SoCal Flipbooks

1 Congestive Heart Failure Nutrition Therapy Guidelines Managing heart failure through nutrition consists of reducing your intake of sodium (salt) and fluids, as well as maintaining your body weight. Your healthcare provider will give you specific guidelines for how much fluid you should consume daily. Limiting sodium is important because sodium causes your body to retain (hold) water, which can lead to symptoms like swelling and shortness of breath. To help prevent these symptoms, aim to keep your sodium intake less than 2,300 milligrams per day. For reference, one teaspoon of table salt contains about 2,300 milligrams of sodium. Tips for Limiting Sodium in Your Diet: • Choose fresh and frozen fruits and vegetables without added juices or sauces. • Choose fresh, lean meats instead of processed options such as sausage, bacon, hot dogs, and basturma. • Skip the salt when cooking pasta, rice, casseroles, and soups. • Read food labels and look for these sodium-related claims: o "Salt-free" or "Sodium-free": Less than 5 milligrams of sodium per serving o "Very-low-sodium": Less than 35 milligrams of sodium per serving. o "Low sodium": Less than 140 milligrams of sodium per serving. o "Unsalted" or "No added salt": Check the label as these may still contain sodium • Flavor your food without salt. o Use lemon juice, lime juice, fruit juice, or vinegar. o Add dry or fresh herbs such as mint, basil, dill, bay leaf, rosemary, parsley, sage and thyme. o Use spices such as black pepper, red pepper flakes, cayenne, allspice berries, cumin, turmeric, paprika and Aleppo. • Be mindful when dining out, especially with fast food, as these meals are often high in sodium.

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