Reviewed by Dr. Prabhat Arya, MD (Internal Medicine) on 29 September 2026
Diet chart for heart disease
After angina, a heart attack or a stent, food protects the rest of your heart arteries. Ordinary Indian home food works: less salt, the right fat, more vegetables and dal.
- Fill half the plate with vegetables and salad, a quarter with dal, paneer, egg, fish or chicken, and a quarter with roti or rice.
- Change the fat: mustard, groundnut or rice-bran oil, measured. Little ghee and butter, and never vanaspati (dalda). Salt under one teaspoon a day.
- Eat smaller meals. A heavy meal can bring on chest pain; rest a little after eating, and never exercise on a full stomach.
Eat more
- Vegetables at every meal: lauki, tori, bhindi, palak, methi, beans, carrot, cabbage
- Dal, chana, rajma, lobia, sprouts, soya
- Whole grains: oats, dalia, bajra, jowar, ragi, atta with chokar
- Whole fruit, twice a day: guava, apple, orange, papaya, pear
- A small handful of unsalted nuts and seeds: almonds, walnuts, flaxseed
- Fish, grilled or in curry, once or twice a week, for those who eat it
Eat less, and measure
- Cooking oil and ghee together: 4 to 5 teaspoons per person for the whole day
- Salt: less than one teaspoon a day in all, counting pickle and papad
- Full-cream milk, malai, paneer: use toned milk; paneer a small katori
- Rice and roti: two rotis or one small katori of rice per meal
- Mutton and chicken with skin: small portions, once or twice a week
- Tea and coffee: two or three cups a day
Avoid
- Vanaspati, dalda, margarine, and oil reused for frying
- Fried snacks: samosa, pakora, bhature, namkeen, chips
- Bakery items, sweets, sugar, cold drinks
- Pickle, papad, instant noodles, processed meat
- Alcohol
- Smoking, bidi, gutka, khaini: every form of tobacco
A sample day
Vegetarian first; the swap is for those who eat eggs, fish or chicken.
- On waking
- Water. Tea with toned milk and little sugar. 2 walnut halves or 4 soaked almonds
- Breakfast
- One bowl of oats or vegetable dalia, or two moong chilla with a katori of curdSwap: Omelette of one whole egg and two whites, with one multigrain roti
- Mid-morning
- One fruit: guava, apple or orange
- Lunch
- Salad. A big katori of sabzi, a katori of dal or rajma, two rotis or one roti with a small katori of rice, curdSwap: Fish curry in place of dal
- Evening
- Tea with roasted chana without salt, makhana or sprouts chaatSwap: A boiled egg white
- Dinner, by 8 pm
- Sabzi, dal or a little paneer, one or two rotis. Smaller than lunchSwap: Grilled fish or chicken without skin, with sabzi
- Bedtime
- A small glass of toned milk, if you like
Common myths
- After a stent the heart is fixed, so I can eat anything.
- A stent opens one blockage. Food and tablets protect the rest.
- Desi ghee makes the heart strong.
- Ghee is mostly saturated fat. Keep it to a teaspoon.
- A heart patient should eat only boiled food, with no oil.
- A little of the right oil is needed. Measure it.
- Arjun bark or garlic can replace heart tablets.
- They cannot. Never stop a tablet, above all a blood thinner, without asking.
Dr. Arya’s note for you
Chest pain, pressure or heaviness lasting more than a few minutes, or with sweating, breathlessness or pain going to the arm, jaw or back: call an ambulance (108 or 112) and go to hospital at once. Do not wait, and do not drive yourself.
This is general advice for adults. With heart failure, its salt and fluid limits win. Do not use "lona" salt if you have kidney disease or take BP or heart tablets. On warfarin, keep green leafy vegetables steady, not suddenly more or less. Ask Dr. Arya.