1. What is the role of diet in causing heart disease?
Diet play a major role in preventing or causing heart disease. Diet high in animal fat, low in fruit and vegetable and high in alcohol have shown to cause heart disease.
2. Which food items are protective for heart?
Fish oil (rich in omega 3 fatty acid), handful of nuts (such as almond or walnut), Berries (Blue berry, straw berry and raspberry), Flex seed, fresh fruits and vegetables, tofu and dark chocolate are good for heart.
3. Which food items i should avoid to reduce the amount of cholesterol in my diet?
Any food from an animal source whether meat, egg or dairy product contains cholesterol where as plants are naturally cholesterol free. So reduce animal products and increase fruits and vegetables esp. green leafy in your diet.
4. Milk and dairy products are good or bad for my heart?
Milk contains animal fat which is rich in saturated fat and cholesterol and thus increase the risk of heart disease. Other dairy products such as cheese, yoghurt, butter and ice cream also contains significant amount of cholesterol and prone you for development of heart disease.
5. Can I use Soya Milk in place of Dairy Milk?
Soya Milk is a healthy alternative of milk. These beverages comes in different flavor and many of them are fortified with calcium and Vit.D. The vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants in soy milk can provide important health benefits.
6. What is DASH diet and is it usefull for me being a heart patient?
Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension (DASH) is an eating plan to lower or control high blood pressure. The DASH diet emphasizes foods that are lower in sodium as well as foods that are rich in potassium, magnesium and calcium — nutrients that help lower blood pressure.
The DASH diet features menus with plenty of vegetables, fruits and low-fat dairy products, as well as whole grains, fish, poultry and nuts. It offers limited portions of red meats, sweets and sugary beverages.
7. How to reduce body weight by modification of diet in cardiac patients?
Both short term and long term, the most effective weight loss comes from avoiding animal product, dairy products, fat, vegetable oils and highly processed food. They should be plenty of fruits, vegetables, legumes in daily diet.
8. Being heart patient Can I take processed food or canned foods ?
Processed food or canned food like soup, frozen dinner, even poultry or other meats often have salts added during processing. So it is better to avoid them. Rather fresh food (esp. fruits) unsalted meal and homemade soup should be taken.
9. Which cooking oil to be used for heart patient?
Out of various edible oils Mustard and Rapeseed oil (canola) appear to be most heart friendly oil as they are low in saturated fat, high in MUFA and PUFA and furthermore they have high N-3/N-6 ratio. Olive oil is also a good oil as it has highest (75%) contents of MUFA among all other oils.
10. How much alcohol is allowed for cardiac patient?
Moderate drinking is allowed which is defined as not more than one drink/day for women and not more than 2 drinks/day for men. One drink equals to 12 ounce of bear, 5 ounce of wine, 1 ½ ounce of 80 proof hand liquor.
