New Delhi: The untimely deaths of stars Siddharth Shukla and Puneeth Rajkumar in the recent past spread a fear psychosis of heart attack among people with hospitals reporting record numbers coming for cardiac checkups.
While the tragic deaths drove home the point of the importance of having a healthy heart, the message will be lost if we do not follow what it takes to have such a heart. This means changing one’s dietary behaviour and switching over to home-cooked food as opposed to intake of processed and ready-to-eat food.
The American Heart Association (AHA) has released guidelines for “overall dietary patterns” to improve heart health with focus on individual nutrients or foods. It is the first time since 2006 that the guidelines have been updated.
The 2021 Dietary Guidance to Improve Cardiovascular Health has been published in the journal Circulation.
“Poor diet quality is strongly associated with an elevated risk of cardiovascular disease morbidity and mortality. This scientific statement emphasises the importance of dietary patterns beyond individual foods or nutrients, underscores the critical role of nutrition early in life, presents elements of heart-healthy dietary patterns, and highlights structural challenges that impede adherence to heart-healthy dietary patterns,” noted the scientific statement from AHA.
The guideline comprises the following pointers
- Adjust energy intake and expenditure to achieve and maintain a healthy body weight
- Eat plenty and a variety of fruits and vegetables;
- Choose whole-grain foods and products
- Choose healthy sources of protein (mostly plants; regular intake of fish and seafood; low-fat or fat-free dairy products; and if meat or poultry is desired, choose lean cuts and unprocessed forms)
- Use liquid plant oils rather than tropical oils and partially hydrogenated fats
- Choose minimally processed foods instead of ultra-processed foods
- Minimise the intake of beverages and foods with added sugars
- Choose and prepare foods with little or no salt
- If you do not drink alcohol, do not start; if you choose to drink alcohol, limit intake.
Diet matters because……
“Grounded in science, the updated guidelines give strong emphasis on diet along with physical exercise. They also provide recommendations from birth to older adults in Asian Indians. This includes a reduction in the intake of carbohydrates, preferential intake of complex carbohydrates, higher intake of fibre, slightly higher protein intake, lower intake of salt, restricted intake of sugar, etc. that will help curb the rising cases of cardiovascular diseases, obesity, the metabolic syndrome, to name a few. This nutritional transition has the potential to cause diet-related non-communicable diseases as well as obesity,” Dr Siddhant Bhargava, fitness and nutritional scientist, co-founder- Food Darzee told indianexpress.com.
“The need of the hour is to disseminate information on how diet is an important factor in preventing coronary heart disease. And, further, a low-saturated fat, high-fibre, high plant food diet can significantly reduce the risk of developing heart disease,” Dr Bhargava added.
Rutu Dhodapkar, Dietitics Department, P D Hinduja Hospital and Medical Research Centre, Khar, recommends avocados as an excellent source of monounsaturated fats, which help in reducing cholesterol levels lowering the risk of heart disease; including Omega 3 Fatty acids like salmon, mackerel, sardines and tuna and vegetarian sources like chia seeds, flaxseeds and walnuts.
