Dietary advice for a healthy heart

Eat well, Drink well, Sleep well

Remember a simple logic the amount of food your body can digest is fixed. The food that we consume daily is a mix of healthy and unhealthy food.

So simple logic tells us that if we consume more of unhealthy food the amount of healthy food that we eat automatically decreases.

Hence we should make a conscious effort to increase the amount of healthy food so that eating unhealthy food automatically decreases.

“Drink well” by that we mean specially in a tropical country like ours, drink as much water as you can with a minimum of 2 litres per day in an otherwise healthy individual make every attempt to drink coconut water and fresh watermelon both of which has water in it with an additional benefit of electrolytes. 

Sleep well. Sound sleep is the greatest stress reliever and stress is a major risk factor of heart disease. No wonder we need at least   5 to 7 hours of sound sleep.  To remain fit and alert throughout the day.

What healthy diet essentially means?

Diet rich in fruits –eat all types of seasonal fruits that are available to you with special focus on citrus fruits like grapes, oranges, sweet lemon etc.  Even diabetic patients are advised to take fruits with some minor adjustments.

Diet rich in vegetables– take all that is readily available with special focus on green leafy vegetables.                 

Restrict salt intake- do not use added salt, restrict intake any form of  salty food as an increase in salt intake causes rise of blood pressure

Author– Dr Debdatta Majumdar,

M.B.B.S- Calcutta University, MD Medicine(Cal)(Gold Medalist), DM Cardiology(Cal), MRCP(London)