Meals for Heart Patients and Heart Attack Treatment

A healthy diet is the single most important step towards protecting your heart against heart disease. A heart healthy diet is important for all individuals, but even more for heart patients. Following such a diet will significantly reduce the risk of heart attacks or strokes. The main factors that can contribute to such problems are obesity, high cholesterol and blood pressure levels.

Foods for Heart Attack Patients and Heart Disease Diet

Foods to be Included:

Nature has provided us with an abundance of foods, most of which are good for your health and some that need to be eaten in moderation. The unhealthiest foods are those that do not occur naturally in nature; processed and refined foods. Almost all of the fruits and vegetables that are available for consumption are good for a heart healthy diet. These natural foods are excellent sources of vitamins, minerals, and fiber. Almost all of them are low in calories, fat, cholesterol and sodium. Include a large amount of fresh fruits and vegetables in your diet. You can have them as raw salads or cooked. Avoid overcooking though as this will destroy a lot of their nutritional value. Even if fruits and vegetables were to be the only items on your menu you would still have a wide variety of foods.

Milk and dairy products contain calcium, protein, the B complex vitamins, vitamins A and D, riboflavin and niacin. Try to consume skimmed or low fat milk. Dairy products like yogurt, cheese and buttermilk should also be low fat or non fat.

Whole cereals, low fat breads, crackers, brown rice, corn pasta and potatoes are also useful because of their high content of iron, fiber, and the B vitamins, while low in fat and cholesterol content.

Health in Moderation:

Meat products, poultry, fish, lentils, dried peas, eggs and nuts are rich in the B vitamins and others, in minerals like iron and also protein. Not all types of these foods are healthy so restrict your diet to very lean beef, veal, lamb, and pork, skinless poultry, egg whites, dried beans, legumes and peas.

Foods that should be Avoided or Restricted:

• Avoid meats like goose, duck, prime cuts from high fat meats, marbled meats, organ meats and processed or prepared meats.
• Baked foods like cheese crackers, butter rolls, and croissants, as well as cream sauces for pasta and salads should be avoided.
• Oils and fats are a big concern because they are high in calories and fat. Avoid using oils and even those fats that are healthy should be used in moderation. Vegetable oils like soybean, corn, safflower, sesame, canola, avocado, olive, and cottonseed are permissible. Salad dressings and mayonnaise when used should be made with these oils, but again in moderation. Avoid using lard, bacon, butter, shortening, whipping cream, sour cream, and palm, or palm kernel oil as they have a high content of unhealthy saturated fats.