Lifestyle modification is mandatory after a heart attack to prevent future events. Taking medications on time, eating healthy and doing regular exercise are vital steps to keep your heart healthy. A healthy diet starts with buying healthy foods, preparing your meals and maintaining an eating discipline. Your diet also plays a crucial role in your recovery and overall wellbeing. But where do you start? This blog will guide you on how you can plan an ultimate heart-healthy diet after a heart attack.
What is Healthy Eating?
Healthy eating is also mindful eating. You should be aware of all the ingredients used in your food. The best way is to start shopping for your food ingredients and start cooking and eating at home %80-90% of your meal. Never order an online fast food for a meal. Dining outside should be limited just for fun purposes and should not exceed more than once a week. Focus on food that is god-made rather than man-made or machine-made ( processed or ultra-processed foods).
Importance of Healthy Eating to Prevent Heart Attack
It is said that our intestine is our other brain. After the age of 35, how you look and how you feel depends on how well you take care of your GUT and the overall muscles of your body. People with healthy eating habits and who tend to do regular exercise have far less chance of having a heart attack. This is also the cornerstone to delay aging.
Heart Healthy Diet Plan After a Heart Attack
A healthy diet plan after a heart attack is essential for recovery and reducing the risk of future cardiac events. Here’s a list of guides for diet plans after a heart attack:
- Vegetables( broccoli, carrots, leafy greens like cabbage and spinach).
- Fruits( apple, bananas, oranges, pears etc).
- Whole grains( whole grain bread, plain oatmeal, brown rice).
- Diary(low-fat or fat-free milk, yogurt and cheese).
- Protein( lean meats, skinless chicken, fish high in omega-3 like salmon and tuna, eggs, nuts and seeds, tofu, legumes).
- Monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats( olive oil, corn oil, sesame oil, sunflower oil, avocados, nuts, seeds).
List of Foods to Avoid After a Heart Attack
- Ultra-processed foods(e.g., sausage and salamis, fast foods, deep fried foods, precooked and canned foods).
- Foods and drinks with added sugars(e.g., corn syrup and concentrated fruit juices).
- Foods high in salt( packed chips).
- Alcoholic beverages.
- Saturated fats, animal fats and hydrogenated fats.
Conclusion
What you take inside your GUT will determine what you become, especially after the age of 35. Healthy eating is not only important for heart health but also for physical and mental wellbeing. Without healthy eating habits, a disease-free life is impossible. The best way is to do your shopping, buy unprocessed god-made food rather than man-made or machine-made, and prepare at least 80-90% of your meals at your home.
Take control of your heart health now! Have a healthy eating discipline and do not eat more than 3 meals a day unless you have a specific disease like diabetes or you are pregnant or breastfeeding. Your path to a stronger heart starts here! Book your online consultation with a certified cardiologist in Turkey– DR Ashok Paudel today to get personalized dietary advice and guidance for your recovery journey.
- Phone no: +905384767034
- Email ID: info@doctorofheart.com
FAQs on Heart Healthy Diet After Heart Attack
What is the best food to eat after a heart attack?
Not only food but also eating habits are important for a healthy heart and healthy life. When it comes to diet, a heart-healthy eating plan should include vegetables, fruits, whole grains, low-fat or fat-free dairy products, monounsaturated and polyunsaturated oil, lean meat and skinless chicken or turkey. Get healthy stuff, make your meal and do not eat more than 3 times a day unless you have a specific disease.
How to strengthen the heart after a heart attack?
After a heart attack, damage to the heart muscle is inevitable. When a patient is treated within the first two hours, there will be no signs of weakening of heart muscle or heart failure. But as the time between the onset of heart attack and treatment increases, more muscle dies, and patients will have heart failure to some degree. Regular aerobic exercises( jogging, running, bicycle riding, swimming and aerobic weight lifting) are best for both strengthening heart muscle and increasing your cardiopulmonary capacity. When heart failure is severe and the patient cannot start any of these exercises, then the patient should be enrolled in a cardiac rehabilitation program under the guidance of a doctor and a physiotherapist.
What foods should not be eaten after a heart attack?
Man-made and machine Ultra-processed foods(e.g., sausage and salamis, fast foods, deep fried foods), foods and drinks with added sugars(e.g., corn syrup and concentrated fruit juices), foods high in salt( packed chips), alcoholic beverages, saturated fats, animal fats and hydrogenated fats.
How likely is a second heart attack?
Patients having a heart attack are always at high risk for a second heart attack compared to those who never had. Treating a heart attack means treating just the culprit’s blood vessels. A patient with a disrupted blood vessel is likely to have disease and plaques in other blood vessels at a higher percentage than those who never had a heart attack. Taking medications according to your doctor’s advice and modifying your lifestyle is necessary to avoid future heart attacks.
What should you never do during a heart attack?
Do not hesitate to inform relatives and call an ambulance. Do not neglect the signs and wait for the symptoms to go away without taking any precautions. Do not exercise to relieve pain. Do not take any other medicine except aspirin 300 mg.
What is one rule for surviving a heart attack?
First, you should know your body so that you can recognize unusual symptoms and signs. Once you experience the symptoms of a heart attack, inform relatives or neighbors and call 911 for an ambulance. Keep your doors open, lie on the ground with your legs up and intermittent coughing. Take 300 mg aspirin if you have and nothing else. Do not exercise to relieve pain.
What four things happen right before a heart attack?
Heaviness in your chest, difficulty in breathing, profound sweating and chest pain that cannot be localized precisely, feeling of impending death. You feel like there is a weight of more than 20 kg placed in your chest and you are going to die of suffocation.
What is the best exercise for a healthy heart?
Regular aerobic exercises( jogging, running, bicycle riding, swimming and aerobic weight lifting) are best for both strengthening heart muscle and increasing your cardiopulmonary capacity. If you do not have any heart disease, you can increase your capacity gradually and can also do anaerobic exercises ( sprinting, weightlifting, HIIT- High-Intensity Interval Training).