Being a heart patient puts you at high risk for experiencing a coronary event, like a heart attack. What you eat influences your cardiovascular health. Food can contribute to your cholesterol and blood pressure levels. Controlling your intake of calories, fat, cholesterol and sodium can help you win the battle against heart disease.
Risk Factors Influenced by Diet
You may be wondering why your diet is so important if you are a heart patient. Your diet can influence risk factors that may contribute to heart disease. Eating a diet high in fat and cholesterol increases your risk of high blood cholesterol. Eating too much increases your chances of being overweight or obese, which can also cause hypertension and diabetes. Cholesterol, excess weight, hypertension and diabetes are all risk factors that can contribute to heart disease.
Therapeutic Lifestyle Change Diet
The Therapeutic Lifestyle Change diet, or TLC diet, was coined by the National Heart Lung and Blood Institute. It aims at reducing your risk of heart disease through dietary innervation. It may be especially beneficial for people that have already experienced a cardiac event. This diet emphasizes reducing blood cholesterol levels.
Guidelines of the Diet
The TLC diet limits the amount of fat, cholesterol and sodium you should eat each day. Fat should make up no more than 35 percent of your total calories, that is both saturated and unsaturated fats. However, saturated fats should be no more than 7 percent of your total calories. Cholesterol is limited to 200 mg per day. Your sodium intake should not exceed 2,400 mg per day.
Other Dietary Interventions
After a trial period on the TLC diet, you should have your blood cholesterol, blood pressure and weight checked again. If you don't see any improvement, speak with your doctor about other options. The National Heart Lung and Blood Institute recommends adding more fiber or reducing your fat intake even more by replacing fatty foods with naturally occurring esters, like omega fatty acids. These have been found to further reduce your risk for heart disease and improve cholesterol levels.
Member Comments