1. eat less and eat more.

Patients with heart failure are generally seriously ill and need to stay in bed, so their activity is greatly reduced. Coupled with congestion in the liver and gastrointestinal tract, their appetite and digestive ability are poor, and some patients will also have gastrointestinal symptoms such as abdominal distension, nausea and vomiting. Therefore, it is necessary to adopt the method of regular and quantitative, eat less and eat more meals, and it is best to eat 4 ~ 5 meals a day, which is eight points full. Cooked food should be liquid and semi-liquid, such as rice porridge, lotus root starch, egg drop soup, milk, yogurt, thin noodles, thin wonton, biscuits, dry bread and other digestible foods. If you eat too much every meal, the stomach cavity will expand, the diaphragm activity will be affected, and the myocardial function will be reduced, which is not conducive to the recovery of the heart. Avoid eating hard, cold, greasy and irritating food on an empty stomach. Potatoes, pumpkins, sweet potatoes and other foods that are prone to flatulence should also be eaten as little as possible or not, so as not to increase the burden on the gastrointestinal tract.

Step 2 limit salt intake

Sodium salt can increase the sensitivity of blood vessels to various pressor substances, cause arteriolar spasm and raise blood pressure. Sodium salt also absorbs water. Experiments show that each 1g salt can carry 200 ~ 250ml of water in the body. If the human body ingests too much sodium salt, the water will increase proportionally, and the whole body blood volume will also increase, which will directly increase the burden on the heart and aggravate the already heart failure. Therefore, we must limit the intake of salt. Patients with mild heart failure are limited to 3 grams per day (normal people need 6-8 grams of salt per day). Patients with severe heart failure can eat a salt-free diet if edema is obvious, urine output is reduced, and they are flustered and short of breath. Pickled vegetables, pickles, salted fish, bacon, soy sauce and other salty foods and all pickled products should be fasted. At the same time, we should strictly control the amount of drinking water. After the illness improves, it will gradually return to normal diet and drinking water.

3. Pay attention to food diversification

While not increasing the burden on the heart, we should pay special attention to the supply of nutrients in order to nourish the heart, enhance its function, improve the nutritional status of the whole body and enhance the body's resistance. Therefore, we should eat more nutritious foods, especially high-quality protein, vitamin B and vitamin C which are rich in various essential amino acids. Encourage patients to eat as much lean meat, fish, eggs, milk, beans, fresh vegetables and fruits as possible. Eating more vegetables and fruits can not only supplement the vitamins, minerals and cellulose needed by the body, but also dredge the stool and prevent constipation, which is of great benefit to patients.

4. Adjust the diet according to the cause.

Different diets can be prepared for heart failure caused by different causes of heart disease. For example, patients with hypertensive heart disease and coronary heart disease are generally obese, and obesity will directly increase the burden on the heart. Therefore, overweight patients with hypertensive heart disease and coronary heart disease should limit the total calories in food, and it is appropriate to provide less than 30 kilocalories per kilogram of body weight every day. Hyperlipidemia is the basis of coronary heart disease, so it is necessary to limit eating foods with high cholesterol, such as fat, animal fat, animal viscera, roe and so on.

Patients with anemia heart disease often need iron supplementation, and iron-rich foods such as spinach, rape, sesame paste, jujube, black fungus, lean meat, pig liver, sheep liver and other blood-enriching foods should be eaten frequently.