Patient was educated on measures to be considered for compliance with heart healthy diet recommendation as follows:
- Pay close attention to food labels. Focus upon choosing foods low in saturated fat, trans fats, and LDL cholesterol. Look for food items with the label rich in unsaturated fat and HDL cholesterol. Also, look for food items with the label reduced salt or no added salt.
- Dairy products, such as, buttermilk, cottage cheese, and processed cheese are very high in salt content. Blue cheese, feta cheese, and halloumi cheese are varieties of cheese heavy in salt content. Also, regular milk, regular buttermilk, and full fat yogurt can be very high in fat content. Avoid or observe strict moderation with consumption of these products, to be compliant with the recommendation for heart healthy diet.
- While picking cheese, select from the list of cheese low on salt content, such as, cream cheese, mozzarella cheese, swiss cheese, parmesan cheese, Monterey jack cheese, and goat cheese. Choosing cottage cheese or low-fat cheese over regular cheese can help with cutting down on consumption of unhealthy fat. Pick the cheese products with the label, reduced salt or no added salt and low fat, to help compliance with the recommendation for heart healthy diet.
- Choose low fat (1% or 2% fat) or fat free alternatives on milk and milk products, such as, yogurt and butter milk, versus whole milk, whole fat yogurt, and whole fat butter milk. Choosing skim milk, almond milk, or soymilk against regular full fat whole milk can also help reducing consumption of saturated and unhealthy fats to some extent.
