Meeste hartpatiënten negeren gezondheidsadviezen*
Hartpatiënten worden geadviseerd door hun arts meer groenten, fruit en vezels en minder ongezonde vetten te eten en meer te bewegen. Uit een onderzoek onder 555 mensen
waarbij een hartziekte was vastgesteld blijkt dat er met deze adviezen weinig of niets wordt gedaan.
De gemiddelde score op een voedingsindex van 0 tot 80 was 30,8. Slechts 20% van de mensen nam wel iedere dag voldoende groenten en fruit. Nog geen 8% van hen nam
vezelrijke voeding. Met ongezonde vetten zoals
transvetten was het helemaal droevig gesteld. Het advies voor transvetten is geen of maximaal 0,5% van de totale calorie-inname. De 555 mensen namen gemiddeld 3,41% van de totale calorie-inname. Met bewegen was het al niet veel beter,
slechts de helft van de mensen was in drie maanden tijd één keer 20 minuten in beweging geweest.
Heart disease diagnosis rarely prompts diet change
A one-year follow-up study of patients with heart disease found that few are meeting recommendations for fruit, vegetable and fiber intake, and they were eating a "disturbing" amount of trans fat, Dr. Yunsheng Ma and colleagues from the University of Massachusetts Medical School in Worcester found.
They surveyed 555 people about their eating habits one year after they had been diagnosed with heart disease using coronary angiography. All had suffered some type of cardiac event, such as heart attack, abnormal heart rhythm, or chest pain.
To gauge the quality of their diets, the researchers used the Alternate Healthy Eating Index (AHEI), which measures several aspects of heart-healthy eating such as fruit and vegetable consumption, amount of trans fat consumed, and ratio of white to red meat eaten.
On average, patients scored 30.8 on the AHEI, out of a possible 80. Just 12.4 percent were eating five or more servings of vegetables a day, while 7.8 percent were eating at least four servings of fruit each day. Fewer than 8 percent met recommendations for cereal fiber consumption.
And while public health guidelines recommend getting less than 0.5 percent of total calories from trans fat, people in the study consumed an average of 3.41 percent of their calories in trans fat form.
Just half had exercised for at least 20 minutes at least once in the past three months.
About 80 percent of people don't go to cardiac rehabilitation programs after having a heart attack, the researcher noted, and even if they do such programs often emphasize exercise over nutrition.
"What this paper indicates is that a lot of work needs to be done to basically translate what we know to practice and make sure the patient gets that message," Ma told Reuters Health in an interview.
He and his colleagues are now investigating ways to "deliver a message" about the importance of improving diet for patients with heart disease. Simple messages, like urging people to eat more fiber, may be more effective than complicated guidelines, he added.
SOURCE: Journal of the American Dietetic Association. (Maart
2008)
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