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My DH had bypass surgery almost 20 years ago. A couple of years later, he had a stent put in. For awhile, he ate almost nonfat, and he dropped a lot if weight. Since he was never overweight, this sudden drop was alarming. Eventually, he has become much less motivated to eat healthy. Since I am the cook, it is up to me.
While I don’t like needless fat in foods, I think it is more important to eat fresh veggies and fruit, less processed food, and whole grains. So, that is what we do. We eat mostly whole grain bread, cold pressed olive oil, fresh veggies, some canned fish, more chicken than beef, beans and we don’t snack in the evenings. I garnish our salads with sunflower and pumpkin seeds, instead of croutons.
He eats desserts when he has the opportunity, but they aren’t part of our daily diets.
But you are right, that many people do not follow healthy diets. I personally know of people with diabetes who eat sweets freely. And I also know of people who cream their coffee with whipping cream!
But how people eat is their choice. I know from personal experience that changing one’s diet is very hard.
I got a stent a year ago. I go to a big church that has a Tuesday morning senors group of 100 people and many have a stent, or some even have had open heart surgery and some have had mini strokes.
I try to eat heart healthy but it's hard. They have a snack table with mostly sweet stuff witch I can skip easy enough but if I'm somewhere where ice cream is offered I always take some because I really like it.
A lady sometimes brings biscuits and gravy that is really good and i always take one serving.
A life long meat lover I now eat mostly chicken or turkey which is OK. I remove the skin.
Sandwiches with cold cuts,(lots of salt) and cheese I sometimes take, I remove the cheese.
I see friends with stents eating donuts or other artery clogging things regularly and other sweet or greasy stuff.
I just had a quadruple bypass done on August 21st, and am doing great. I had angioplasty done 31 years ago, and it held for all those years. In the very beginning, 31 years ago, I did eat much healthier. My wife at the time was an RN, and she made me toe the line.
However, over the years, I began to slip, and went right back to my old habits. This time, I am sort of watching it, I watch my salt intake especially, but I do eat a lot of stuff that I guess I should not be eating. But I want to enjoy life too, regardless of how long or short it might be, so I am willing to lose a few years if it means I can live a freer life now.
That might be a stupid approach, but living on rabbit food is for rabbits, and I enjoy a good meal and a few beers occasionally. So I am willing to take the risks involved.
With poor genetics and a lifetime of a bad diet, some people decide it is time to eat "healthy". Big deal. By that time the damage is already done. I wonder if a change in diet has any effect at that point. The idea of a healthy diet is generally to reduce cholesterol. A whole bunch of people have normal cholesterol and still get heart attacks.
Dr Dean Ornish runs healthy eating programs which reverse heart disease. His scientific studies have shown that diet can reverse heart disease.
Since not everyone can attend one of Dr Dean Ornish’s programs, one can purchase his healthy eating to reverse heart disease books which have eating guidelines and recipes on Amazon.com
For all of the advances made in the treatment of heart disease, heredity is still one of the primary causes. At least that’s what the surgerold me when I had bypass surgery 18 years ago. His exact words to me were “your heart disease is 80% hereditary and 20% sedentary”. Basically it was if I was going to have a heart attack, but when.
Heart disease has claimed every male in my family on my dad’s side, all of them in their 50’s. My older brother had a massive stroke at 37 followed by serious Heart complications. He was as fit as anyone I’ve ever known, so fit he was on the cross country team for the Air Force. So it was inevitable that I would have it too.
When I first had bypass surgery I totally changed my eating habits. That lasted until about a year after my heart attack, when I became consumed with work and fell back into my old habits. About a year ago I started having all too familiar symptoms and sure enough, I had major blockage in two arteries. The original bypass was still as clean as a whistle but I now had blockage in new arteries. I had two stents installed and am feeling great today. I walk about 20 miles a week and try to watch what I eat. I’m losing weight and hope to continue to do so.
Interestingly,18 years ago I had two stents and they both failed within three months, thus the need for bypass surgery. My current cardiologist told me that the stents I had back then had a 30% failure rate, while the new ones I just got have a 2-3% failure rate.
But you are right, that many people do not follow healthy diets. I personally know of people with diabetes who eat sweets freely. And I also know of people who cream their coffee with whipping cream!
Why not cut these people some slack? I doubt anyone puts more than 1 tbsp creamer in their coffee. The calorie count is negligible. The tiny (.7 gram) amount of fat contributes to a satiation effect. In other words, it makes you feel less hungry.
A Sausage and Egg McMuffin contains 470 calories and 30 grams of fat, for comparison purposes.
Since my heart attack in June, I've had 5 stents (4 initially, and 1 three weeks ago). I don't eat any lunch meats, beef, or pork. I stick to chicken or fish, mostly salmon. I like to use salmon packets in salads or mixed with fat-free shredded cheese, which I also use in salads. I buy fat-free treats like Welch's fruit snacks instead of cookies, because they're also low in sodium and have 100% vitamin C. If I want chips I buy the 65% reduced fat ones and strictly regulate my portion. I've upped my intake of fresh fruits and veggies as well. I read labels on every packaged food before I buy it. I do wish I could still drink black decaffeinated coffee, but it doesn't taste the same since the attack, so I drink sugar-free cappuccino now.
I weigh less than I have in 25 years and hope to lose more. I bought a mini trampoline since the weather has been so rainy that I won't walk in it, plus winter is here now. I also use mini weights. My sister died just after Christmas last year because she never addressed her cardiac problems, combined with a long history of diabetes. I'm only 10 years younger than she was and have no desire to follow her soon.
If you think diet doesn't affect you, watch the documentary "Supersize Me". The filmmaker Morgan Spurlock went through a long period of eating only at McDonald's and agreeing to "supersized" meals (extra fries, Coke, etc.) any time the order-taker suggested it. He traces the impact on his health- weight gain, bloodwork results, even sexual function (which deteriorated).
He was an extreme, of course, but it was a graphic illustration of what happens to your body if you live mostly on processed crap. Even if eating healthy doesn't reverse previous damage (and I suspect that it does reverse at least some) it's worth it for the current benefits.
Quote:
Originally Posted by silibran
But you are right, that many people do not follow healthy diets. I personally know of people with diabetes who eat sweets freely. And I also know of people who cream their coffee with whipping cream!
And this is what drives me nuts. My Dad once half-jokingly pointed out to a female friend that she was loading her plate with cholesterol and she replied, "Well, I can just take more statins". Yeah, there's a pill for everything so why bother with prevention? And then there are pills for the side effects of the pills... ad infinitum.
Dr Dean Ornish runs healthy eating programs which reverse heart disease. His scientific studies have shown that diet can reverse heart disease.
.....
Actually HIS "scientific" studies were published 20 years ago and were pretty sketchy. There have been a few rebuttals, but basically little or no confirmation of his findings. He seems to have benefited most with some level of fame and fortune.
There is no doubt that weight reduction and exercise are of benefit, but supposedly healthy diets are way, way more uncertain.
...... My Dad once half-jokingly pointed out to a female friend that she was loading her plate with cholesterol and she replied, "Well, I can just take more statins......
Actually I talked with my cardiologist about this very issue. First needing more statins is unlikely. Statins work by blocking the production of cholesterol by the liver. Dietary fat intake has little effect on this. My cardiologist was concerned about excess fat in the diet because the fat can mean weight gain. He was not concerned about fat leading to excess cholesterol and heart disease.
Of course, just eating well does not typically change an individual's cholesterol level. Most of the ads for nutrition benefits are in fact meaningless and absurd. Quaker oats is supposed to help. Well, maybe just very slightly. The study the company likes to refer to claimed about a 15 mg/dl reduction in cholesterol. That is less than typical short term variation and less than the lab variation in measuring cholesterol.
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