Heart healthy eating.

Before my heart attack last June, my diet was not too bad. But since then, and with constant education from the Heart Institute, my diet has improved. Now I even read labels. Fish is recomended. As is a major reduction in salt intake. Fresh fish is, of course, salt free, but even tinned salmon can be found that is low in sodium.



This particular brand has, in one serving, 4% of the recommended maximum daily intake of sodium. Other tins, without a low sodium content, have up to 25% of the daily intake per serving.






Yesterday, when shopping for foods at The Bulk Barn, I read labels again. Anne purchased some oat flour to make Staffordshire Oat Cakes. I was pleased to see the sodium content was 0%. Across the aisle were some bulk soup powder mixes. Their sodium content per serving ranged up to 200% of the recommended daily intake! We did not buy any soup mixes. Anne makes some very tasty soups from fresh products.

We eat lots of vegetables, and limit our meat input to a serving the size of a pack of cards. Approximately half of our small dinner plates is covered with vegetables, a quarter with pasta or potatoes, and the rest with the selected fish or meat. I even chose an item from the 550 calorie menu while on holiday earlier this month.

Fruit is also a major part of our diet and I even add a tablespoon of crushed flax seed to my morning yogurt for its omega 3 content.

Sausage, bacon, and all manner of fried food are on the prescribed list of foods. Yet we enjoy the variety that is still available and do not miss such foods too much. Eating a heart healthy diet is not too difficult to practice after all.