Changing diet due to Angina

[KimB68]

Since being told I have angina and starting medication, I have refrained from eating meat and dairy cheese. Opting for a plant based diet. My concern is that things like vegan cheese contain saturated fat derived from coconut oil should I be concerned with this as coconut oil is OK for chlorestoral??

[MichaelJH Heart Star]

Hello and welcome to the forum!

Coconut oil is 90% saturated fat compared to butter which is about 65=. High levels of saturated fats raise the level of LDL cholesterol (I.e. bad cholesterol). So coconut oil is a very bad choice. The BHF recommend a Mediterranean style diet and I recommend cook books on the subject by the original Ross Poldark (Robin Ellis). Food choices can be tricky as lean free range beef can have half the fat of factory farmed chicken.

[KimB68 in reply to MichaelJH]

Thank you that's very useful .. its a bit of a minefield I will look up Mediterranean diet .. I hope avocados are OK

[MichaelJH Heart Star in reply to KimB68]

Avocados are fine. Whilst they do contain unsaturated fat (which is healthy) contrary to popular myth they do not contain cholesterol. The recommendation seems to be around two portions per week is a healthy amount.

[KimB68 in reply to MichaelJH]

That's great news .. yippee

[Heart124 in reply to MichaelJH]

I saw this reply and have just ordered one of his recipe books. Thank you. I often don’t fancy my dinners and look forward to receiving the book.

[MichaelJH Heart Star in reply to Heart124]

My favourite one is "Delicious Dishes for Diabetics (A Mediterranean Way of Eating)". Although it is written for Type IIs I find it extremely useful. My only criticism is it doesn't give nutrional values and I have to work out the carbs as a carb counting Type I. The soup section is good as all the recipes throughout are low salt. I recently had a cuppa soup and was then staggered to find that in that one cup was 20% of the RDA of salt! And that's a healthy option?! 🤣🤗🤣

[Wolfgirl71]

I just read How Not to Die by Dr Michael Greger which was highly informative- and interesting- where he talks about the benefits of a plant based diet. He is hugely strict but I have taken what I can from his teachings, mainly eating much less processed foods, less fat, more legumes and vegetables and fruits.

His website, Nutritionfacts.org is very helpful too. He set it up after his grandmother had end stage heart failure and found that a plant based diet extended her life by an unexpected amount. All his work is non profit and goes back into the videos and books and talks that he does - he is a man on a mission. Good luck!

[PeterpPiper]

veg is good lots of different veg but you also need oils preferably olive oil lots of it

I suggest you do reading about lowering carbs. The key is to eliminate anything processed if your previous diet included this.

Good luck, there’s plenty of “cure all” diet books out there but the low carb route worked best for me

[Chappychap]

My concern with diet advice is that the science is far from being settled, but that doesn't stop people becoming passionately evangelical about one diet rather than another. At times it feels more like religious wars or particularly rabid football fans than a clinical choice!

I'm increasingly of the view there isn't one perfect diet for everyone.

The more we understand about how our genes determine how we process food, and the more we understand about just how unique is each person's individual gut flora, then the more unlikely is is that there's "one true faith" with diets.

So, for example, someone with Type 2 Diabetes (which will be many of us on this forum, perhaps as much as a third or more even if still undiagnosed) may well decide that the evidence suggests they should be dramatically reducing carbs and sugars. That might push them away from a purely vegetarian or vegan diet.

On the other hand someone carrying the APO E3 gene (which is about 17% of the general population but is likely to be quite a bit higher on this forum) needs to massively reduce fat (and alcohol) in order to reduce their risk of heart attacks, strokes and dementia. So that might suggest they should avoid a high protein diet.

Then of course there'll be some people who are both carriers of the APO E3 gene and also have Type 2 Diabetes. Their diet choices for optimum health will be extremely complex!

However, none of this complexity seems to stop the fundamentalist diet bores from proclaiming they've discovered the only route to salvation.

[Hidden]

👋 Hi Kim, Just read your post whilst eating three rounds of white semi burnt toast richly covered in butter 🧈. Now feeling a little sheepish 🐑! So, perhaps I should be following your example, but the evidence still remains sketchy on the benefits of laying off dairy saturated fat etc. It wasn't that long ago that the BHF was warning people off eggs that's now been proved to be totally false. However, when you get over the shock diagnosis that you've got heart disease it's only human nature to look for a cure or something you can do to reverse the disease. If you're a young person it must be traumatising and if following a strict Vegan regime feels empowering more power to your elbow 💪 but I wouldn't discount the benefits of dairy products even though drinking & eating anther species milk has always struck me as being a little odd!

Really hope your diet can reverse your Angina. Best wishes, Denis

[Ardbeg28]

Diet I'm sure is ultra important for all heart related problems. Since having two heart attacks (one was a cardiac arrest) in 2011 when I was 55, I've been living with heart failure. After 6 months of these attacks I was diagnosed with a severe leaky heart valve. Surgery was ruled out as I had done too much damage to my heart so the only option was a transplant. That concerned me greatly. However the main factors I believe that helped were walking and diet. After a few months and two right heart catheter examinations, I was told the valve was much better and I wouldn't need a transplant after all. The diet and exercise I'm sure were the big factor. I went on a plant based diet after coming across a book which I found while researching- "Prevent and Reverse Heart Disease" - dresselstyn.com/site/books/...

He is extreme and says no oil but a lot of heart diets say olive oil is good. For me plants and no oil helped except I cheated in that I ate poached salmon and occasionally sardines.

Coconut oil is definitely a no no. Avocado not too bad and I also I've had on occasions. I am not as strict as I was but I don’t use oil in cooking, instead boiling, poaching and fry with water or veg stock. I dont eat dairy- cheese or vegan cheese, butter, cream or milk (have almond/oat milk). I know it's hard to find no fat/oil in foods without making your own and that takes time. But if you're concerned with keeping well that gives you the motivation. Of course this has helped me but others I'm sure would disagree about no oil. It works for me that's why I'm sharing.

Other info and cooking sites :

cookingwithplants.com/recip...

drmcdougall.com/education/c...

Many interview videos by AJ: youtube.com/live/gVzo-00NNO...

youtu.be/209mL_8CzGU(Not working as expected?)

Not so much from UK. Hope this is useful.

God bless.