Dietary Evaluation and Counseling Should Be Emphasized for Coronary Heart Disease Patients

Abstract

Dietary modifications have been shown to reduce the risk of future cardiac events in patients with coronary heart disease (CHD). This study found that patients’ diets remain marginal 1 year after recent diagnosis of CHD ( 1 Ma Y. Li W. Olendzki B.C. Pagoto S.L. Merriam P.A. Chiriboga D.E. Griffith J.A. Bodenlos J. Wang Y. Ockene I.S. Dietary quality 1 year after diagnosis of coronary heart disease. J Am Diet Assoc. 2008; 108: 240-246 Google Scholar ); in fact, the quality of the diets of these patients is significantly worse than that of most of the popular diets, as we have reported in a previous study ( 2 Ma Y. Pagoto S. Griffith J. Ockene I. Merriam P. Hafner A. Olendzki B. A dietary quality comparison of popular weight loss plans. J Am Diet Assoc. 2007; 107: 1786-1791 Google Scholar ). Patients with established CHD need to be counseled to improve their CHD risk factors through dietary changes that address both dietary quality and weight loss when needed. The results of this study suggest that there is significant room for improvement in the development of systems for referral and more aggressive follow-up of these patients, engaging the patients in nutrition education programs focusing on behavior modification and dietary quality.