The Cardiac Diet Explained: Guidelines, Benefits, and Tips

The cardiac diet is the best medicine for fighting heart disease. Learn what to eat, benefits, and tips to stick with the diet here.

Every year, over 600,000 people in the United States die from heart disease.

One of the major contributors to heart disease is poor diet. Diet and exercise are key to preventing heart disease and helping to manage it.

The term cardiac diet is used to denote a heart-healthy approach to eating. It involves controlling what types of foods you consume and limiting others. Avoiding most alcohol is also part of a cardiac diet.

Cardiac Diets Are Low Sodium

Salt is one of the leading causes of high blood pressure. Limiting your salt intake will help to lower your blood pressure and prevent fluid retention.

Be careful when purchasing low sodium foods. Some products are labeled as “no salt added” but can still have considerable amounts of sodium. You’ll want to pay careful attention to nutritional labels.

Cutting salt out of your diet is not always necessary. The key is to limit the quantity ingested to manage your cardiac health better.

Cut down on Processed Sugars

Diabetes is a major cause of heart disease. Lowering the amount of sugar you ingest will help to avoid Type 2 diabetes. Sugar can cause many negative impacts on your health.

Drinks with a lot of sugar can raise blood pressure. Sugary foods also take the place of healthier options and represent what dieticians call “empty calories”.

Cutting down on your sugar intake is critical to a healthy cardiac diet and a healthy body. Replace soda and energy drinks with water.

You Must Avoid Saturated Fats

When we eat saturated fat, it can clog our blood vessels. This can create blockages that lead to a heart attack. The only way to treat a blockage is with a surgical procedure.

Baked foods and fried foods are all high in saturated fats.

Our bodies crave saturated fat foods because we’ve evolved for survival situations. For modern people, there is no reason to consume large amounts of fat.

Decrease Meat Intake

While meat is good for you, the problem is that most people eat way too much of it. Having red meat with every meal is not recommended. Red meat and pork are full of saturated fat and cholesterol.

Digesting red meat can produce harmful chemicals linked to heart disease. It is important to have days without meat in your meal if you want your cardiac diet to work.

Try substituting red meat for more chicken and fish. Another great type of meat for cardiac diets is the rabbit. Rabbit meat is incredibly lean and has very little cholesterol.

Increase Your Vegetable Intake

You don’t have to be a vegetarian or vegan to be on a cardiac diet. You should always eat more vegetables than meat.

Some vegetables are more heart-healthy than others. For a cardiac diet, it’s important to place a focus on these heart-healthy vegetables.

The preparation of vegetables is also important. Much of the health benefit is lost once you fry a vegetable. Potatoes are a heart-healthy food, but preparing them with butter and salt negates their benefit.

Try to steam your vegetables and avoid salty and fatty dressings. Salad dressing, butter, and most condiments are bad for your cardiac diet.

Don’t Ignore Fruits

A majority of adults don’t eat enough fruit. While fruit should be consumed in moderation, it offers you a delicious way of eating healthy. The fructose in fruit is less harmful than processed sugar.

Fruit can help prevent diet fatigue. Having healthy food that tastes good is essential to staying on your diet. You can try to eat too healthy and ruin your diet because of how difficult it is to follow.

Let fruit be a healthy snack and a way to get around that sweet tooth. Instead of grabbing a doughnut, try an apple instead. Switch out sweet, baked treats for fruit and you’ll shed calories fast.

Make Sure to Get Your Whole Grains

Whole grains have been proven to be healthy for you. Whole grains found in certain wheat breads and pastas can be a fantastic addition to your cardiac diet. Eat them in moderation.

The types of whole grains foods you should consider won’t have a lot of salt or fat in them. This allows for the benefits of whole grains without adding negative elements to it.

Medication Can Help You

Your doctor may prescribe you medication to help make your diet more effective. One of the most common types of medication used for cardiac diets is cholesterol medicine.

Another potential medication to help you is Jardiance. Consult with your physician about medication options.

Make Exercise Part of Your Cardiac Diet

Increasing your physical activity is essential to heart health. Even if you eat all the right things, you still need to be physically active.

That doesn’t mean you have to go overboard with intense workout sessions. Moderate, consistent activity that increases your heart rate and burns calories is the best. Light cardio workouts are a great place to start.

Having a proper cardiac diet involves lifestyle changes. Some changes can be difficult. Exercising both build a healthy heart and helps to increase energy levels.

Choose a Diet Plan You Can Stick With 

When you make the choice for your health and future to eat healthily, do it responsibly. Having great intentions when you begin your journey doesn’t mean you’ll succeed.

Make food choices that you can live with. If you’re miserable while following your cardiac diet, it’s far more likely you’ll fail.

It’s not easy to eat healthy all the time. You may have to try new foods and methods of cooking that you aren’t used to. You may also find that your tastes change as you stick with your cardiac diet.

The price of not eating healthy often results in early death. One in four deaths in the United States is caused by heart disease. Don’t be a statistic. Diet, exercise, and medication can all help you.

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