Healthy Foods For Heart Attack Patients #160

Many are asking the question. Which foods can heart attack patients eat? This includes those who are recovering from heart bypass surgery. If your heart attack was attributed to have been caused by blockage of the arteries, the foods you were eating had a lot to do with your heart disease. It could have also been a result of continued stress, lack of exercise, being over weight, smoking, or all of these. If any one, or all of these you feel contributed to your heart disease your lifestyle was at fault. That was my case. At some point during my life I suffered from all of these poor health choices. That was my lifestyle until 3 years ago when I had a heart attack and bypass surgery. I was addicted to food, and unfortuneatly was mostly eating unhealthy foods. I was over weight, did not get enough rest, got abolutely no regular exercise. Stress was something I accepted as part of my business responsibilities. So now you know I have been there and done that when I discuss with you foods that are best for people like us. I will begin with foods you DO NOT EAT. Ask yourself what good is it to look for healthy food choices to blend in with a continuing diet of bad food choices. Before you read any further you need to be prepared to consider changing your lifestyle if that is what you need to become healthy. If your intent is to not become a recurring heart attack patient or even worse, a heart attack victim statistic. You and I were lucky once, maybe not so the next time. Unhealthy foods have become a mainstay of the American diet. Many of you readers are in other countries around the world. Most of you are like us in food habits. Very few are exempt from the burger, fries, tacos, ice cream, and packaged ready to eat prepared foods. Local type fast food outlets are everywhere feeding us fried foods that are high in bad (LDL) cholesterol. No one enjoyed a burger with fries, and soft drink as much as I. That was almost 4 years ago and I have not eaten that sort of food since......Go back and read the very first (#1) posting of this blog. It will be worth your effort. Most dairy products, butter, sweet milk, sour cream, ice cream are not healthy choices for your heart's arteries. Most soft drinks, diet,or not, snack foods, potato chips, corn chips, tortilla chips, crunchy tasty fried puffed up corn pones are no longer allowed for a healthy heart. French fries, onion rings, curly cue fries, donuts, cakes, pies, sweet and delicious honey buns for breakfast. Loaded bake potatoes, prime rib, New York strip steak, Ribeye steak, all of these are causes of high LDL cholesterol. And there is much more. Hot dogs, wieners, sausages. Just about any type of prepared packaged meat, pastry, chips, cookies, breakfast cakes, and on and on are not good for our health. Now many who started reading this paragraph, have closed this tab and moved on. You and I have to ask ourselves a question. What foods are good for us and will improve our heart health? There is a basic answer to that and it begins with what foods were meant for your body to consume and process. This is not a gotcha lead in here. There are no products, health plans, books, gimmicks, or profits to be made from the articles I write. There is only one motive and that is to share with those of you who want to become healthy heart patients...... My basic food choices were not easy, but when I came home from the hospital I knew what I had to and would do. I begin to eat fruits, vegetables, soups, salads, oatmeal, some adult cereals, gave up all beverages other than coffee, skim milk, almond milk, and water. I continue to drink too much coffee, but I reserve the right to have some weakness. I built a core of foods and a method to insure I did not go hunger. I had another challenge which you may not have. I knew I would have to lose weight in order to live a healthier lifestyle. My methods were to eat healthy foods only. Too learn as much as I could about healthy foods rather than diets. To me diets were meaningless if I were to live a healthy lifestyle. Diets were and are a temporary patch. They are not a permanent fix to having a healthy heart. From the foods I listed earlier I took fruits, which were suitable to me and available. Strawberries, apples, oranges, bananas were the core of those. I ate them as snacks to replace many of the sweets and snacks I use to eat between meals. My breakfast was orange juice, coffee, and a large serving of oatmeal. If I became hungry mid morning I would eat some fruits before lunch. My noon meal would be a small salad, maybe some canned tuna and a serving of fruit for dessert. Afternoon I again would have some fruit and maybe a glass of skim milk for a snack. Dinner would be a nice size salad with soup. I used variety and my imagination in keeping my core foods appetizing to me for 7 months in which my weight went from 235 pounds to 175. I am going to continue this subject in my next posting. I can tell from the inquiries, comments, and posts many of you are heart attack survivors and heart patients. I believe it is very important to your understanding the process I went through in order to change my life to a healthy lifestyle for you to spend some time and begin to read some of the earliest postings of this blog. You will find there are 3 major factors in becoming again healthy. The foods you eat, regular, meaningful exercise, and controlling your weight. More to follow.