Heart Healthy *and* Delicious?!?

[Draznnl]

The Spice House has a series of salt-free rubs. https://www.thespicehouse.com/search...&q=Salt%20free
I especially like the Oaxacan Ancho Coffee blend.

Smoked boneless turkey breast is your friend. I eat a truckload of the stuff. Since I smoke it pretty hot and fast on the pellet grill, I’ll use chipotle powder in my rub to give it a smokier flavor.

Best of luck to your father-in-law. I hope his health holds out for many years.

[texastweeter]

Wild game is always a good alternative. Shanks can be smoked and braised, shoulders smoked and pulled, hams smoked then braised as well. Tell you what, hit me up and tell me a dish he enjoys, I can probably send you back something very similar that is approved.

[Santamarina]

Thank you. I’m going to take you up on that offer!

[Santamarina]

Thank you all for the input, Pit Family. Seems we have much to learn and experiment with. Tonight I have much more hope that he can still eat delicious food.

[Alan Brice]

Panhead John you may want to switch up your canned tuna for other varieties of fish. Not fishsticks. It is quick n easy, I have heard the mercury in canned tuna is not good. I have nothing to back that up.

[Grillin Dad]

The big culprit with canned tuna is albacore, or ‘white,’ tuna. Skipjack, or ‘light,’ tuna is much lower. But yeah, FDA recommends limiting it to 3 servings (one can = one serving) a week.

https://www.consumerreports.org/health/food-safety/how-worried-should-you-be-about-mercury-in-your-tuna-a5041903086/

[Donw]

Half the battle is just deciding to stay away from fast food, most restaurants, and processed foods. Any version of what you miss about any of them, prepared at home, will be healthier.

[Santamarina]

Staying away from fast food was his doctors #1 suggestion for a successful/healthy future.

[Mosca]

I do have something to offer.

Don't treat this like a hairshirt. One thing that we all tend to do when faced with this kind of decision is that we go completely overboard in the opposite direction of what we’ve always done. But that is counterproductive to the extreme.

First, biology doesn’t work that way! All these effects are cumulative, over time… like over years. 6 months of eating kale and bulgur wheat might get you to lose some pounds (not the least because it tastes disgusting), but your “numbers” (HDL, LDL, triglycerides, etc) aren’t going to really move for another year or so. All that’s going to stop is the accumulation of bad effects, which is good, but nevertheless very minor in the long run. Make small changes.

Second, if he makes huge changes, they will not stick. After my heart attack, and subsequent bypass surgery, my cardiologist put me on the Ornish diet. Early findings were that it REVERSED coronary artery disease (spoiler: it doesn’t). You want extreme? How about no fats, at all. None. No vegetable oil. No olive oil. Nothing fried. No animal products, either. No meat, no chicken, no fish, no dairy products (cheese, butter, milk). No egg yolks. For an entire year I VERY STRICTLY followed this, eating only rice, beans, and vegetables, steamed or cooked in water, or baked. For omelets I used egg whites from a carton, sautéed in a non stick pan, with spinach or broccoli, or onions, etc. And, honestly, at the end of a year of doing that, along with a rigorous regimen of getting up at 5:30 every day and going to the gym, I was in pretty good shape… but only some of my numbers had moved, and I was VERY unhappy. The extra life wasn’t worth it, if that was what the extra life was going to be like.

Which leads to third. Eyes open. This isn’t a harbinger, it isn’t a death sentence; it is a living sentence! He has been granted more time with life, and with loved ones, and if he doesn’t use that time to enjoy that life, then that grant will be wasted. The older we get, the harder that can be, actually. Aches, pains, infirmity, loss of friends and loved ones… it gets harder to seize the zest that makes all this shit worthwhile.

Fourth: stay social. When we get old, that gets hard. Isolation causes a decrease in sense of purpose, which leads to not caring about anything. I don’t know him, you, or your family, so I’m only putting that out there as general advice. It’s something my cardiac nurse went over with me after my most recent catheterization. I actually prefer isolation, so I’m kind of torn on that one. I’ve decided to be “social enough”; I won’t seek it out, but I wont try to avoid it, either.

Fifth: exercise. This is one that I ignored for most of the last 30 years, and I am really lucky for a lot of reasons that have nothing to do with me and everything to do with my cardiac surgeons at the time, who used arteries for the grafts instead of veins. He doesn’t have to blow it out. He doesn’t have to go nuts. Recent research says all he really has to do is avoid sitting in a chair for long periods, and he should walk about 20 minutes a day. 20 minutes seemed like forever when I was younger, but now it feels like the blink of an eye: it’s a 10 minute walk that you have to walk back home from. That’s it. The walking gets easier after the first week.

So: Stay involved in living. Keep moving. Salt your food, just not too much. Make 3.5oz burgers instead of 6oz burgers (but it’s okay to have a 6oz burger, maybe Memorial Day, July 4th, etc). Share a big steak. We laugh about vegetables, but we all know that they are actually really good; plan the meal around the vegetables first, then the main. Texas friends, avert your eyes: this is the main reason I put beans in chili; instead of using 3lbs of meat, I use 2lbs of meat and 1lb of beans. (My chili is excellent.)

Because, remember, all these effects are cumulative. Little steps, all taken together, make big steps. Especially in his mid 60s, where big change isn’t really going to happen. I’m 69. A lot of my mental calculus reduces to thinking, “Naw, don’t bother. I’m probably going to die from something else before that becomes an issue.”

[Michael_in_TX]

And these are all very, very excellent points, many of which I am trying to orient myself towards as I get older.

Your third point is especially illustrative of the power of perspective.

[Mosca]

Your third point is especially illustrative of the power of perspective.

It was heartbreaking to watch this with my father as he got older. He lost his will to live fully, long before his body gave up. But it gave up little by little, almost incapacitating him while his mind was still working. He knew he didn’t care. He would ask, “How did this happen?”

[CaptainMike]

These are the same conclusions (and experiences) I came to as well, and is a wonderful prescription for post-cardiac living. I'll never forget coming back to work and having one of my firefighters ask about my heart attack and how old I was. When I told him I was 47 he replied "Well, Cap, I guess you won't have another one until your 94" While he was technically wrong, his comment really helped put things in perspective. It was a long process to get there, and a long process to recover.

[Michael_in_TX]

Humans tend not to do well with large changes, but small, incremental changes have a better chance of sticking.

For example, partially due to this thread, I altered what I eat for breakfast. Did I replace my Korean rice bowl with a salad? No, of course not (plus that would be weird eating a salad for breakfast).

What I did do is not use the MSG on the eggs -- I didn't notice the difference and added some frozen peas in with the rice, which actually was quite tasty.

I think that is the key to eating healthier, small 1-degree course changes.

[Mosca]

Salad for breakfast is pretty good! Just add bacon and a hard boiled egg, croutons, and some grated cheese. It’s like a cold omelet, or a deconstructed BLT.

[Michael_in_TX]

Mosca, you know....that actually does sound pretty good.

[Mosca]

One strip of bacon. One egg. A scattering of cheese, and you can use one piece of toast for croutons. The rest is lettuce, tomato, scallion or shallot, and cucumber. If you don’t drown it in dressing you’ve got a really good breakfast salad that fills you up. I do that once every couple weeks or so.

[Alan Brice]

Alert- you can probably hide those beans in just about anything. Tater masher once they are soft, or puree mechanically. This is a great thread! Very timely, for me. Just received my quarterly Rancho Gordo supply. Two pounds of Midnight Black xtra fancy Turtle Beans!

[LA Pork Butt]

Healthy fats and spices can make up for things like boneless skinless chicken thighs. Think healthy fats and spices. They can make ordinary things taste good. “Taste good” is the key to changing what you eat. Lean chicken, beef and pork ain’t beef, but it can be made healthy to taste awfully good.

[Histrix]

Trying to determine what exactly is "healthy eating" often leads to strong feelings - much like arguments over "the best lump charcoal".

One thing I will add tho is that anyone looking to lessen their salt intake should not fret too much about their food becoming tasteless.

A few years ago I had a trip to the ER and a couple of weeks in the hospital followed by a couple of weeks at a rehab facility. While in the rehab place their dietician chatted with me about the food plan I would be on - low sodium - and that I would be surprised how well my taste buds would adjust to the change.

My first meal after regaining my freedom and returning home was a desperate longing for some of my favorite local pizza. I'll never forget opening the box and looking at the lovely cheese and the glistening pepperoni. I raised the first slice to my mouth and took that first bite and... it was disgusting! Way too salty and greasy. I was stunned; it was almost (almost ) inedible. However, it did clearly demonstrate that the dietician was right.

I continue to try to stick with D.A.S.H. diet guidelines and minimize my salt intake, I do modify my cooking and at least halve the amount of salt a recipe might call for. Anyone that feels their serving needs more salt is free to use the salt shaker on the table.