How to incorporate more heart-healthy foods into your diet
Diet and heart health go
hand in hand. The American
Heart Association notes that
a healthy diet and lifestyle are
the best weapons to fi ght cardiovascular
diseases, which
the World Health Organization
says kill more people across the
globe each year than any other
disease.
Men and women do not need
degrees in nutrition science to
create heart-healthy diets for
themselves and their families.
In fact, the familiar calls to
“eat your fruits and vegetables”
many adults recall from childhood
lessons or nights around
the family dinner table still
bear weight today. A diet that
is rich in fruits and vegetables
is a hallmark of a healthy lifestyle.
And supplementing such
a diet with other heart-healthy
foods is a great way to reduce
one’s risk for cardiovascular
disease.
FRUITS AND VEGETABLES
The U.S. Department of Health
and Human Services notes
that fruits and vegetables are
healthy whether they’re fresh,
frozen, canned, and/or dried.
The AHA advises eating fruits
and vegetables with every
meal and snack, and that may
require a little creativity as
you sneak them into favorite
dishes. For example, the
AHA suggests replacing half
the ground meat in recipes for
burgers, meatloaf or meatballs
with cooked chopped mushrooms.
The mushrooms can
be fi nely chopped with a knife
or food processor, and then
sautéed in some olive oil until
they’re soft. They can then be
mixed in with the lean meat,
and the meal can be cooked
as it normally would. At the
breakfast table, add fruit to
a bowl of cereal to make for a
more fl avorful morning meal.
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DAIRY PRODUCTS
When purchasing dairy
products, the DHHS recommends
sticking to fat-free or lowfat
options. Replace whole milk
with fat-free or 1 percent milk
and buy only fat-free or low-fat
cheese. When snacking, reach
for fat-free or low-fat plain yogurt
or cottage cheese. You can
even add fruit or vegetables to
such snacks to make snack time
even more heart-healthy.
PROTEINS
Healthy proteins are another
way people can promote
heart health with their daily
diets. When choosing proteins
at the grocery store, the AHA
recommends choosing chicken
and fi sh over red meats. That’s
because red meats, which include
beef and lamb, have more
saturated fat than chicken and
fi sh. Saturated fats increase
blood cholesterol levels and can
worsen heart disease, while the
unsaturated fats in fi sh like
salmon can actually reduce the
risk for cardiovascular issues
like heart failure and ischemic
stroke. When preparing poultry,
remove the skin, as most of
the saturated fat in poultry is
found just beneath the skin.
GRAINS
When buying grains, the
DHHS recommends reading
the ingredients list on the
package before purchasing.
Make sure whole wheat or another
whole grain is the fi rst
item listed in the ingredients
list, and choose only those
products that say 100 percent
whole grain. Instead of preparing
white rice as a side dish,
serve brown or wild rice, quinoa
or oats.
A heart-healthy diet is easy
to design and just as fl avorful
as less healthy alternatives.