What Should I Eat, Since I Don't Like Hospital Food?

Here's part two of my not having a heart attack at age 40 regimen. Trust me, hospital trays for people on cardiac diets are not anything to look forward to!



DIET

Eat a nearly vegetarian, low fat diet. The physician I spoke with recommended Dr Dean Ornish, a cardiologist who advocated a mostly vegetarian, very low fat, "good" carb diet for reversing heart disease. Apparently it works, and unlike other diets is supported by randomized controlled trials. The only drawback? It is considered too strict for most people to succeed. After all, not everybody is trying to recover from a big infarction. It's also very anti-fat, even the "good" fats such as olive oil or the fats in nuts and seeds. He makes the argument that all fats contribute to weight gain (because they're the most calorie-dense food substance there is). And that even good oils, such as olive oil, still have saturated fat, which recommends avoiding at almost all costs.

So I guess as a compromise, Ornish wrote a new Spectrum book in which he reworks his diet to include people who don't need such drastic measures. His diet is still pretty much the same: mostly consisting of good carbs and fiber, high in protein but low in meat. So accordingly I've tried to increase my intake of heart-healthy foods: in order of amounts, vegetables, fibery foods (oats, ground flaxseed), and fruits. And believe it or not (I never thought I'd be saying this) I don't miss meats and cheeses and fatty foods. You do kinda feel better if you're snacking on baby carrots or hummus rather than deli meats and chips. I rarely eat red meat, although it really is too good to give up entirely. But I try to treat it as a treat. And I've even tried to decrease (not eliminate) my intake of chicken (even the white meat is pretty fatty), lean pork, and all oils.

However, I'm still all about nuts and seeds. I think they do help, in moderation. And I also eat lots of fish, fat be darned. They're high in omega-3 fatty acids, which are heart-healthy. I'm particularly going for sardines, tuna, salmon, catfish, and shellfish. I feel better, for instance, if I snack on a bag of that pre-seasoned tuna (some varieties have enough oil to almost be considered a light tuna salad), rather than whatever I used to chow on.

What do you think? I think the Ornish diet, all told, makes more sense than Atkins, which is high fat. Or South Beach, which proscribes foods based on glycemic index, which may not be accurate. A white potato may be high in carbs and have a high glycemic index, but if you eat it with other fibery foods its glycemic load is actually lower and slower than if eaten alone. (That's just an example; we've actually abandoned white potatoes in our house for sweet potatoes.)

So I'm calling on you, my readers, for a dietary consult. Any recommendations? What do you eat at home to stay healthy? What do you bring to work, and how do you bring it?

Don't want to diet? There's always Part 1: Fitness.