How Heart Disease Changed the Way I Eat

When I was diagnosed with a form of heart disease called dilated cardiomyopathy, I never thought it would change the way I ate. It was a shock at first when the doctors gave me my diagnosis. I am a former athlete, having played on teams for most of my life, and I was super fit.

I enjoyed playing sports for most of my life

I've always loved fitness, nutrition, and wellness. It has been a part of me since I first started sports at a young age. There was something attractive to me about playing sports and being active, and it was fun.

The first sport I ever played was soccer, and it wasn't really my cup of tea, but I fell in love with volleyball. Volleyball was the sport that was the most fun for me, but it wasn't the only sport I was interested in. Track and field was what I went to college for on scholarship, and I loved track even more than volleyball.

I always had a heart-healthy diet

I’m telling you all this because I wanted to show you that I lived an active lifestyle all my life. When I received my diagnosis, I was shocked because I was the healthiest one in my household growing up. I always believed in a well-balanced diet, and I lived that way as well. I loved fitness and nutrition so much that I even went to get my personal trainer certification and became a personal trainer. I thought because I was active and eating healthy that I would escape all diseases, but that wasn’t the case.

With my diagnosis came a new heart-healthy diet, which really wasn't that much different from what I was already used to, but it did change my salt intake.

Increase the good, limit the bad

A heart-healthy diet is one that is low in sodium, cholesterol, and saturated fat. The reason why low-sodium diets are recommended for heart disease patients is because higher sodium can lead to high blood pressure, which in turn makes the heart have to work harder.¹

A heart-healthy diet also consists of fruits, veggies, fiber, and whole grains. In addition to the fruits and veggies, lean proteins are on the list of what heart disease patients should be eating. We should also be limiting saturated fats like those found in fatty meats and full-fat dairy products. They're also often found in "junk" foods like cakes, cookies, and chips.^1,2

Fiber is good for the heart and is found in fruits, vegetables, beans, and grains. Lean protein can be found in chicken breasts, Greek yogurt, lentils, salmon, and tuna, just to name a few. Unsaturated fats are recommended for heart disease too, and are found in things like seeds, nuts, and olive oil.^1,2

Elements of the heart-healthy diet I've struggled with

The hardest part of the heart-healthy diet for me was reducing the amount of processed food from my diet and watching my salt intake. I’m a snacker, and it’s hard for me because a lot of snacks that I like are processed and are more likely than not to be loaded with salt. So, in an effort to stick to a healthy-heart diet, I stopped buying snacks so I don’t have the urge to go and start snacking again.

It's also a good idea to limit baked goods and candy on the healthy-heart diet, which was hard for me to do because I am a baker by trade. That means I have to taste everything I make for quality control, but I have scaled that back a great deal. The rest of the heart-healthy diet is second nature for me because of my athletic background.

Heart-healthy eating is for everyone

Just because you eat heart-healthy doesn't necessarily mean that it precludes you from being diagnosed with heart disease. It’s like the fact that wearing a seatbelt doesn’t mean that if you get in an accident you won't be injured. You might still come out with scratches and bruises.

In that same way, if you eat healthier, it may lessen the effects of heart disease. Even when we do our best to stick to it, though, many of us are predisposed to heart disease; for some of us, it’s just in our genetic makeup.

The moral of the story is that heart-healthy diets are good for everyone, even if you already have heart disease.

What was the hardest adjustment you had to make with your diet? Share in the comments below.