Heart Disease and Your Nutrition
Nutrition is the cornerstone of a healthy heart. By not eating right you are raising your risk of heart disease. Understanding what a healthy diet is can greatly improve your risks for heart disease by controlling cholesterol and inflammation.
Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death. Weight problems continue to grow which increases the risk of many of the major diseases including: coronary heart disease, congestive heart failure, type2 diabetes, and stroke. Yet there is hope, small changes to what you eat and your activity levels can make a difference to your heart health. By implementing a plan of both healthy eating and increased physical activity you can help reduce your weight and gain control of your heart health.
The foundation of a heart healthy diet are plant-based foods. These include whole grains, fruits and vegetables.
Consuming a small amount of lean meats, fish, skinless poultry, reduced fat dairy products, and moderate amounts of polyunsaturated or monounsaturated oils and fats makes up a healthy diet and helps to prevent and reduce heart disease. Here are some ideas for beginning your heart healthy eating plan.
When making your plate of food, fill half of the plate with vegetables. A fourth of the plate should be lean protein and then a fruit at the end.
Reduce the amount of bread in your diet and what you do choose should be whole grains.
Lean meats such as poultry should be eaten and keep it in portions under 4 oz.
Only use low fat dairy products – staying at the 2% and lower level. Dairy products such as cheese have lots of calories so only use in moderation.
Try and consume fish twice a week, but not fried versions. Baked fish is the best for your heart (just don’t put too much butter on it!)
Remove fried foods from your diet. Explore other cooking methods such as baking, steaming and grilling.
Eliminated processed foods from your diet, only use whole foods.
Increase your consumption of water and reduce your intake of salt.
Implementing a new nutrition plan is a very hard thing to do. Yet it can be done and the rewards of good health are worth the effort.
Make the changes today and you will be on the way to saying goodbye to heart disease and saying hello to a healthy heart.
Don’t be alone in with your heart disease prevention journey. Join us at http://www.hearthealthjourney.com for easy to understand advice and connections with other heart disease fighters.
Posted in Nutrition
Tags: diet, disease management, disease prevention, Diseases, Food and Drink, Health, health and fitness, healthy eating, heart disease, holistic health, Medicine, nutrition, Obesity, Weight Loss