What dietary considerations should be taken into account for stroke patients?

Stroke is a common clinical disease that usually occurs suddenly and causes significant damage to the brain, potentially threatening life. The treatment of stroke patients in clinical practice often involves medication control. Besides these routine drug treatments, dietary care is also crucial and should follow dietary principles. So what dietary considerations should stroke patients be aware of?

1. Mainly vegetarian diet: Stroke patients should focus on a vegetarian diet, with a preference for beans and bean products. These foods are rich in protein, and soybean oil contains unsaturated fatty acids and lecithin, which are beneficial for cholesterol digestion in stroke patients.

2. Moderate consumption of tea: Stroke patients should consume tea moderately as tea has diuretic effects. The tannic acid in tea has an astringent effect and can adsorb fat, helping to reduce the fat content in stroke patients.

3. Limiting fat intake: Stroke patients should reduce their overall fat intake, avoid animal fats, and use vegetable oils such as soybean oil, peanut oil, and corn oil instead. The cholesterol in the diet should be limited to 300 milligrams or less per day, equivalent to three egg yolks per week.

4. Increasing protein intake moderately: Stroke patients should moderately increase their protein intake from sources such as lean meat, skinless poultry, fish (especially seafish), tofu, and dried bean curd. Eating these foods can help lower cholesterol and blood viscosity.

5. Avoiding smoking and alcohol: Nicotine in cigarettes can damage the blood vessel lining, causing vasoconstriction and narrowing of the lumen, which can easily lead to vascular embolism. Excessive alcohol consumption can increase blood pressure and increase the risk of stroke. Therefore, stroke patients should avoid smoking and alcohol.

6. Controlling calorie intake: If the total fat intake is controlled in the diet, blood lipids will decrease, and the weight of obese or overweight patients will also decrease. It is ideal to achieve or maintain an ideal body weight, which is beneficial to the physiological functions of various internal organs throughout the body and can effectively prevent the recurrence of stroke.