What is the Diet for Congestive Heart Failure?
Diet plays a major role to improve one’s condition associated with the problem of congestive heart failure. Hence, with the help of this article, you will come to know about foods to include and foods to avoid for congestive heart failure.
Foods to Include for Congestive Heart Failure Problem
Congestive heart failure problems require a healthy and a balanced diet consisting of carbohydrates, protein, vitamins and minerals found in whole-wheat products, vegetables and lean meats.
Meat and Chicken: Skinless chicken, fish and turkey constitute healthy meat-based dishes to have with congestive heart failure. These food items come with high value of protein. In addition, fish comes with omega-3 fatty acids, because of which it reduces blood pressure. Moreover, whenever you prepare your meat, you should make sure to grill, bake or broil it instead of frying it.
Vegetables and Fruits: Vegetables and fruits come with low calories and carbohydrates, while incorporate high amount of vitamins and other essential nutrients. Hence, with the aim to manage your problems/symptoms related to congestive heart failure, you should make sure to have 2 to 4 servings of juicy fruits and 3 to 5 servings of vegetables on a daily basis.
Homemade Soups: Besides boiled meat items and green veggies, you may try homemade soups for congestive heart failure, which come with low-sodium broth. In addition, you should make sure to buy fresh veggies to reduce the intake of sodium further.
Whole-wheat Grains: Whole-wheat grains are preferable than white-flour breads for congestive heart failure. Reason for this is that carbohydrates present on whole-wheat grains are of complex type and hence, they require relatively more time to digest by your stomach. During the slow digestion period, body of a person receives consistent energy and hence, one feels satiated for relatively long time.
Foods to Avoid for Congestive Heart Failure Problem
Now, let us have a look on foods to avoid, which you should avoid strictly if you are a patient of congestive heart failure.
Sodium-based Foods: It is very much essential for an individual to put a limit on the sodium intake, as it results in making your heart functions relatively harder. Ideally, a patient with congestive heart failure should limit the intake of salt to about 1500 mg in one day. This means you should reduce your salt intake and avoid fast foods and processed foods. In addition, you should avoid saltshaker; instead, replace it with herbs, spices and similar other seasonings.
Processed Foods: You should strictly avoid processed foods, which often come in boxes and cans, like canned veggies, canned soups, cheese and similar others. Even you should avoid salty snacks, such as pretzels, nuts and chips. Each of these mentioned food items come with high levels or percentage of sodium that forces your body to hold additional amount of water. Other than this, a patient with congestive heart failure should strictly avoid or at least the intake of salad dressings, tomato juices, seasonal mixtures and noodle soups.
Meats and Whole Milk: If you are a patient of congestive heart failure, you should make sure to limit the intake of whole milk and meats, which contain high saturated fat. Diets incorporating high saturated fats have close relationship with high cholesterol levels and heart problems. Hence, you should make sure to reduce sausages, red meat and bacon to reduce cholesterol and thereby, improve CHF symptoms. In fact, you should reduce the intake of saturated fat to up to 10 percent of the total calories. Along with this, avoid the usage of solid fats, like lard or butter while you cook foods.
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