For patients with dyslipidemia, it is necessary to have a suitable and balanced diet to help reduce blood lipids and prevent dangerous complications such as atherosclerosis, hypertension, cerebrovascular accident. , heart attack…
Dyslipidemia (RLLPM) is a medical condition when one or more lipid parameters are disturbed (elevated cholesterol or triglycerides, or increased LDL-c, or decreased HDL-c…). RLLPM is often found in association with a number of cardiovascular – endocrine – metabolic diseases. At the same time, RLLPM is also a risk factor for this disease.
The cause of RLLPM can be primary such as genetics or secondary to an unreasonable lifestyle. Treatment of RLLPM changes the lifestyle (increasing physical activity, changing the diet: limiting alcohol, animal fat …) or using drugs to reduce blood lipids.
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* Why is dyslipidemia dangerous?
Hypercholesterolemia has been shown to be a modifiable risk factor for cardiovascular diseases. Often, multiple cardiovascular risk factors coexist and promote progression. When you have multiple risk factors combined, your risk of cardiovascular disease increases many times over.
When there is too much LDL cholesterol in the blood, it slowly settles into the walls of blood vessels. Together with a number of other substances, it will form atherosclerotic plaque and cause the lumen of the artery to narrow or completely block.
Atherosclerosis is a term used to describe the deposition of fats, cholesterol, cellular breakdown products, calcium, and blood-clotting fibers (fibrin) in the artery walls. Atherosclerosis has also been found to increase with age, with familial factors, and in some people with other cardiovascular risk factors (besides dyslipidemia) such as diabetes, obesity, smoking, high blood pressure…
* Principles of eating for patients with dyslipidemia.
Need to reduce fat (lipid) intake: this is the most important rule. In normal healthy people, the amount of fat in the diet accounts for 22-25% of total energy, but for patients with RLLPM this ratio should be only 15-20%. Fat in foods is divided into two types, saturated fat and unsaturated fat.
Saturated fat, also known as “bad fat”, increases total cholesterol, blood triglycerides, LDL – cholesterol, cholesterol.
This fat is often found in a number of foods such as: bacon, animal fat, poultry, butter and dairy products. In contrast, unsaturated fats or “good fats” help reduce cholesterol, triglycerides, prevent plaque, two typical forms of “good fats” that we hear the most are omega-3 and omega -6. Legumes are rich sources of omega-6: black beans, peas, red beans, soybeans… in addition, some vegetable oils are also rich in omega-6s (sesame oil, sesame oil, sunflower oil, etc.). .).
Need to reduce dietary cholesterol: in normal people, the recommended intake of cholesterol is 500-600mg/day. For patients with dyslipidemia, the cholesterol should be below 300mg/day, and limit the intake of cholesterol-rich foods such as animal organs, fast food, fried foods. Many patients believe that dyslipidemia should not eat eggs, leading to patients abstaining or even never eating eggs, this view is completely wrong. Egg yolks contain a lot of cholesterol, but they also contain lecithin, which helps absorb and metabolize 60-70% of this cholesterol. Therefore, patients with dyslipidemia can still eat eggs. The Institute of Nutrition recommends eating 3-4 fruits/week.
Increase fiber: especially fiber in vegetables and fruits helps slow the absorption of lipids into the blood and reduce blood lipids. In addition, fiber when entering the stomach will increase the volume of stool to prevent constipation.
Increase foods containing many vitamins, antioxidants minerals (A, C, E. zinc…): some foods rich in vitamin A (red and dark green vegetables and fruits: tomatoes, tomatoes, etc.): carrots, red bell peppers, pumpkin, amaranth, cabbage, water spinach, papaya, mango, banana…). Vitamin C is abundant in citrus plants (grapefruit, oranges, tangerines), celery, coriander, watermelon.
In addition, it is necessary to drink enough water as recommended, each person should drink 40ml of water/kg/day (for example, a 50kg person should drink about 2 liters of water/day).
Limiting alcohol, soft drinks, and tobacco contributes to reducing the increased risk of complications in patients with dyslipidemia: coronary heart disease, stroke.