Going with Heart Healthy Foods

Despite the common perception, a sweeping number of foods, beverages and seasonings are part of a heart healthy regime.

The trick in shifting your diet towards heart healthy foods is to learn the basics of what to avoid and include in your eating decisions.

The list is surprisingly easy to grasp and involves just using common sense.

The first step in looking into heart smart foods is learning to reduce the saturated fats you take in and strictly limiting trans fats to just 1-2% of your total daily caloric intake.

Here or some suggestions on what to use and avoid:

Opt for olive oil, canola oil, and margarine that is identified as “trans fat-free” and cholesterol-lowering margarine.

This still gives you a nice range to select from when cooking or baking at home.

Avoid butter (for the most part, a pat or two a day is acceptable), lard, bacon, most gravies, heavy sauces and limit the amount of vegetable oil you use.

Eating fruits and vegetables provides sweeping benefits to living a healthy lifestyle – it should come as no surprise that they are heart healthy foods as well.

All fresh fruits and vegetables are heart smart, but there are a few things to leave out:

Avoid:

• Canned vegetables high in sodium
• Coconut products in general
• Fried fruits or vegetables and
• Fruit packed in syrup.

Adding whole grains to your diet is a great idea – as far as heart healthy foods go, few come with more positives.

There is a trick here, though:

• You need to stick with whole grains that haven’t had their germ and bran removed during the milling process.

This leaves vital minerals and vitamins in such as:

• Thiamin
• Riboflavin
• Niacin
• Vitamin E and
• In some cases, B6 and B12.

What to include and exclude:

• Add whole wheat flour
• Whole-grain bread
• Whole-grain pasta
• Brown rice
• Oatmeal and
• High-fiber cereal to your diet.

Stay clear of:

• Cakes
• Pies
• Frozen waffles
• Muffins
• Cornbread
• Doughnuts
• Egg noodles
• Processed breads and
• High-fat crackers.

While there are some wonderfully tempting foods on the list of items to avoid, the good news here some of those items have been transitioning over to the allowable list for heart healthy foods.

A good example is energy bars; once strictly taboo, a number of them are now heart smart.

Protein is obviously necessary for any diet and there are some very enjoyable sources for this among the heart healthy foods.

The trick is to make sure to find the low-fat options when it comes to protein in your daily intake.

Some of your better choices include:

• Low-fat dairy products (milk, yogurt, cheese, etc.)
• Soy beans and soy products
• Fatty cold water fish (salmon, cod, trout, etc.)
• White poultry meat
• Lean cuts of meat
• Legumes (beans, chickpeas, lentils, etc.) and
• Stick to just egg whites.

The list of items that aren’t considered heart healthy foods that are high in protein include:

• Egg yolks
• Spareribs
• Cold cuts
• Organ meats (such as liver)
• Fried meats (this includes chicken when cooked this way)
• Hot dogs and
• Bacon.

The last thing when considering heart healthy foods is common sense and moderation.

Planning your meals ahead can become an enjoyable practice and helps tremendously with getting the right foods to the table.

Be a little more conservative on the size of portions you prepare or order.

Knowing the right foods to stick to even allows you the chance for a little indulgence – but just once in awhile!

You will also want to follow the right steps to start losing weight today.

Try these steps to begin your journey to weight loss success.

• Incorporate a proven, complete nutritional program into your daily life.
• Enhance your nutritional program with a complete mutivitamin supplement because no nutritional program is perfect.
• Use a behavior modification and motivational program that will help you stay on track with your nutritional plan.
• Exercise at home with your own:
  Treadmill

  Stairstepper

  Exercise bike

  Elliptical trainer

  Hand weights or

  An aerobic video.

• See what kinds of weight loss aids your health insurance covers such as:
  Hypnotism

  Gym membership discounts

  Nutritional counseling.

Go ahead. Follow these steps and start losing weight today.

It's the right thing to do.

Return to Heart Healthy Diet Gains Growing Respect, Awareness from Going with Heart Healthy Foods

Return to Begin Your Journey of Overcoming Obesity from Going with Heart Healthy Foods