What To Eat When You Have Mitral Valve Disease?

If you have mitral valve disease it is important for you to have a heart healthy diet which will be beneficial for mitral valve disease. Having a heart healthy diet helps to maintain the mitral valve disease in a controlled status, prevents complications occurring form mitral valve disease and it also prevents other heart diseases which can worsen the heart condition more. Also, if you are taking drugs like anticoagulants for the mitral valve disease then there are some foods you should avoid.

Low Sodium/Salt Diet. Increased salt intake for a long time can give rise to hypertension. The heart, mainly the left ventricle has to pump harder to overcome the increase pressure in the arteries to maintain the normal cardiac output. This cause an increased workload on the left ventricle muscle. With time left ventricular dysfunction occur. On top of the mitral valve disease when the left ventricle also fails the cardiac disability worsens. Therefore, avoid adding salt your food, avoid food with high salt like dried fish. When you are having food form outside always request for no salt dishes.

Have Plenty Of Fruits And Vegetables. Include plenty of fruits and vegetables in your meals and even have fruit or vegetable juice in-between main meals. If you are on anticoagulant’s you need to avoid some vegetables, we will talk about this at the end of the article. There are no limitations in consuming fruits and vegetables so have more of those in your diet as much as possible.

• Have Complex Carbohydrates. There are two types of carbohydrates
• Simple carbohydrates are found in fruits, refined food like bread, pasta and sugar.

Complex carbohydrates are found in vegetables, brown rice, whole-wheat noodles, bread, crackers and pasta. Always check the labels for food starting with whole. Oats, whole-bran, products with whole-wheat have high amounts of fiber.

Consume complex carbohydrates and avoid simple carbohydrates and refined sugar.

Consume Fish And Lean Meat. Have more fish it contains omega-3 which is good to reduce blood pressure, it reduces clot and plaque formation, reduce the triglyceride levels, and increase the HDL cholesterol. There are so many benefits form omega-3 for the heart and it is good for your mitral valve disease. Lean meat is meat with excess fat removed like skinless chicken, turkey and red meat. These have less fat and you should consume lean meat and avoid meat with high fat content.

Consume Food With Unsaturated Fat. There are mainly 3 types of fat. unsaturated fat, saturated fat and trans-fat. The good fat is the unsaturated fat which is seen more in fish, vegetables, nuts and seeds. Have plenty of these to get the required fat as they are good for mitral valve disease. Saturated fat which is found in meat, cheese, milk, butter should be consumed in small amounts, saturated fats should be about 5-6% of the daily calorie intake. Trans fats which are found in fast food, snacks and baked food should be completely cut down.

Maintain A Normal Vitamin K Level. This is mainly if you are taking anticoagulants like warfarin. Vitamin K helps in the normal blood coagulation and helps mitral valve disease. If your vitamin K levels increase then blood tends to clot and form thrombus in the blood vessels which can cause atherosclerosis. This can cause stroke or heart attacks in the body. Warfarin is a blood thinning agent so, you don’t need to consume more vitamin K food that promote clotting when you are on warfarin. Do not completely cut down the vitamin K food as well. Have the below mentioned food in normal amounts regularly so that the warfarin dose can be titrated accordingly. Foods rich in vitamin K. Green leafy vegetables, such as kale, collards, spinach and turnip greens

• Cabbage
• Brussels sprouts
• Asparagus
• Broccoli

If you have mitral valve disease it is important for you to have a heart healthy diet which will be beneficial for mitral valve disease. Have more fruits and vegetables, complex carbohydrates, fish, lean meat and unsaturated fats. Avoid high salt intake, simple carbohydrates, saturated fat and trans-fat. If you are on anti-coagulation medication have normal amount of regular vitamin K intake.

Also Read:

• What Causes You To Have Mitral Valve Disease?
• Coping Methods For Mitral Valve Disease
• What Are The Symptoms Of Mitral Valve Disease?
• Prevention Of Mitral Valve Disease
• Can Mitral Valve Disease Be Reversed?
• Is Mitral Valve Disease A Serious Condition?
• What Not To Eat When You Have Mitral Valve Disease?