Food for thought.
A healthy diet and lifestyle can reduce your risk for:
This article makes recommendations that can help prevent heart disease and other conditions that can affect the health of your heart. People who currently have a heart condition such as heart failure or other health problems such as diabetes, should talk with their health care provider about what type of diet is best. You may need to make certain changes to your diet that are not included in these recommendations.
Recommendations
FRUITS AND VEGETABLES
Fruits and vegetables are part of a heart-healthy diet. They are good sources of
fiber, vitamins, and minerals. Most are low in fat, calories, sodium, and cholesterol.
Eat 5 or more servings of fruits and vegetables per day.
Get more fiber by eating whole fruits instead of drinking juice.
GRAINS
Choose whole-grain foods (such as whole-wheat bread, cereal, crackers, and pasta or brown rice) for at least half of your daily grain intake. Grain products provide fiber, vitamins, minerals, and complex carbohydrates. Eating too many grains, especially refined grain foods (such as white bread, pasta, and baked goods) can cause weight gain.
Limit high-fat baked goods such as butter rolls, cheese crackers, and croissants, and cream sauces for pasta. Avoid packaged snacks that contain partially hydrogenated oils or trans fats.
EATING HEALTHY PROTEIN
Meat, poultry, seafood, dried peas, lentils, nuts, and eggs are good sources of protein, B vitamins, iron, and other vitamins and minerals.
You should:
- Eat at least 2 servings of low-mercury fish per week.
- Cook by baking, broiling, roasting, steaming, boiling, or microwaving instead of deep frying.
- For the main entree, use less meat or have meatless meals a few times a week. Get protein from plant-based protein foods instead.
Milk and other dairy products are good sources of protein, calcium, the B vitamins niacin and riboflavin, and vitamins A and D.
FATS, OILS, AND CHOLESTEROL
Some types of fat are healthier than others. A diet high in saturated and trans fats causes cholesterol to build up in your arteries (blood vessels). This puts you at risk for heart attack, stroke, and other major health problems. Avoid or limit foods that are high in these fats. Polyunsaturated and monounsaturated fats that come from vegetable sources have many health benefits.
You should avoid or limit foods that are high in saturated fats. Here are some examples:
- Foods with a lot of saturated fats include animal products such as butter, cheese, whole milk, ice cream, sour cream, lard, and fatty meats such as bacon.
- Some vegetable oils (coconut, palm, and palm kernel oils) also contain saturated fats. These fats are solid at room temperature.
- Limit trans fats as much as possible by avoiding hydrogenated or partially-hydrogenated fats. These are often found in packaged snacks and solid margarine.
Think about the following when choosing a margarine:
- Choose soft margarine (tub or liquid) over harder stick forms.
- Choose margarines with liquid vegetable oil as the first ingredient. Even better, choose "light" margarines that list water as the first ingredient. These are even lower in saturated fat.
- Read the package label to choose a margarine that does not have trans fats.
Trans fatty acids are unhealthy fats that form when vegetable oil undergoes hydrogenation.
- Trans fats can raise LDL (bad) cholesterol level in your blood. They can also lower your HDL (good) cholesterol level.
- To avoid trans fats, limit fried foods, commercial baked goods (donuts, cookies, and crackers), and hard margarines.
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