Study of Cardiac Event Sufferers - they rarely change unhealthy eating Habits

According to a recent study of over five hundred individuals with heart disease, most did not change their eating or exercise habits after they had serious heart events such as heart attacks, chest pain, or irregular heart rhythm.
The University of Massachusetts Medical School performed a one-year follow up study on five hundred and fifty five heart patients; researchers questioned heart patients about their diets and used the Alternate Healthy Eating Index to measure heart healthy food consumption. For instance, the surveyors asked about the number of vegetable and fruit servings consumed per day, how many servings of white or red meat were consumed per day, and trans fat consumption.
The study found that most individuals were not consuming enough fruit or vegetables daily, in fact statistics indicate that only about twelve percent of the heart patients were eating five or more vegetable servings per day and only about 7 percent were eating at least four servings of fruit per day. Even more disturbing was the fact the trans fats made up over three percent of all calories consumed daily; current health guidelines advise less than one half percent of daily calorie consumption should be in the form of trans fat.
Additionally, the study indicated that only about twenty percent of all cardiac patients go to cardiac rehabilitation programs. Researchers pointed out that most cardiac rehabilitation programs tended to emphasize exercise over healthy diet.
Consequently, even if a patient had completed cardiac rehabilitation there was no guarantee that the patient was consuming a healthy diet.
Researchers stated the study indicated that more effective methods are needed delivering information to cardiac patients with regard to the importance of regular exercise and healthy diet.