Eating SmartEating Smart By Debra Gibbons, R.D.
February has long been a month of highlighting heart disease and the ways one can decrease the risk of cardiovascular problems.
People are always looking for some supplement or special food they can add to their diet to help improve their cholesterol levels. There are some supplements and certain foods that can be beneficial, but your first priority should be evaluating your eating habits to make sure they are heart-healthy.
Adding a supplement to your diet while still eating mainly highly processed, low fiber, high fat foods or overeating on the run at fast food restaurants is really missing the point. The emphasis here is not just on one nutrient or supplement, but looking at your dietary habits as a whole.
Review the American Heart Associations 2006 recommendations and key into what you need to improve in your eating habits.
1) Balance caloric intake and physical activity to achieve or maintain a healthy weight. Ask yourself if you need to lose weight or exercise more often. Excess weight adversely affects your cholesterol levels, blood pressure and blood sugars.
2) Consume a diet rich in vegetables and fruits. Are you eating at least four or five daily servings of both fruits and vegetables? Start by increasing your current intake.
3) Choose whole-grain, high fiber foods. Are you checking food labels to make sure you are buying breads and cereals that are 100 percent whole grain? At least half of the grains you eat each day should be whole grains.
4) Consume fish, especially oily fish, at least twice a week. This means at least eight ounces of fish a week.
5) Limit your intake of saturated fat to less than seven percent of your calories, Trans fat to less than one percent of your calories and cholesterol to less than 300 mg a day. In a 2,000-calorie diet, this means that saturated fat should be less than16 grams and the Trans fat should be less than three grams a day. This can be accomplished by choosing lean meats and vegetable alternatives, selecting fat free or low fat dairy products and decreasing your intake of partially hydrogenated fats.
6) Minimize your intake of beverages and foods with added sugars.
7) Choose and prepare foods with little or no salt. Even if your blood pressure is fine, reducing your sodium intake can help prevent hypertension. Try to limit your sodium intake to 1,500 to 2,300 mg a day.
8) If you consume alcohol, do so in moderation, which means no more than two drinks a day for men and one drink a day for women. A serving is considered a 12-ounce beer, 4-ounce glass of wine or 1½-ounce of 80-proof alcohol.
9) Last, but not least, when you eat food that is prepared outside of the home, follow the above recommendations. Depending on the frequency, eating in a restaurant or ordering takeout does matter.
To get best results from these recommendations, record your food and beverage intake for one week so you can identify the areas where there are plusses and minuses in meeting your needs. Then list few reasonable ways to improve your overall diet or activity level.
It’s more effective to approach a couple of goals at a time. And never underestimate the importance of a healthy lifestyle on lowering your risk of cardiovascular disease.
(Ms. Gibbons, a Registered Dietician and Certified Diabetes Educator, provides outpatient nutrition medical therapy at Cape Cod Hospital.)