Don't let this be you; Most heart disease patients don't follow lifestyle change recommendations

We all know the importance of eating a proper diet (including servings of fruits, vegetables, and fiber) and exercising. These guidelines are particularly important to people who have been diagnosed with heart disease. However, and remarkably, the majority of those who are diagnosed with cardiac issues do not adhere to these practices.

A one-year follow-up study of patients with heart disease by Dr. Yunsheng Ma and colleagues from the University of Massachusetts Medical School in Worcester found that:

... few are meeting recommendations for fruit, vegetable and fiber intake, and they were eating a "disturbing" amount of trans fat.

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.

Perhaps worst of all, researchers found that "just half had exercised for at least 20 minutes at least once in the past three months."

Whether or not you have cardiac issues, don't let this be you.

For more information and tips check out the links below.

SOURCE: Journal of the American Dietetic Association, February 2008 and reported in Reuters Health