Heart attack survivors might think it's too late to be worried about diet, but nutritionist Jessica Wade wants to know ? "Do you want a second one?"

"Diet is extremely important for people who wish to prevent heart attacks," said Ms Wade clinical dietician for the Diabetes Centre at King Edward VII Memorial Hospital and Nutritional Advisor to the Bermuda Heart Foundation. "It is part of the basis of their rehabilitation along with exercise."

Although it is never too late to adopt a healthy lifestyle, Ms Wade said it does help if you start you have a near death experience.

"We run a programme called Heart Line for patients who have had heart attacks and stents and all of that," she said. "Heart Line is available to anyone who has had issues with their heart. We find that the patients who come through the programme are often very willing to make all the changes that we want them to make, but we do wish they'd made them 20 years earlier."

She said that diets low in saturated fat and low in some of the sugars and high in soluble fibre and high in fruits makes a difference.

"I don't think there is any study that proves that a healthy diet is bad for you," she said. "Part of the problem with diets is that the media tends to focus on one little thing, for example, dark chocolate is good for you or omega threes are good for you. But it is really about the whole complete diet. It is about a diet that has all the healthy things."

But Ms Wade said it was okay to go crazy once in a while and eat something inappropriate, but for most of the year you should be making healthy choices.

In the Heart Line programme, organisers try to stress that heart attack survivors don't just have a responsibility to themselves, but also to their families.

"We know that if they have had heart disease, then their children and grandchildren will be at greater risk for the same thing," said Ms Wade. "We make them vow to become good role models for their children and grandchildren in terms of good eating and healthy living. It is important for you, but you want to ensure that the generation coming behind you, doesn't get to the place where you are."