Heart disease can often be prevented by implementing heart-healthy habits in your daily life. While lifestyle changes such as sleeping well for 7-8 hours a night, managing stress, quitting smoking and being physically active help maintain your healthy heart, keeping a diet healthy is one of the most effective ways to decrease the risk of heart disease. It can improve your blood pressure, blood cholesterol, blood sugar, inflammation and help to prevent weight gain. Here are some tips:
- Choose whole foods and minimize consumption of highly processed foods like packaged foods, ready to eat foods, fast foods, refined foods. Read the ingredient list. If you don’t recognize it, it is probably not real food but an additive.
- Try to eat a variety of fruits and vegetables, eat them with skin and avoid juicing them to keep their fiber. The more variety and more color, the better.
- Choose whole grains and legumes such as barley, quinoa, whole wheat, beans, lentils over refined grains like white rice products or white flour products.
- Minimize animal fats; instead, choose fats coming in liquid form that are mainly plant based (exception is coconut and palm oil) such as vegetable oil, canola oil, avocado oil, and olive oil. Nuts, seeds and avocado are good sources of healthy fat.
- Choose meats that are at least 90% lean, seafoods, fish or soy for healthy protein. Avoid or minimize cured meats. Trim fat from meats.
- Keep to a minimum the consumption of sugary products like desserts, candies, juices, sodas and other sweetened beverages. Eat them sporadically and in smaller amounts.
- Pay attention to salt intake especially if eating pre-made foods. Processed foods are often very high in salt. Instead of salt, try to use a variety of herbs and spices to season your food.
- Plan to make your own food at home and limit the frequency of eating out. Restaurant foods tend to be higher in unhealthy fat, sugar and salt.
- Limit alcohol consumption to less than one serving for women and two for men in a day. A serving of alcohol is 5 oz wine, 12 oz beer or 1.5 oz of hard liquor.
The recipe below is easy to make, low in calories, high in fiber and low in sodium. If you are busy, you can make this recipe ahead of time and save it for 3-4 days in the refrigerator.
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Overnight Chia Pudding (8 servings) - 6 cups of low-fat milk (you can substitute with soy or almond or water) - ½ cup of chia seeds - 3 tsp vanilla extract or 3 tsp cinnamon powder or 6 tsp chocolate powder - 6 tbsp maple syrup or honey - 6 tbsp of crushed nuts |
In a medium-sized mixing bowl combine the chia seeds with all the ingredients. Mix well, cover and refrigerate overnight. Enjoy it with fresh or dried fruit.
If you need more information on how to eat heart healthy, consult your local registered dietitian.