Off the top of my head, finding lower priced food is going to be your problem. If you stay at a hotel, they can accomodate you for breakfast. Any nice restaurant can accomodate your husband for dinner or lunch, even as they gaze upon him sadly. But smaller places might be a problem because so much of the food is fried. Does he like raw oysters? Boiled shrimp?

We've managed breakfasts (cereal, low-fat milk, fruit and yogurt) and lunches (salads with dressing on the side or sandwiches I make). Dinner is the bigger concern and we do not like oysters or shrimp.

New Orleans must have residents who are heart patients -- or do they all cheat?

We are accustomed to sympathetic looks from wait staff, but also hear a lot of "Good for you!"

Can anyone help us?

I am starting to doubt whether we can do this trip, whick also was to include Cajun country, Natchez, Clarksville, Memphis and Little Rock.

Must healthy eaters avoid the South?

Here's something a lot of people forget: that often times a restaurant is willing to prepare foods for you that are not listed on the menu.

Depends on the quality of the restaurant, of course, but getting grilled/broiled seafood in New Orleans shouldn;t be a problem.

It is well-known that the high cholesterol diet common in many parts of the Gulf Coast has been detrimental but don't let that stop you. After all, there are a lot of fruits and vegetables available which you could eat in a restaurant as well as salad dishes.

Just because a lot of the so-called "tourist food" in New Orleans isn't exactly cardiac-friendly doesn't mean that the two of you cannot be innovative AND selective.

In Little Rock, the restaurant that never disappoints is Brave New Restaurant. It has a great river view and is very helpful with any dietary restrictions you may have. Sadly, it's only open for dinner. http://bravenewrestaurant.com/

I'll get my thoughts together and come up with others...

Dukey made the point that I was being too subtle about: a nice (not necessarily astronomically expensive) restaurant will create nice things your husband can eat and enjoy the challenge, which is greater if you don't like shellfish.

Southern food is not heart healthy.

I have a friend who had a quintuple bypass if such a thing is possible. Maybe only quadruple. He was very young. After the bypass, he dieted and exercised himself to such leanness that even his cardiologist told him he was overdoing it. He lacked the reserves of fat he would need to fight a serious infection. He now eats moderate amounts of fat and goes to Duck Fat, a cafe in Portland, Maine, for french fries cooked in duck fat a couple of times a year. Maybe New Orleans could be your Duck Fat.

I think it will definitely be possible to visit New Orleans for five nights and eat a strictly heart-healthy diet. Indeed, I'm sure there are people who live in New Orleans, and stick to such a diet all the time. What I'm not so sure about is whether it will be possible to do this while making dining part of your tourist experience. For many of us, eating things like gumbo and étouffée is part of what we love about visiting New Orleans, along with music, architecture, etc. I think you may end up feeling like you're taking a break from New Orleans to eat meals, and then getting back to your vacation afterward. If you're okay with that, then go for it.

Off the top of my head, and limiting discussion to the area around the Quarter where most tourists hang out... there's a smallish Subway on Royal between Canal and Iberville where you could eat salads and sandwiches. There's a somewhat larger casual smoothie-and-salad type place in the CBD, which I think is not open for dinner. Unfortunately its name escapes me. There's another place called Meals From the Heart that's right in the French Market, and supposedly makes tasty heart-healthy food, although I've never tried them. There are various Japanese restaurants in and around the Quarter where you could certainly eat sushi, or some other kind of low-fat seafood dishes. You could check out the menus at some of the touristy classic New Orleans seafood places, like Redfish Grill, GW Fins, and Acme Oyster House, and see if there's something on the menu that you could eat. And as has been pointed out above, I'm sure the seafood restaurants would be able to grill you up a good piece of fish with some seasoning but no sauce - it would be healthy, though not necessarily super delicious if it's not a recipe that they have worked out in advance.

There are heart healthy restaurants in NO.

See below. And also add "Carmo" to that list. And google "heart healthy food new orleans" and you'll get other hits from yelp too.

http://www.gayot.com/restaurants/best-neworleans-la-healthyfood_18no.html

Cafe Rani, which is on that list, is very good and heart healthy. We have eaten there. The pesto crusted chicken rocks, as does the bronzed tuna and sesame seared salmon. You could have a nice dinner there after visiting the Garden District, a lovely area.

Another healthy place we ate last time we were in NO, and it is in the French Quarter, was MeauxBar. They have some very simple fish dishes (husband had a fish baked in parchment, and although it had soy sauce I bet they would make it w/white wine instead if you asked), and I had a very nice roasted chicken dish, daughter had a roasted scottich salmon, very simply prepared.

http://www.meauxbar.com/menus.html

I don't want to be insensitive to locals or to the OP, but I sort of agree with hawksbill: if you can't eat the local cuisine, you are missing one of the main reasons people go to NO.

To advance on that, if you can't eat the food, is there enough else there to make a visit worth the time, expense, and weather? You can get roasted Scottish salmon or chicken anywhere. You couldn't get a pompano in papillote most places nor redfish court bouillion. I could see going to Paris for the Louvre, even if you had to subsist on plain roast chicken and salad, but there is no Louvre in NO.

So the question is whether there is enough in NO to attract you even if you had to eat at Subway. No one can answer that question but you.

Note: I am diabetic and have to make these kinds of decisions all the time, so I am more sympathetic than I sound above. I mostly skip anything white (potatoes, rice, pasta, baked goods) and desserts and can be okay. But I have low cholesterol and don't have to worry about fats and love fish and shellfish, so it is easy for me. But I wouldn't go to NO if I couldn't have a muffaleta from the Central Grocery.

Here's the menu for Galatoire's. Some nice salad choices and you can have your fish prepared different ways.

http://www.galatoires.com/html/menu.html

Wow! You've all been great and I now have more confidence that we can make the trip.

I realize that for many people, the food of New Orleans is a big part of the experience. For others, it might be partying all night, but we don't drink (gee, we sound SO dull!) so that isn't in our plan either.

OUR New Orleans is about the French Quarter and Garden District, the old cemeteries, the architecture, the music, trolleys and carriages, WW II museum, and so forth.

It took awhile for us to adjust after the health scare and my husband didn't even want to visit our favorite places again because certain foods (fried fish, ice cream, pizza) were no longer allowed but had been a big part of what we enjoyed about these places.

But we have adjusted and stayed healthy and become comfortable with ordering things "our" way as we travel. Heck, maybe a New Orleans chef will have a good laugh over our orders and enjoy the challenge.

Thanks again, everyone. And keep those suggestions coming!

Well, you have your own answer, and it is a good one!

Laissez les bon temps rouler!

It isn't always about certain types of food, even in New Orleans. We enjoy visiting there and I have heart disease, a 75% blocked artery that is bordering on needing a stent, along w/hi BP and hi cholesterol. There are a lot of other things besides fatty and salty food to enjoy when traveling, and who says you can't enjoy a simply prepared fish dish as much as the fried and fatty specialties NO is known for.

I travel extensively in Mexico also, own a home there, and enjoy the food, just not the fatty and salty items.

Have a great time sluggo. I hope you gt to enjoy some of the healthier NO restaurants we have been to.

Many NOLA specialties properly prepared would comply with your husband's diet.

Flounder is often broiled. Redfish can be grilled or broiled.

Fresh oysters on the half shell are compliant.

Okra does not have to be fried.

Compliment with a salad and you are eating local without breaking the rules.

Have a great trip!

Thanks, emd3, it helps to know at least one other traveler has dined well but healthy in NOLA. I hope you can avoid surgery. And, stumpworks73, thank you for mentioning flounder, which we like, and redfish, which we might try. After the trip, I will post a report on how to eat healthy while visiting the south.

Of course you will find heart healthy food; the entire world is eating mixed greens with broiled protein on top, but at first glance it appears your focus is not the 'heart and soul' of New Orleans but rather its outer shell. No beignets? No muffaletta? No etouffe'? No Sazerac? No NOLA.

I think a two night stay would be a better idea than a longer 5 night New Orleans visit. Unless, of course, you're into music. But if you can't enjoy the food, don't drink and aren't into music I would suggest a short visit instead of an extended stay. You'll be able to visit the French Quarter and see the Mississippi River, both beautiful places of course.

Also, a trip to some of the plantations outside of NOLA is a brilliant experience and one I wouldn't pass up.

Is unfried okra slimey? I think so...

Unfried okra CAN be slimey - but doesn't have to be. I make a great Okra Jambalaya (okra, tomatoes, peppers, onions, garlic & with or without sausage) - and the okra is not slimey.

I disagree. There is so much to enjoy in NO besides the beignets, the muffalettas, the etouffe. It is not accurate to say there is no NOLA without those, as if the city has nothing more to offer besides that. Maybe someone who would say that is just really into food and drinking and not much else.

We love the art (there are some wonderful galleries in the French Quarter, and the artists who set up around Jackson Square, and the Arts market in Palmer Park, and the Warehouse Arts District), the music (jazz, blues, funk, zydeco) the shopping (great shops of all kinds in the quarter, and the outdoor French Market by the river, etc.), people watching (Jackson Square is great for that), the Festivals (not just jazz fest but the French Quarter Festival also), the Garden District w/its wonderful old homes and architecture and walking tours (esp. if you can catch a home and GARDEN tour), antique shops on Magazine St., the NAtl. WOrld War II Museum (this is designated by Congress as the country's official WWII museum), the Contemporary Arts Center on Camp St., Besthoff Sculpture Garden, the Mardi Gras museums, on and on...

sluggo, here is a good website that has helped us plan our many trips, w/lots of great things to do and see and enjoy. You will have no problem filling up 5 days in NO w/all the ideas here.

http://www.neworleansonline.com/neworleans/

Interesting debate! New Orleans is unique, I think, in that food is a huge part of the experience for many people. But our interests are more in line with those of emd3. (And thank you for the link.)

In any case, we were not particularly adventurous eaters before his heart attack and would not have eaten many NO specialties anyway, so our dietary limitations won't be as hard on us as they would be for most others. We WILL miss trying those beignets, however!

I love New Orleans food, but there is soooo much more to the city than that. For me, it is a big part of our trip, but I would absolutely still go if I had dietary restrictions. And for the record, I cannot stand the Sazerac cocktail - like drinking cough medicine. You can definitely enjoy New Orleans without that. I don't really go for hard alcohol to begin with, so all that stuff is totally lost on me.

A New Orleans native here - who doesn't like sweet drinks (like Hurricanes), is a somewhat picky eater, and can't eat seafood. So, while I love going out to dinner in NO, I usually order something simple like grilled chicken. Doesn't diminish the experience at all.

Though this is totally unrelated to sluggo's question, I can't help but jump to the defense of the Sazerac cocktail, a sublime and wonderful creation if ever there was one. November_moon, I suspect someone overdid the Peychaud's bitters in yours.

I personally do really go for hard alcohol, and New Orleans is probably the best city in the world for exploring excellent cocktails. Indeed the Museum of the American Cocktail is located there. But again, despite the great food and cocktails to be had in New Orleans, there are plenty of other reasons to visit, and one could have a good time even just eating peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and drinking spring water.

<<<I love New Orleans food, but there is soooo much more to the city than that. For me, it is a big part of our trip, but I would absolutely still go if I had dietary restrictions>>>

100% ditto. I'd hate to miss the food in New Orleans, but if you can't, you can't. The city is still a wonderful place to visit in so many respects.

I had the Sazerac at Tujaques on a culinary walking tour. The guide and others seemed quite pleased with the drink and someone else happily finished mine. So I am pretty certain that it was a good one. I just didn't like it. But then, as I said, I am not a fan of hard alcohol to begin with. I have just never developed a taste for it.

Well, the best way to develop a taste for hard liquor is to drink it often. The best Sazerac I've ever had was made by the evening bartenders at the Carousel Bar in the Hotel Monteleone. Sublime.

*Sazeracs, not Sazerac. Who drinks just one?

November_moon, I was guessing that your Sazerac may have been made by Paul Gustings or one of his disciples at Tujague's. Paul's Sazerac is one of the archetypal versions around town, but it's extremely atypical, in that it includes six dashes of Peychaud's bitters (IIRC, maybe even more), whereas a more conventional amount would be two. A more conventional preparation would probably strike most palates as boozy, intense, complex, maybe too strong, but probably not cough syrup-y. If I were leading a culinary tour, Tujague's definitely would not be the place where I would have suggested ordering a Sazerac.

Of course, Sluggo said she didn't drink, which is perfectly fine, and should in no way preclude a visit to New Orleans, as long as one doesn't mind having a substantial number of jolly drunk people around. But if a non-drinker were inclined to sample New Orleans' brilliant cocktail scene a little bit, I would suggest starting with something less boozy than a Sazerac. Maybe a French 75 (or something else that Chris Hannah recommends) at the French 75 Bar at Arnaud's, or a Pimm's Cup at Napoleon House, or a Vieux Carré at the Carousel Bar, or one of several wonderful original drinks on the menu at the Swizzle Stick Bar. For goodness' sake, don't drink anything on Bourbon Street, except maybe a bottle of water that you bought at CVS.

And by the way, moderate alcohol consumption (about 1 drink per day for women, 2 for men) is thought to be beneficial for the heart. I can write you a prescription if you think your insurance might cover it.

Ack is correct - I visit Nola annually if not more frequently & we go for the food & music. Not to say there aren't other things we don't enjoy in New Orleans. I start every single trip w/a muffaletta & an Abita Amber @ Cafe Maspero while seated at the bar. EVERY TRIP. I'll probably also have several dozen oysters while I am there...so if I were going to 'cheat', even a little bit, I couldn't think of a better place. All things in moderation is my creed.

Now I'm craving a po'boy and a Lemon Drop. Thanks a lot.

I'll stick with beer and wine, which I enjoy quite a bit. I'll leave the hard stuff to those of you who actually enjoy it.