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How to Eat For a Healthy Heart
From your Guide
You are what you eat! Nutrition is critical to heart health.
But you can reduce your heart disease risk profile without sacrificing the pleasure
of good food by learning to eat for a healthy heart.
Difficulty Level:
Easy
Time Required:
30 minutes
Here's How:
- Lower the amount of saturated fat in your diet. Instead, include servings
of fruit, vegetables and whole grains in your daily meals.
- Eat less cholesterol. High diet cholesterol leads to raised blood levels
with all its dangerous consequences. Egg white and food from plant sources
don't have cholesterol.
- Choose foods rich in fiber and starch to make up 50% of your calorie requirements.
Breads, cereals, pasta, grains, fruits and vegetables come under this category.
- Choose heart healthy foods from different categories.
- Check food labels for 'low fat', 'low saturated fat', 'fat-free' and 'low
calorie' labels.
- Limit sodium intake, especially as common table salt.
- Proteins should make up around 15% of your calorie needs.
- Feature vegetables, pasta and grains at dinner rather than meat.
- If you drink alcohol, do so in moderation - no more two beers or glasses
of wine daily.
- Don't eat more than you must to maintain your ideal body weight.
- Choose the number and size of portions to help you reach and stay at your
ideal body weight.
- A low fat breakfast and five servings of fruits and vegetables a day is
healthy.
- Eat out the heart healthy way by choosing restaurants that have low fat,
low cholesterol menu items.
- Select broiled, baked, steamed or poached poultry, fish or meat rather than
fried.
- Order low fat deserts like fruit juice, low fat yoghurt or fruit ice.
Tips:
- Enjoy what you eat. Health doesn't need sacrifice.
- Fit in a healthy diet with other heart healthy measures - exercise, weight
control, and stress management.
- It's never too late to begin. Get started now.
Related Information:
More How To's from your Guide
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