Wednesday, September 1 2010

EATING smarter and keeping your heart in peak shape is about more than munching on a celery stick now and then. It’s about the bigger picture — the pattern of decisions you make every day. Because heart disease claims more American lives than any other illness, now is an ideal time to look at how your food choices affect your overall heart health.

To help keep important heart-health indicators like blood pressure, cholesterol, and blood sugar (glucose) at the right levels, the American Heart Association recommends eating a wide, balanced variety of nutritious foods.

Great news: Even simple, small changes can make a big difference. By starting to mix lower-calorie, nutrient-rich foods into your meal planning, you’ll not only get a full complement of vitamins, minerals, fibre, and other essentials, but also a dazzling array of colours, tastes, and textures every day of the week.

Healthy cooking and eating is a great opportunity to sample new recipes and rediscover delicious favourites. Some tips to get started:

Focus your eating plan on vegetables and fruits, which are high in vitamins, minerals, and fibre. Try them fresh, frozen, or canned, without added salt and sugars. Reduce the role of meat from star to supporting player. Mix things up with two or more vegetarian-style meals each week.

If you do serve meat or poultry, make sure it’s lean and skinless, and grill, bake, or broil it. Oily fish such as salmon, trout, and herring contain omega-3 fatty acids, which studies show may help lower the risk of getting coronary disease. Serve up fish at least twice a week.

Choose wholegrain foods like brown rice and whole wheat pasta — their high fibre content can help lower cholesterol levels and aid in weight management. Go with fat-free, one percent fat, and low-fat dairy products. Jazz up plain fat-free or low-fat yogurt with flavourful fruits. Natural fruit juices (with no added sugar) are better than regular soft drinks, but shouldn’t take the place of eating whole fruits.

To quench your thirst, drink water or club soda — zest it up with a wedge of lemon or lime. There’s nothing wrong with snacking, as long as you stock your kitchen, car, office, or bag with nutrient-rich nibbles like fresh or dried fruits, unsalted almonds, unsalted rice cakes, or carrots and other veggies.

So, how much of all this good stuff is right for you? It depends on the number of calories your body needs to achieve and maintain a healthy body weight. For example, here’s an eating plan based on 2,100 calories per day:

Food Type: Grains (mainly wholegrains) Servings: 6-8 per day

Food Type: Vegetables Servings: 4-5 per day

Food Type: Fruits Servings: 4-5 per day

Food Type: Fat-free or low-fat milk and milk products Servings: 2-3 per day

Food Type: Lean meats, poultry, and fish Servings: 6 or less per day

Food Type: Nuts, seeds, and legumes Servings: 4-5 per week

Food Type: Fats and oils Servings: 2-3 per day

Food Type: Sweets and added sugars Servings: 5 or less per week

Four or five servings of vegetables might sound like a lot, but when you understand the true size of a serving, you’ll see how easy it is.

Here are some examples of single-serving sizes:

Grains: 1 slice bread; 1 ounce ready-to-eat cereal; 1/2 cup cooked cereal, rice, or pasta.

Vegetables: 1 cup raw, leafy vegetables (about the size of a small fist); 1/2 cup other vegetables; or 1/2 cup vegetable juice

Fruits: 1 medium fruit; 1/2 cup chopped, cooked, or canned fruit; or 1/2 cup juice

Meat, poultry, fish, dry beans, and nuts: 2 to 3 ounces cooked lean meat, poultry, or fish; 1/2 cup cooked dry beans; or 2 tablespoons peanut butter

Milk, yogurt, and cheese: 1 cup fat-free or low-fat milk or yogurt; 1 1/2 ounces fat-free or low-fat cheese

To make smarter choices in your daily eating, start gradually by switching out some less-healthy foods with nutrient-rich options. Here are some easy ways to jump in:

For more fruits: Instead of a stack of cookies, crunch into a medium apple.

For more vegetables: Scale that hamburger back from 6 ounces to 3, pairing it with 1/2 cup carrots and 1/2 cup spinach. Instead of 5 ounces of chicken, use a small amount of vegetable oil to stir-fry 2 ounces chicken with 1 1/2 cups raw vegetables.

For more fat-free or low-fat milk products: Instead of a 1/2-cup serving of full-fat ice cream, have a 1/2-cup serving of low-fat frozen yogurt, livened up with some fresh fruit.

Most of what has been mentioned sounds right, but more emphasis should be made on your salt intake.

Salt plays a huge role in heart disease. The recommended amount of salt per day for the average person is about 2500 milligrammes — no more than that.

It can be hard at first, but it can be done and you can still enjoy similar foods if you don’t buy processed foods as much, and make modifications to recipes so that they have less salt or no salt. But it’s definitely worth it.

Too much fat, sugar and carbs are often stressed as things which cause obesity, but people often forget to mention that too much salt is very unhealthy, and can contribute, as well.

Also, be careful of things which are labeled as Heart Healthy. Many of these things are misleading, because they have a lot of sodium in them.

It pays to read the ingredients, and check out the health information.