When a person suffers from a heart attack, the treatment focuses on preventing heart attacks in the future. It avid all other complications like having a stroke.
What you eat and consume affects how your body functions and includes your heart. Changing eating habits can reduce the risk of having another heart attack that is not anticipated.
The food choices that you make can play a very big role in keeping you healthy and away from many heart diseases. The top heart surgeon in Pakistan says that food plays an equally important role as medicines do.
Let’s have a look at all the food options that can be useful and can impact your heart health.
Best Foods for Heart
A heart-healthy diet must consist of:
- Fish and seafood
- Fruits and vegetables
- Lean meats
- Whole grains
- Nuts and seeds
- Skinless poultry
- Eggs
- Plant-based oils like olive oil
These foods are quite low in added sugars, saturated fats, and sodium. Having a diet that is full and high in these ingredients can increase the risk of a heart attack.
Types of Diets to Help You
If you are someone who is more into structured eating plans, then it is best that you try out proper diet plans. But it must be kept in mind that making dietary changes must be in consideration by your doctor. Tell your heart doctor if you are trying a new diet or adding new food options to your diet.
DASH
DASH is one of the diets that are quite helpful in decreasing hypertension. This eating plan helps a lot in the management of high blood pressure. It lowers blood pressure effectively. DASH diet focuses a lot on plant-based foods along with lean meats.
With this diet, you need to make sure that you are taking the right amount of sodium. That is why it is important to keep a check on the sodium present in foods. Keep a look at the sodium present in canned and frozen foods for sodium levels.
You can also take 2 to 3 servings of low-fat dairy per day with DASH. DASH helps in reducing blood pressure by lesser consumption of sodium high foods. It also aids in lesser consumption of cholestrol which promotes heart health immensely.
Plant-Based Diet
A plant-based diet focuses on foods from plants including, fruits, seeds, legumes, beans, and vegetables. A healthy plant-based diet maximizes the consumption of these ingredients and minimizes processed foods, animal products, and oils.
This approach helps a lot in the consumption of greens while excluding animal products. Vegetarian diets and vegan diets are more rigid versions of a plant-based diet. Vegetarian diets do not include poultry meat or seafood, and vegan diets do not involve any kind of meat or animal.
But the best plant-based diets are DASH and Mediterranian diets.
Mediterranean Diet
The Mediterranean diet has become one of my favorite diets in no time. Well, it s good for a reason. Recent studies have also proved that the Mediterranean diet and overall change in the style of eating can help a lot in reducing the risk of heart stroke and diseases.
This diet focuses a lot on consuming healthy foods like fish, grains, beans, healthy fats, and legumes. The intake of dairy and meat can be enjoyed in a moderate manner.
Mediterranean diet is also focused on using plant-based oils like olive oil in place of butter and other oils.
If you are interested in adding dairy items to your diet, then go for low-fat milk and non-fat options. This reduces your overall saturated fat consumption.
Other Healthy Foods
Some of the heart-healthy foods that can be added to your diet to get a better working heart include:
- Fresh fruits
- Lean meats like chicken, seafood, and turkey breast
- Leafy greens and fresh vegetables
- Foods rich in unsaturated fats like olive oil, avocados, seeds, and nuts
- Whole grains with no sugar such as brown rice, whole wheat, barley, and oatmeal
With that, keep a check on the foods that are not good for the heart. Try and avoid foods that are processed. Processed meat includes meat that is reserved by salting or smoking. Keep a look at the fats that you are consuming.
Know that trans and saturated fats are not good for your health. Research says that replacing these fats with vegetable oils and fatty fish reduces the risk of heart disease.
Conclusion
Good diet and food play a very important role in keeping the health of the heart in check. Taking good food is necessary not only for the whole body but for the function of other organs as well. So, try and make a habit of consuming more plant-based foods and avoiding processed foods at all costs. Visit your doctor whenever you feel like the diet is not making a difference.
