the metabolism, promote obesity and promote calcification in the vessels, which increases the risk of cardiovascular disease. You should therefore only treat yourself to sweets, soft drinks, and the like now and then.
3. Whole grain instead of white flour products after a heart attack
There is also a lot of sugar in white flour products. Heart patients should therefore switch to whole grain products: whole grain bread, whole grain pasta, whole grain rice, or potatoes.
4. Heart patients should eat little meat
Meat and sausage should make up as little part of the diet as possible after a heart attack. According to the extensive international study “European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition” (EPIC), vegetarians and pescetarians who also eat fish have a significantly lower risk of suffering a heart attack. If you don’t want to do without meat completely, you should eat white meat (poultry) if possible and choose lean versions.
5. Diet after a heart attack: Watch out for fats
Heart patients should reduce their fat consumption. It should never exceed 30 percent of the daily energy intake. The quality of the fat is also important. Vegetable fats are recommended, especially olive oil, which contains healthy omega-3 fatty acids. What you should avoid in the diet after a heart attack is trans fats – they are found in processed and fried foods, increase blood fat levels and, like sugar, cause vascular calcification.
