Eat for your heart: lessons from four continents

Surgeons see the inside of the story. When you have held a diseased coronary artery between your fingers — rigid, calcified, narrowed by decades of quiet accumulation — dietary advice stops being abstract. After a career across four continents, mine has become embarrassingly simple.

Less salt, more potassium

The salt shaker is the least of it: most sodium hides in processed and restaurant food — pickles, papads, packaged snacks, sauces. Cutting these lowers blood pressure measurably within weeks. On the other side of the ledger, potassium-rich foods — bananas, coconut water, leafy greens, beans, curd — help the body handle the sodium that remains.

Mostly plants, mostly home-cooked

The traditional Indian plate — dals, vegetables, whole grains, curd, a little oil — is one of the world's great heart-healthy cuisines. It is the modern additions that betray it: deep-fried snacks, refined flour, sugary drinks, and portion sizes our grandparents would not recognise. A largely vegetarian, home-cooked pattern, eaten in moderation, is as protective as any diet fashion from abroad.

The habits around the plate

Food works with its companions: a daily brisk walk, seven hours of sleep, no tobacco in any form, and alcohol sparingly if at all. And one more ingredient I prescribe without hesitation — eat with your family. The heart is not only a pump; the life around it matters too.