Diet

Diet in Cardiovascular Disease

Congratulations for having successfully undergone your operation. We have tried to compile here a diet for you that is easy to follow and that leaves several options open so that you can enjoy a varied menu. This is a balanced diet, and it contains all the essential constituents of food, like protein, carbohydrates and some fat, all of which are essential for a healthy life.
In the first couple of weeks after your operation, you may have a poor appetite. At this stage/try not to impose too strict a regimen on yourself.

• Try and use a low cholesterol oil for cooking, like saffola, corn oil, or sunflower oil. Olive oil is also good but should not be used for deep frying.
• Heavy pulses like rajma, broad beans, Chhole. Harbara contain a lot of protein, but they need to be cooked in plenty of Fat; they also produce a lot of flatulence (gas). If you have eaten them and experience “gas”, do not panic. The best treatment for “gas” is a long walk. It gets your intestines moving, and this gets rid of the nuisance. Home remedies like churans and other advertised products artificially increase the motility of the intestine and are probably harmful in the long term.
• Most Indian foods are cooked with a lot of carminatives. These are substances like elaichi, taj, laving which stimulate the intestine and result in plenty of flatulence. Some amount of flatulence and gas is natural, and while socially embarrassing, is a fact of life, and long walks are the best cure.
• “Sodas”, carbonated drinks, arc best avoided. They are traditionally thought of as good cures for gas because one burps with them, but they themselves cause increased gas in the stomach.
• Cakes, pastries, cream, ice cream and kulfi and also some Indian sweets are very high in fat content. If one is forced to indulge in them, have only a small amount, as in prasadam.
• Dry fruits (except probably resins and apricots) are best excluded from the diet as they contain a lot of cholesterol. Particularly avoid them.
• Shortly after the operation you may have a couple of kilos of variation in your weight. This is because of the water that is present in your system. The weight tends to stabilise in a couple of weeks.
• Not everybody needs to lose weight after the operation. If you have been advised to lose weight, try to lose not more than a kilo or two each month. Faster loss than this is probably harmful to the system.