Patient was educated on guidelines for heart healthy diet as follows:
- Heart healthy diet aims to cut down consumption of food sources high in sodium content. This diet also aims at making choices for low sodium alternatives on the foods we consume and preparation products we use for cooking. When buying food products, always read the nutrition labels to note for the sodium content in each serving of the food item. As a benchmark, foods that contain 35 mg or less of sodium content per serving of the food are considered very low in sodium and foods that contain 140 mg or less of sodium content per serving of the food are considered low in sodium. Confining to consumption of food products with sodium content 140 mg and less per serving of the food and limiting consumption of food products with sodium content more than 140 mg per serving of the food can help improve compliance with heart healthy diet recommendation. Heart healthy diet also aims at reducing or completely avoiding adding any extra salt during cooking.
- The focus of heart healthy diet also is to increase consumption of lean meat & fish rich in healthy fats and avoid sources of unhealthy fats, such as, low-fat dairy & red meat. Heart healthy diet also promotes consumption of food sources rich in fiber, such as, fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and nuts, which can help reduce absorption of fats, thus lowering the blood cholesterol.
