Having a heart healthy diet established for all family members is a good first step for ensuring future wellness. Eating right will make you look and feel better and it will protect your heart and life. A simple and effective way to create a healthy eating plan by using the 5 basic food groups.
By knowing the five basic food groups, you can develop healthy eating guidelines for kids and the whole family. These food groups form a food pyramid to make it easier to create a balanced diet. For further discussion on this topic, click here for the Food Groups page.
Having heart healthy diet plans will give you a structured approach that can be sustained.
A healthy diet plan, when followed, helps sustain and improve overall health. When bad habits develop, there are always undesirable side effects.
When I eat too much, I gain weight. When I eat the wrong things, my body reacts. When I eat at the wrong times, it impacts my performance. If I feel full at bed time, I can't sleep.
Sometimes the side effects are immediate. Sometimes the damage is silent and the symptoms are delayed. To counter this families need to stress nutrition as part of a healthy lifestyle.
Human weakness
Everyone has the choice to make the right decisions about healthy diet and eating habits. We usually know what is good for a health heart. So why don't we stay on course? Why fall into bad eating patterns? These questions are often asked after the fact. We know what the right choices are, but...
Some common weaknesses are breads, ,crackers, chips, pasta, rice, cheese, potatoes, and all kinds of desserts. This has been proved out through high Triglyceride levels in the past. Some are also partial to soda. All these foods are high in sugar of one form or another.
A typical response is, "But they taste so good. I will cut back later. "
Human excuses
Here are some of the reasons that make it easy to fall:
Not having enough time to cook.
Not wanting to take the time to cook.
Too much trouble. Too hard to prepare.
Not having healthy food available.
Celebrating special ocassions.
Attracted to fast food.
I eat too fast.
Feeling depressed.
"Junk" food is offered or available.
Heart healthy diet
Here are a few healthy eating tips that will help. These will enable you to maintain a consistent weight and tone without constantly monitoring your weighing. Cultivating a balanced diet is the key. See Secrets for staying young for more information.
Buy healthy snacks for kids at the grocery store and stock them at home and work.
Select heart healthy foods such as whole grains, lean protein, nonfat milk.
Have multiple servings of vegetables and fruits everyday.
Carry healthy snacks with you for activities and trips.
When preparing meals, prepare enough for additional meals.
Make it a habit to eat slowly. Talk to someone while you eat.
Don't overeat. Monitor how you feel.
Eat parts of the meal before deciding on other things.
Drink lots of water.
Take vitamins.
Ask someone to hold you accountable. My son asks me at the end of the day, "What did you have for lunch?"
Try to avoid certain junk foods completely that tend to be addictive.
Make your new habits a lifestyle.
Besides these healthy eating tips, there are also many free diet programs available on the internet. These are well structured and can give you a chance to succeed. Here are several:
High Blood Pressure diet
Diseases of the heart and blood vessels are the number one cause of death in the United States. It is important to try to lower elevated blood pressure. Reducing the amount of sodium in the diet can help bring blood pressure levels down.
With proper food selection, a diet for high blood pressure can be varied and adequate in all nutrients, including vitamins and minerals. As a guide 2,000 to 3,000 milligrams of sodium (2 to 3 grams) is enough.
Read labels on cans or packaged goods.
Reduce consumption of high-sodium processed foods.
Use herbs and spices instead of salt.
Reduce usage of salt substitutes. >
Maintain a healthy body weight and exercise regularly.
Limit consumption of alcohol.
Consume potassium-rich foods.
American Heart Association diet
This diet is designed to reduce heart attacks and strokes among the American population. Specifically, the plan does this by reducing three risk factors: Higher blood cholesterol levels,
elevated blood pressure, and overwieght conditions.
The American Heart Association Diet recommends healthy eating habits and physical activity. Guidelines include:
•Eat a variety of vegetables and fruits equaling five servings per day.
•Eat a variety of grains to equal six servings per day.
•Eat fish at least two times each week, preferably fatty fish such as salmon and tuna.
•Choose reduced-fat dairy products, legumes, skinless poultry and lean meats.
•Select fats with no more than two grams of saturated fat per tablespoon such as liquid and tub margarine, canola, corn, safflower and olive oil.
•Balance calories eaten each day with calories burned. To calculate how many calories you use in a day, multiply your current weight by fifteen (if you are moderately active). For sedentary persons, multiply weight by thirteen instead of fifteen.
•Be physically active for at least thirty minutes each day.
•Limit high calorie, low-nutrition foods like soft drinks and candy.
•Limit foods high in saturated fat, trans-fat and cholesterol.
•Maintain sodium intake at or below 2,400 mg or 1 ¼ teaspoons per day.
•Limit alcoholic beverages to no more than one drink per day for women and no more than two drinks for men.
The benefits of the American Heart Association Diet guidelines will improve their cardiac health and at the same time provides a positive approach to a healthy eating plan. Along with a reduction in body weight other benefits are a decreased risk of diabetes, cancer and osteoporosis. Similarly, many other conditions related to obesity can be improved upon or avoided by following the guidelines.
In summary, make a clear commitment to health by promoting a
heart healthy diet
for your family.
Other Diet related resources....
Healthy recipes for kids and the whole family! Want to see your kids eating healthier and excited about it? Our healthy recipes for kids (and the whole family) and ideas to get kids excited about cooking and eating healthy can help.
Family supplement selection guide Supplements are needed today because Food and Water nutritional quality is not the same as 30 years ago. Parents, therefore must understand how important the role and purpose of supplements are today for a healthy family.
Cleansing Diet
Detox your body with a selection of different cleansing techniques, from the Master Cleanse to the Liver Cleanse.
dietas-ejercicios
For my Spanish speaking readers, I highly recommend my friend Michelle's site about diets and exercises, and the virtues of healthy eating.
