Keeping Your Heart Healthy

posted by Jennifer Lincecum on Thursday, February 8, 2018

This month’s focus has been put on keeping your heart healthy. What does that mean? To some people it means regular doctor appointments, to others it may be increasing their activity and exercise, controlling stress in their lives, quitting smoking and/or consuming a healthier diet. While all these things are very important, I am going to address how you can eat right to keep your heart healthy.

According to the American Heart Association, a heart healthy diet is one of the best weapons to fight cardiovascular disease.  What does it mean to consume a healthy diet?  Here are a few suggestions:

1. Eat a variety of fresh and frozen fruits and vegetables.  Increasing fruits and vegetables not only helps you control calories by eating less high calorie snacks and foods, but they also add in disease fighting components such as fiber, antioxidants, and phytochemicals that help fight inflammation in your body.
2. Choose more fiber-rich whole grains such as whole wheat bread, brown rice, beans/legumes, whole wheat pasta, oatmeal and high fiber cereals. Twenty-five grams of fiber is the recommended amount and most Americans only consume 10-15 grams.  Check labels for high fiber foods. Fiber helps to take the bad cholesterol (LDL) out of your body.
3. Make a goal to include fatty fish twice a week such as salmon, trout, herring, tuna. Fatty fish has Omega-3 fatty acids that are proven to fight heart disease and helps to lower triglycerides.  Other sources of omega-3 include walnuts, flaxseed and fortified foods, like omega 3 eggs.
4. Choose poultry without skin and prepare it in healthy ways- grill, bake, broil.  Choose the leanest cuts of meat such as 90% lean beef and loin cuts. Serve them in healthy ways. 
5. Select skim or 1% milk and low fat dairy products such as yogurt, cottage cheese and string cheese.
6. Limit your intake of trans and saturated fat and replace these with better fats such as mono and polyunsaturated fats.  Use olive or canola oil in baking/cooking. Limit use of solid fats, especially stick margarine.  Use soft tub margarine as your spread.  Include more nuts, seeds, avocado as a source of healthy fats.  Read labels!
7. Avoid sugary beverages- drink water and calorie free beverages to keep weight down as well as avoid empty sugar calories.
8. Prepare foods without adding salt in cooking or at the table. One tsp of salt is 2300 mg of sodium and this is all we need to consume in one day.  The goal is now to consume <1500 mg/day to help lower blood pressure.  Avoid heavily processed foods and limit eating out. Ask for foods without added salt.
9. Utilize the plate method for portion sizes and a healthy plate. Eat ½ the plate of fruits and vegetables, ¼ plate lean meat and ¼ plate whole grains. Choose fruit for snacks.  This will help you consume a more balanced diet but also will help to control your calorie intake and avoid weight gain.

Finally remember portion sizes count. Eating in moderation is the key to staying healthy.  Remember food is fuel.  You need to feed your body healthy foods to stay healthy.  Make a goal to try a new healthy food today or set a goal to eat 5 servings of fruits and vegetables a day! 

Recipe option:  Breakfast Cookies

½ cup rolled oats
½ cup applesauce or mashed banana
¼ cup peanut butter
½ tsp vanilla
2-3 tbsp of mini choc chips
3 tbsp dried fruit
Optional-pinch of stevia

Preheat oven 350. Mash banana or applesauce with peanut butter until smooth.  Then stir in all the other ingredients until combines well.  Shape into cookies –makes about 18 mini cookies.  Bake for 15 minutes and then let cook for 10 minutes. 

Calories=35

Fat-2g  Sat fat=0.4g

Carbs-4g

Fiber-1g

1. nutrition