Healthy Heart Diet Tips

You can lower your chances of getting heart disease by eating healthy. For a healthy heart, Weight control and regular exercise are critical for keeping your heart in shape but the food you eat may matter just as much.

* Eat a diet low in fat, especially animal fats and palm and coconut oils. (These foods contain saturated fat and cholesterol. Saturated fat and cholesterol can cause heart disease.)

* Choose a diet moderate in salt and sodium.

* Maintain or improve your weight.

* Eat plenty of grain products, fruits and vegetables.

* Choose milk with 1% fat or skim milk instead of whole milk.

* Eliminate fried foods and replace them with baked, steamed, boiled, broiled, or microwaved foods.

* Cook with oils which are low in fat and saturated fat like corn, safflower, sunflower, soybean, cottonseed, olive,canola, peanut and sesame oils. Stay away from oils and shortenings that are high in fat and saturated fat.

* Smoked, cured, salted and canned meat, poultry and fish are high in salt. Eat unsalted fresh or frozen meat, poultry and fish.

* Replace fatty cuts of meat with lean cuts of meat or low-fat meat alternatives.

* In recipes requiring one whole egg try two egg whites as a lower fat alternative.

* Replace sour cream and mayonnaise with plain low-fat yogurt, low-fat cottage cheese, or low-fat sour cream and mayonnaise.

* Substitute hard and processed cheeses for low-fat, low-sodium cheeses.

* Use herbs and spices as seasoning for vegetables and potatoes instead of salt and butter.

* Replace salted crackers with unsalted or low-sodium whole-wheat crackers.

* Substitute canned soups,bouillons and dry soup mixes which are high in salt for sodium-reduced soups and bouillons.

* Replace white bread, white rice, and cereals made with white flour with whole-wheat bread, long-grain rice, and whole-grain cereals.

* Substitute snacks high in salt and fat with low-fat, low salt snacks. Cut-up vegetables and fruits are a quick healthy snack.