Analysis of my diet

dav1

I am a 70 year oId retired teacher from Ontario, Canada. I am in the enviable, or unenviable position (depending on your perspective) of being able to eat the same menu 24/7, 365 days a year. It makes inputting my data into cronometer relatively easy -- I just have to do it once. In 2011, I faced the prospect of a triple bypass operation because of six blockages involving my three main arteries. I declined, watched Forks over Knives, read Prevent and Reverse Heart Disease by Dr. Esselstyn and converted immediately to a WFPB diet. Over the past 8 years, with the help of cronometer, I have slowly refined my diet to the point where I think I have covered all my basis, but although knowledgeable, I am not a WFPB nutrition expert, and I can't say for sure that I have. It has always been my intention, not just to slow the progression of my heart disease, but to actually reverse it.
Alas, at the end of November, the unthinkable happened. Even though I had dropped sixty pounds, exercised daily and have eaten a strict WFPB diet for the past 8 years, I still had a small heart attack. Although my previous eight years have been event free and I consider my overall health to be very good, I feel it is time to examine my diet more closely. My diet was designed with a premise that a variety of foods would be essential to meet my nutritional needs and that I would need enough variety in a single day (since each day would be the same)to meet those needs. The diet would also aim at a 10% target for fat consumption (it currently sits at roughly12%). Cronometer was absolutely essential in the design of my diet. To me, the diet appears strong. I think I have struck a pretty good balance of fruits, vegetables, whole grains and legumes. In essence, it is pretty much a starch-based diet. What I would like is for an expert to analyze it and offer me suggestions. I am more than willing to make changes as long as they are in line with keeping my total fat intake close to 10% (and don't involve give up my oatmeal. Not exactly sure how to post a copy of my cronometer page hre that shows the diet, but I will research that problem. Any advice I might get from this forum about the makeup of my diet would be greatly appreciated. Cheers Dave Whiteside, Bracebridge, Ontario.

Susan_RD_101

@dav1

Good news! I am a Registered Dietitian, based in Ottawa, Ontario, and an expert on plant-based diets. I'd be more than happy to work with you to review your dietary intake. Feel free to get in touch with me through my website:

www.susanmacfarlanenutrition.com

Also, I think that your diet likely helped delay/minimize your cardiac event. Genetics do play a strong role in heart disease, which makes diet even more important.

Kind regards,

Isabelle_2019

Hi Dave,
As I was reading your post, a video came to my mind. It is called " 40 Year Vegan Dies of a Heart Attack! Why The Omega 3 and B12 Myth with Dr Michael Greger "

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KG6D5g8fYhM

You talk about your diet but not about any supplement you might or might not take.

O thought I was being super smart, I had my diet revised by a nutritionist, had all the nutrition books, was using cronometer and other nutrition analysis tools, but after seeing that video, I decided to have my omega 3 index tested.
I wasn't worried because - according to cronometer - I was eaying more than 836% of my plant based omega 3 with my daily 2 tbls flaxseeds on oats + chia seeds + walnuts .
So it was a shock to receive the results at 3.8 . It seems my body doesn't convert at all ALA into EPA and DHA. Now I am taking algae based EPA and DHA and my level have now reached the minimum of 8 and I am aiming to get to 12 or 13.

Having the omega 3 tested is quite unusual, my family doctor had never seen one in 20 years. Without going to a lab, I have found while researching omega 3 , a company that can analyse it with a drop of blood on a piece of paper https://omegaquant.com I haven't used them yet, I am going to use them the next time I do it, and do both, the lab and omega quant on the same day to see if I get the same results.

The point of my post is that in addition to having your diet revised, go for the lab work on the main nutrients and to include the omega 3. At a level of 3.5, there is cognitive decline, so it is quite important to at least have them tested once.

Also, keep in ming, that the nutrient content in a food listed might not apply to the one in your shopping trolly. Nutrients vary. A vegetable or fruit grown in your garden with a soil rich in minerals and instead of ones cultivated in water in a massive hangar, doused with chemicals and then kept refrigerated for weeks won't have the same nutritional value.

Use cronometer as a starting point, but don't forget than on a WFPB you still need B12, vit D and in my experience DHA ?EPA