Heart disease: Eating a heart-healthy diet
What foods are part of a heart-healthy diet?
A heart-healthy diet focuses on adding more healthy foods to your diet and cutting back on foods that are not so good for you.
Healthy foods are ones that are high in vitamins, minerals, fiber, and other nutrients, such as:
- Fruits and vegetables.
- Beans (including chickpeas and lentils) and whole grains (such as whole wheat, brown rice, oats, rye, bulgur, barley, quinoa, and corn).
- Oily fish like salmon, trout, albacore tuna, herring, mackerel, and sardines, which contain heart-healthy omega-3 fatty acids. You can also get omega-3 fats from omega-3 eggs, walnuts, flax seeds, and canola oil.
Foods to limit are ones that are high in:
- Unhealthy fats, such as saturated fats, trans fats, and cholesterol.
- Saturated fats are mostly found in animal products, such as meats and dairy products.
- Trans fats include shortening, partially hydrogenated vegetable oils, and hydrogenated vegetable oils. Trans fats are made when a liquid fat is turned into a solid fat (for example, when corn oil is made into stick margarine). They are found in many processed foods, such as cookies, crackers, and snack foods. Restaurants often use hydrogenated oils for frying foods, so try to limit fried foods when eating out.
- Cholesterol is found in animal products, such as eggs, dairy products, and meats.
- Salt (sodium). You need some sodium in your diet, but most people get far more than they need. Too much sodium tends to raise blood pressure. Processed foods and fast foods often contain a lot of sodium. Try to limit these foods and eat more fresh foods.
Eating foods that contain unhealthy fats can raise the LDL ("bad") cholesterol in your blood. Having a high level of LDL cholesterol increases your chance of having clogged arteries (atherosclerosis), which can lead to coronary artery disease and heart attack.
Trans fat is especially bad. It both raises the level of "bad” cholesterol and lowers the "good" cholesterol in the blood. Try to avoid trans fat as much as possible.
Test Your Knowledge
If I see "partially hydrogenated vegetable oil" on a food label, I should avoid that food because it contains trans fat.
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Why is it important to choose a heart-healthy diet?
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| Author: | Robin Parks, MS | Last Updated: January 8, 2008 |
| Medical Review: | Caroline S. Rhoads, MD - Internal Medicine Robert A. Kloner, MD, PhD - Cardiology Ruth Schneider, MPH, RD - Diet and Nutrition | |
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