A Low Sodium Diet For Heart Surgery Patients

No matter what your heart condition, it is always a good idea to cut down on your sodium. Sodium causes the body to retain water. Water retention increases the resistance that the heart must work against, which leads to an increase in heart rate and blood pressure. If you are preparing for heart surgery, you should know how much sodium to eat and how to live a low-sodium lifestyle.

DASH Diet

The DASH diet is an eating plan put together by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). The goals of the diet are to improve health by decreasing sodium and increasing nutrition. When you are on this diet, you should consume 27 percent of calories from total fat, 6 percent from saturated fats, 18 percent from proteins and 55 percent from carbohydrates. Cholesterol should be limited to 150 mg per day.

Sodium Recommendations

Maximum sodium intake is 2,300 mg per day on the DASH diet. If you have already been diagnosed with hypertension, are an older adult or are at high risk, you may want to consider eating 1,500 mg of sodium per day. The HHS reports that a better health gain is found in those who follow the lower sodium diet.

Benefits

The DASH diet has been found to lower blood pressure, triglycerides and cholesterol. This is good news for anyone but especially those that require heart surgery. According to a study published in the "New England Journal of Medicine" in 2001 by Frank M. Sacks, M.D., and colleagues, a low sodium diet substantially lowers blood pressure. According to another study published in "The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition" in 2001 by Eva Obarzanek and colleagues, the DASH diet lowered total and LDL cholesterol levels.

Sample Menu

If you are confused as to what you can eat on the DASH diet, MayoClinic.com offers a sample menu to follow. This menu suggests having fruit and whole wheat toast with peanut butter for breakfast, a salad with a side of whole wheat crackers for lunch and baked fish, brown rice and steamed vegetables for dinner. Snacks include low fat yogurt or fruit.