I survived a stroke last Sep't; it was ischemic on the left side (meaning it was a blot clot from elsewhere in my body lodging in a blood vessel vs. a burst blood vessel in the brain), most probably from my calf or leg.
As a basis point, you first have to know what his 'numbers' are at the time of his stroke; his blood sugar, Cholesterol, Triglycerides, HDL and LDL, and Hgb A1c (3 month average on his blood sugar). Second, you should know what those are now and every time he goes to his doctor for blood work. This will tell you how well his diet and exercise regimens are affecting his health. Also, how is his blood pressure and has the doctor put him on a salt-restricted diet. The doctor has prescribed medicines to get these numbers within safe levels and monitors the numbers to adjust meds as necessary; but also tells him what he needs to do to correct deficiencies; cut down on calories, exercise, take walks, no salt, no fats, etc. Based on those recommendations guides what his diet should be.
If meats are allowed into his diet, I'm sure they would be low fat; salt may or may not be a big factor based on his health, bp, etc.
Almost any recipe can be modified to a restricted diet that is within reason*. You just have to substitute and modify as necessary. For example; use boneless chicken breast with no skin vs. bone-in cut up chicken with skin and fat. Same way with turkey; most meat departments carry turkey cuts now that are boneless and very low fat, such as boneless, skinless breast cutlets; great grilled, smoked, and baked!
You can buy turkey ham loaves that are very low fat and smoke them, here's one I did:
Before Smoking:
After Smoking:
Lean pork cuts are great too; center cut loin and sirloin roasts and chops, tenderloin, ham, and pork shoulder are great in any form; either fresh smoked, baked or grilled or after curing if salt can be tolerated. You can cure using sucralose vs. sugar very successfully (brand name Splenda, etc.). If you need brine recipes I can give them to you too.
Beef you can use any cuts of round that are lean, sirloin, sirloin tip, flank and skirt steak (peeled), lean stew beef and cubed steaks, chuck mock tender, shoulder (English/Boston) roast, pot roast or steaks are lean also. I've made my own dried beef from eye of the round and canadian bacon from center cut pork loin:
dried beef coming off the smoker:
Sliced:
Canadian Bacon:
And, last but by far, not least, is sausages. You can get into sausagemaking and make your own with a lot less fat. Mine are 80%+ lean, vs. most all manufactured sausages that are 50% fat content. You can make sausages from beef, pork, chicken and turkey; these are some pork sweet Italian sausages I just made:
from pork butt that was this lean:
You control what you eat, but that doesn't mean you have to eat a bland diet - you can modify and substitute and still enjoy a wide variety of meats and recipes!
Might I suggest a channel to watch called
"Planet Green" which is on many services; on ATT Uverse it's channel 465, on Dish Network it's channel 194 on reg. def, 9457 on hi-def. Emeril LaGasse is now on Planet Green (left Food Network) and shows low-fat, healthy meals with lots of vegetables and great cooking tips, and you can get on
http://www.planetgreen.com to get the recipes, too!
Hope this helps!
* "within reason".... that doesn't include this year's favorite at the Texas State Fair... batter-dipped and deep-fried butter sticks, lol! Last year was batter dipped deep fried country style pepper bacon! Talk about a heart attack and stroke waiting to happen!
