Healthy Eating after a heart attack

[DawnHRD]

OK Sarge, the 2 main things you should be avoiding are bad cholestorol foods & salt. Salt includes soya sauce & fish sauce (nam bplah). Meat should be as lean as possible & try to limit your intake of red meat. Skinless chicken & fish are better.

The good news is onions (esp red) are very good for you. Chop & leave for 10 mins before cooking as it increases the antioxidants. Garlic is also very good & so are chillis (so, no excuses for bland food!). If you eat Thai food at home, I'd tell Mrs Sarge to lay off the deep frying & red meat, be sparing with the fish sauce, but make sure there's plenty of fresh veg, rice, and spices. Fish is good & chicken's OK. Try not to eat too much butter or marg & stir fry with minimal oil. Also, avoid junk food or processed foods as much as possible.

BTW, I've read that a spoonful of honey a day, dissolved slowly on the tongue strengthens the heart. So, if you like honey & you have no probs like diabetes, that might be a nice one to try! I'll research a bit further & see if I can come up with some good recipes, do you prefer Thai or Western?

[sargeant]

Thanks for that Dawn thats what i want to here not the nahm phla bit cos i luv it garlic jeez the ammount i eat i should never get heart desease
The stopping smoking is worryingly proving to be quite easy whilst the food thing is confusing still your info helps and is more in line with what i was thinking anything else would be appreciated

thanks

[sargeant]

Ok dawn req answer what is an example of a bad cholesteral food


The reason i ask is because i rarely eat farang ie bratwurst/chips maybe twice a month most of my 2/3 other forays per month into farang food is braised pork cutlet (no fat) mash tatas and 3 veg
Everything else i eat is thai with lots of spring onions garlic by the bucket fish boiled chicken and BBQ pork so i am still puzzled as to what i have to cut out i dont eat beef (red meat) ok ill cut out the chicken skin (guilty)

[Big Boy]

Sarge/Dawn,

Does this link help http://www.glycaemicindex.com/? I've found it useful to help with my diabetes, but don't really know if goes far enough to help with cholesteral.

[Big Boy]

Had a few minutes to surf the net - is this the sort of thing you're looking for http://uuhsc.utah.edu/pated/handouts/handout.cfm?id=889?

[DawnHRD]

Bratwurst's not really good (fat & salt), but if you only eat it once a month it shouldn't do too much harm. Oven chips though, not fried & no more than once or twice a month. The chicken & fish is good, but again, cut back on the pork a bit - maybe only once a week. How do you cook your pork cutlet? Suggest grilling & throwing away the fat. No butter in your mash, add a spot of low fat milk instead & liven it up with black pepper if you like it. Mash is also nice if carrots are mashed in (it makes it sweeter).

Another thing I thought of that you might need to cut down on drastically is coconut milk or coconut cream in curries. It's very high in fat & is a bad cholestorol food, I've heard. Sorry. I'll do a bit more research (& look at BB's suggested sites) & see what else I can come up with menu-wise for you.

[lomuamart]

Hey Sarge,
No more of those tom kha khais. Great food, but not exactly healthy with all the coconut.

[Jockey]

Another thing I thought of that you might need to cut down on drastically is coconut milk or coconut cream in curries. It's very high in fat & is a bad cholestorol food, I've heard. Sorry. I'll do a bit more research (& look at BB's suggested sites) & see what else I can come up with menu-wise for you.

On reading this I decided to check up on it, cos' recently I've been drinking loads of coconut milk (about 3/4 a day)! I found there is a swell of contradictions on the net:
I found this:
In recent years, coconut milk has somehow been given a bad reputation - unfairly. Yes, coconut milk and oil contain fat - but this is good, not bad fat. Contrary to what you might believe, coconut milk helps to lower bad cholesterol, while promoting good cholesterol. It also has immune-boosting power, and offers numerous other health benefits, including anti-aging.
And this:
Good points
No cholesterol
Very low in sodium
High in manganese

Bad points
Very high in saturated fat

Nothing ever seems straightforward. Anyways - Get Well soon Sarge and keep up the quitting smoking - its easy when you haven't really got a choice!

[lomuamart]

Suppose that means everything in moderation?
Sarge, just stay on a low fat diet.

[Guess]

The good news is onions (esp red) are very good for you.

That may well be true but what about the effect on global warming?

[sargeant]

BB the second list made sensible reading except for ONLY 3 egg yolks a week

I use 3 egg yolks in a lime meringue pie every week
nearly all baking requires eggyolks

I will have to have a rethunk on that one

But other than that one point it made sense jockey has the same result that i got ie is it or aint it i use coconut milk as a laxative as well by the way

I grill my cutlet to seer it then put it in onion /mushroom oxo gravy seal the lid and braise it slowly for about 1 1/2 hrs

Dawn if poss could you move this to health issues as it is of topic from tin shacks the people who are still coming to visit to see i am ok

[Wanderlust]

On the coconut milk issue, I believe there are at least two different types of coconut milk, possibly from different types of coconut, or from different stages of ripeness. If it is the packaged coconut milk, I have a carton in front of me as I type, and it says this:
Nutrition Facts
Serving size 1/3 cup (80 ml)
Amount per serving
Calories 140 kcal (calories from fat 130 kcal)
Total fat 14 g
Saturated fat 10 g
Cholestorol 0 mg
Protein 1 g
Total carbohydrate less than 2 g
Dietary fibre 0 g
Sugars 2 g
Sodium less than 15 mg

It goes on to list the vitamins, but it also has a % Daily Value based on a 2000 calorie diet, and the saturated fat represents 50%, although the total fat only represents 22%!
In case you are interested the particular brand is Aroy-D.

[Jockey]

On the coconut milk issue, I believe there are at least two different types of coconut milk, possibly from different types of coconut, or from different stages of ripeness. If it is the packaged coconut milk, I have a carton in front of me as I type, and it says this:
Nutrition Facts
Serving size 1/3 cup (80 ml)
Amount per serving
Calories 140 kcal (calories from fat 130 kcal)
Total fat 14 g
Saturated fat 10 g
Cholestorol 0 mg
Protein 1 g
Total carbohydrate less than 2 g
Dietary fibre 0 g
Sugars 2 g
Sodium less than 15 mg

It goes on to list the vitamins, but it also has a % Daily Value based on a 2000 calorie diet, and the saturated fat represents 50%, although the total fat only represents 22%!
In case you are interested the particular brand is Aroy-D.

Cheers WL! Actually I'm talking about the watery liquid in a coconut! Silly me. I thought that was coconut milk. I assume the liquid inside a coconut is good for you? I just get up, go to the fridge and crack one open every so often. They cost 8 baht a pop and sometimes free if I'm out n' about. I enjoy using the hatchet to burst them open. They feel nutritious and are great for a thirst. After I drink one I go mmmmmmaaaahhhh! I hope its not bad for me 'cos I thought I was being healthy?

[STEVE G]

I don’t know why, but there is that clear liquid that you get out of a coconut to drink and the creamy white stuff used in cooking; certainly when you lop the top off a green coconut you get the clear stuff, I shouldn’t think there’s much unhealthy about that , but the other stuff is probably not so good.

[lomuamart]

I think the water from a coconut is OK. However the milk that's made from pressing the flesh isn't so good. Full of fat apparantly?
Mind you, the milk's used in lots of Thai dishes and it dosn't seem to harm anyone.
Can anyone confirm this?