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7 foods to avoid with congestive heart failure

7 foods to avoid with congestive heart failure

7 Foods To Avoid With Congestive Heart Failure

The heart is the body’s ticking metronome that keeps things functioning and sustains life. Therefore, congestive heart failure is linked with life threatening outcomes for people. The food one eats is instrumental in keeping their heart healthy or making it fraught with issues. Certain foods like leafy green vegetables, fatty fish, and cod liver oil are great for one’s heart. Certain others, like the ones listed below, are foods to avoid with congestive heart failure:

Burgers and steaks

Processed meats are among the worst foods for one’s heart. Therefore, if someone is vulnerable to congestive heart failure, they must stay a mile away from foods such as burgers and steaks, the mainstay of ultra-processed meats. Foods like mega-sized burgers, even in their unseasoned avatar, can introduce high amounts of fat in the bloodstream and cause clogged arteries in individuals. Instead of these foods, people seeking meaty delights can eat more fish than red meat-based foods. Foods such as salmon, tuna, trout, and cod are rich in omega-3 fatty acids and very low on saturated fats. These attributes help lower the harmful triglyceride levels and cholesterol levels.

Salted nuts

Salt is a particularly bad food for one’s blood pressure and overall heart health. Sodium consumption results in fluid retention in even the healthiest of individuals. So, people vulnerable to congestive heart failure can have serious complications if they consume too much sodium/salt-based foods in their daily meals. High-sodium foods like salted nuts inadvertently are also high-fat and high-calorie foods. So, someone with cholesterol problems can simply compound their health issues when they consume too much salt in their foods.

Additionally, salt also absorbs water like no other food elements. So, salty foods like salted nuts can cause a shortage of fluidity in one’s blood and result in blood pressure issues and, in the long term, even death.

To reduce the element of salt from one’s life, people can remove the salt shaker from their dining tables, consider lemon, garlic, black pepper, vinegar, and ginger as alternative tastemakers instead of salt, and only consume foods that contain less than 140 mg of sodium. One must opt for foods that come with the label “no added salt.”

Coffee

If there is a food component that competes with salt in terms of being bad for one’s heart, that is caffeine. Some people cannot begin their day without a brewing cup of coffee. Nor can many people get through an entire day of work without dipping into their caffeine reserves. Coffee causes irregularities in a person’s heart. Additionally, coffee consumption is linked with high blood pressure and clogged blood vessels, causing a range of heart issues. Therefore, even individuals who drink as low as two servings of coffee per day need to cut down on that quantity or eliminate caffeine from their lives entirely.

For those who are susceptible to congestive heart failure, coffee is an absolute AVOIDABLE for ever.

French fries

Just like caffeine-based foods and processed meats, fried foods also cause issues with one’s circulatory system. Foods such as potatoes or chicken are healthy on their own, but once they are chopped and deep fried in oil, they become inundated with fat and cholesterol. Ultra-processed and deep-fried foods such as fried chicken and French fries tend to raise the blood pressure of people. Therefore, they rank pretty high on the list of foods to avoid for people vulnerable to congestive heart failure. Fried foods include chips, deep-fried chicken and other meats, and crispy foods purchased externally, among other food items.

Cheese, butter, and cream

Certain kinds of dairy foods are great for one’s overall health. For instance, adding milk and yogurt supply protein to one’s body and also generous amounts of bone-building calcium and vitamin D. However, the kind of milk-derived foods one chooses also play a major role in how their health functions and their heart sustains itself. Foods such as ice cream, butter, milk, and cream contain large amounts of saturated fat and LDL cholesterol (also known as bad cholesterol). This is why, one must consume low-fat dairy products in order to keep the risk of congestive heart failure at bay.

Aerated beverages

Aerated beverages are high in refined sugar and other avoidable sugars. These food components cause inflammation and other issues in various parts of the body. High blood sugar causes people to develop issues with blood circulation, blood clotting, and other issues that are linked with performance and functionality issues of one’s heart and overall circulatory system. Aerated beverages like sodas and soft drinks are responsible for a large number of people around the world developing diabetes and other blood sugar-related issues. These issues are also inadvertently linked to heart failure and congested blood vessels.

Cakes, candies, and pastries

Saturated fat is often the primary cause of heart issues in a large percentage of people with heart disease. Too much sugar directly causes people to have more LDL cholesterol and triglycerides in their blood, while also having lesser percentages of HDL cholesterol. Low HDL and high LDL and triglyceride levels cause people to have issues like hardened blood vessels, congestive heart failure, more laborious blood flow, and other serious conditions. As implied earlier, if a person’s blood sugar is high, then they are not far away from heart disease and even heart failure, both of which can lead to loss of life.

References:

https://www.pennmedicine.org/updates/blogs/heart-and-vascular-blog/2020/august/avoid-these-foods-if-you-have-heart-failure

https://www.webmd.com/heart-disease/heart-failure/features/foods-to-avoid-heart-failure

https://www.ucsfhealth.org/education/diet-and-congestive-heart-failure#:~:text=Stay%20away%20from%20hidden%20salt,fresh%20foods%20when%20you%20can.

https://www.webmd.com/heart-disease/heart-failure/ss/slideshow-best-and-worst-foods-for-heart-failure

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