Heart Healthy Eating
What you eat is directly correlated with your risk of developing and worsening heart disease. In the main type of heart disease, a fatty substance builds up in the arteries that are responsible for transporting oxygen-rich blood to the heart. This build up narrows and hardens arteries preventing the heart from receiving the blood it needs to work properly; potentially leading to chest pain and a heart attack. Developing healthy eating habits is your first line of preventive action against heart disease. Woman’s Health offers several tips and guidelines to developing heart healthy eating habits.
As the website points out, there are several common questions witch arise when dealing with the development of a heart healthy diet. The most common of those questions are: What foods should I eat? What foods should I avoid eating? Woman’s Health identifies foods that fall into both of those categories.
You should mainly eat:
• Fruits and vegetables
• Grains (at least half of your grains should be whole grains)
• Fat-free or low-fat dairy (milk, cheese, yogurt, etc…)
• Lean meats ( fish, skinless poultry, lean red meat)
• Protein (eggs, dry beans, nuts)
• Polyunsaturated and monounsaturated fats (found in fish, nuts and vegetable oils)
• Potassium (tomatoes, oranges and grapefruits, raisins, dates, prunes, white and sweet potatoes, lettuce, papayas, bananas, pineapple)
The most overlooked category of healthy foods is potassium. Potassium rich foods decrease the effects of sodium on blood pressure. According to the American Heart Association, you should aim to eat 4700mg of potassium a day.
Foods you should limit or avoid:
• Saturated fat (found in fatty meat, whole mile, ice cream, butter, lard, mayonnaise, etc…)
• Trans fat (found in processed foods such as: cakes, cookies, etc…)
• Cholesterol (found in foods such as: liver, pork, sausage, whole milk products, etc…)
• Sodium
• Added sugars (corn syrup, fructose, glucose, etc…)
Although this break down of good and bad foods seems straight forward, this is just the basics. It is also crucial to establish an eating schedule which specifies: the number of meals you eat a day, the times meals should be eaten as well as how many calories and servings of food groups each meal should include. The best way to formulate a heart healthy diet is to consult a dietitian. For some quick references and basic knowledge, check out the following sites:
• MyPyramid eating plan
• Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension (DASH) eating plan
• Heart Healthy Diet
• Therapeutic Lifestyle Changes (TLC) Diet
A heart healthy diet is a diet everyone can and should adhere to in order to maintain a healthy life style. Cut out the processed and fatty foods, and make sure to get a wide variety of the essential food groups. The key to a heart healthy diet is the same as anything you come across in life, commitment and moderation. It is said that it takes 3-7 weeks for your body to become fully adjusted to a new routine. That is why it is beneficial to develop a diet along side friends to help each other along as well as to schedule regular appointments with your dietitian to ensure that you are on the correct path. Before you know it, a heart healthy diet will become second nature to you.
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