Heart Healthy Diet

Heart Healthy Diet is the effective way to keep your LDL and your risk for heart disease low. It is an eating plan that can help keep your blood cholesterol low and minimize your chance of rising heart disease. Keep in mind that the Heart Healthy Diet is good for everyone in the family, including children from the age of 2-4 onward. But children under 2 years of age should not work on the Heart Healthy Diet as they need more fat to provide sufficient calories for growth and necessary development.

Some cholesterol is built by our body. The food we eat is accountable for the rest. Food products from animals have cholesterol. These foods include meats, poultry, shellfish, eggs, butter, cheese and whole or 2 percent milk. Also any type of food can be full of saturated fats and trans fats, which trigger your body to produce more cholesterol.

Recommendation from the American Heart Association says that you keep your consume of total fat to between 25 percent and 35 percent, your saturated fat intake to less than 7 percent and your intake of trans fat to no more than 1 percent of your total calories per day.

Together, constrain your consumption of cholesterol from food to no more than 300 mg per day. People with high LDL (bad) blood cholesterol levels or who are using cholesterol medication should have no more than 200 mg of daily cholesterol.

Eat at least 25 to 30 grams of fiber in your dietary each day - if possible from whole grains, fruits, vegetables and legumes.

To fight high blood pressure and for cardiovascular health in general, you should cut off sodium to 2,300 mg or lower per day. Some people such as African Americans, middle-aged and older adults, and people with high blood pressure, need no more than 1,500 mg per day. In case you drink alcohol , please do it lightly ( just one drink a day for women, no more than two for men).

This diet is not only about what you should not eat. It also means eating a diet which contains more in vegetables and fruits as well as with whole grains, high-fiber foods, lean meats and poultry, fish for at 2 times per week, plus fat-free dairy products. Remember, the diet should be less in saturated fat, trans fat and also cholesterol.

Whether you're cooking at home or eating out - you can enjoy tasty foods at the same time control your cholesterol.