| Samjase
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This past week my husband was diagnosed with hypertension. He is a runner and in great shape so this was a real shocker to us. I started SB almost 2 weeks ago and now need to add another twist to it that will make things a bit more difficult. Everything must be very low sodium and no red meat or pork. Also, no canned food of any kind. The doctor and my husband have agreed to not put him on medication if he can first lower his blood pressure through diet. We will follow this for the next few weeks and see if it changes his numbers. If it does, then we will stick with it. If it doesn't and he has to take medication, we will go to phase 2 and remain on that for life.
So for all of you out there having a tough time, look up! At least you can open a can of beans to make your chili while I will constantly have beans on the stove to make them from scratch. :lol:
By the way, in order not to cook differently, I'm joining him on this. So I'm just completing phase one to only go to something a bit stricter.
We can have:
Fish (at least 6 times a week)
Chicken (rarely---white meat only, cooked without the skin or salt)
Vegetables (all different kinds with the exception of potato)
Fruit (all kinds but not too much)
Legumes (no salt----yuk!))
Soy
Brown rice and grains (only after the next checkup and only if numbers are down)
So..............if anyone out there has a great idea, please pass it on to me. Another thing, if you open a can of something that is good for South Beach and ALSO, is under 100mg of sodium, please let me know. I need all the help and support I can get.
Samjase |
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Sat Apr 19, 2008 5:59 pm |
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| ladybugnessa
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oy.... what a pain.
ask the doc if rinsing the beans (from the can) will help... |
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Sat Apr 19, 2008 6:24 pm |
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| Samjase
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Well, it's official. We received all the blood work results and the doctor says that the best program for us to be on to reverse the heart disease in my husband is the Dean Ornish program. Completely vegetarian. I will start studying today to see how to make the two programs work together.
Samjase |
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Mon Apr 21, 2008 1:12 pm |
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| RedRox
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| They will clash in the areas of fat consumption. I am pretty sure Ornish is extremely low fat regardless of source. SB only limits saturated fats and encourages the other good fats. And the more fat free stuff you consume, typically the more added sugars and weird ingredients there are to compensate. |
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Mon Apr 21, 2008 3:15 pm |
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| Samjase
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Well, there is no doubt this will be an all natural diet so I will have to cook from scratch, meaning I also control the sugar along with the fat. One thing his doctor said was to follow Ornish's plan but also add healthy olive oil and lots of soy. So that helps.
I just need to tweak it here and there. |
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Mon Apr 21, 2008 4:35 pm |
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| RedRox
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OK. I've only looked at his plan briefly. I think he is very natural foods oriented as well and I suspect lots of veggies and whole grains would be similar and it sounds like your Doc is trying to include more good fats in the form of olive oils as well. What about omega oils in things like oily fish like salmon? Also just curious but soy in what forms? Even tofu is fairly processed, but certainly allowed. soy beans are probably your best option. Look online for pros and cons about soy protein isolates. I remember some debate about their general healthfulness or lack thereof, but don't remember any of the specifics. Burdle's Bean thread stickied at the top of the Recipe forum I think might help you too. She has been vegan for a long time due to health reasons and has a lot of creative uses of beans/legumes for protein sources as well. BTW, cottage cheese is a very good quality protein source as well if you look it up at www.nutritiondata.com . They have a protein quality rating for foods that you might find helpful as you move forward as well.
Good luck! just another speedbump! keep moving forward!! :) |
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Mon Apr 21, 2008 8:03 pm |
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| Samjase
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Red, this is exactly what the doctor sent us. I had just asked him if he thought we should meet with a nutritionist together (hus and I) and this was his response. You can see the area of fat that he has added.
I can do that if you really want to, but I am not sure that is going to help you to optimize the health of your diet the best. What the individual nutritionist considers the optimally healthy diet may differ from nutritionist to nutritionist as there is some controversy about it and I am not sure they are going to tell you what I think is the optimal diet because there is still resistance to believing it even though there are many studies which show it. I would suggest reading Dr Dean Ornish's latest book (he is a cardiologist and has been on the forefront of healthy cardiovascular diets for the last 30 years. He was the first one to demonstrate that you can reverse hardening of the arteries with diet. His diet is basically a vegetarian diet. The only thing that I would suggest different than what he recommends is that he recommends as little fat in the diet as possible. One of my colleagues who has been following his diet for about 30 years (whose father had a heart attack in his 50s and my colleague recently had a heart scan and his coronary arteries were totally clean!) found that by following his diet to the letter, he still had a low hdl cholesterol. So he added small amounts of "healthy" fats- nuts, olive oil and whole fat soy, and found that his hdl cholesterol went way up. My colleague is one of the few people I know whose hdl cholesterol is now higher than his ldl cholesterol! (to be fair, he is an avid mountain climber going out most weekends so he may exercise for 10 hours or more on the weekends, so his results would be hard do duplicate, but he did markedly change his cholesterol through his diet). |
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Tue Apr 22, 2008 5:59 pm |
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| TeeniBikini
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The one thing I don't really like about that is....
Dr. A is also a cardiologist, and isn't operating on 30 year old ideas. :? Ornish seems like he may be one of those that would steer you away from eggs, or something like that. ????
I've never seen substantial proof that a vegetarian diet is actually perfectly healthful...there are always problems. From the various nutrition books I've read, I don't get the idea that it's ever necessary to be a vegetarian.
This doctor is encouraging you to avoid nutritionists who might not agree within their approaches, but what he's suggesting you follow, from one cardiologist, doesn't agree with other cardiologists. I'm confused. |
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Tue Apr 22, 2008 7:07 pm |
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| luvs_torun
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Keep in mind that Doctor A's idea's are not new and have been around awhile :wink: .....
he was just able to put together a sound diet (with good information that was already out there) for his patients (obese, cardiac patients w/diabetes)... that worked well for them and then seemed to "catch on" with the general public.
Cardioligists will differ by not only patient... but practicing styles and opinions.. and what is best for one patient may not work for another.
I understand what he is saying about the nutritionists also..... he is saying that nutritionists information can differ between nutritionists..... and while I believe a nutritionists services are valuable if you have no health problems and/or are looking for healthy ways to improve your diet.... they are not medical doctors (and maybe he is concernced about conflicting advice they may give.)
I get a bit of a "feeling" Samjase they you and your husband may not be completely comfortable with what your husbands doctor is telling you.
A second opinion is always a good idea...... |
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Tue Apr 22, 2008 7:19 pm |
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| TeeniBikini
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Well, that's true. I guess Ornish wouldn't have to be going on old ideas either, necessarily.....but he sure doesn't seem to be paying attention to the most recent knowledge available.
That low/no fat stuff is dangerous. My hair started falling out when I did it - within only about two weeks. |
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Tue Apr 22, 2008 9:39 pm |
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| Samjase
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Thanks for the suggestions everyone. We are actually quite comfortable with our doctor's suggestion since we were almost vegetarians anyway. We will give it 3 months, have blood work done again and then go from there.
Coincidentally, I'm not having any problems staying on South Beach with this new twist. So far so good!
Samjase |
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Wed Apr 23, 2008 12:57 pm |
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| RedRox
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| BTW, if you don't eat fish, flaxmeal and walnuts are good veggie sources of omega oils. Those are heart healthy and would likely improve HDL as well. (HDL= the "good" cholesterol) whole flaxseeds themselves don't really digest, so you never really get out of them, what's in them! The ground flax/flaxmeal also has decent fiber and phytoestrogens and other good stuff that is very healthy. I consider it more of a nutritional supplement than fat/oil so I personally don't count it against my fat/oil servings, although that is the official version! ;) |
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Wed Apr 23, 2008 3:11 pm |
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| Kimboroni
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FWIW, my dad also had a higher HDL than LDL for a while. He isn't a vegetarian, and he isn't into extreme amounts of exercise. He just followed regular SB eating and walked for maybe an hour a few times a week.
I'm glad that if the doctor is recommending Ornish, it's with the added good fats-- those are very important. SB can actually be compatible with that. |
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Wed Apr 23, 2008 4:41 pm |
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