Today is about Healthy Eating. My roommates and I were hardly poster children of healthy eating last night devouring two pizzas between the three of us. (Gross). But today in order to combat the deadly combination of carb on fat on fat. . . The best way to eat for your heart is to, instead of ordering in or going out, cook for yourself! It is cheaper and healthier for you and the best part is there are no hidden ingredients. I am going to find a heart healthy recipe every day to share.
I personally eat a salad every day-- though controlling salad dressing portion is always an issue. My favorite dressing (and cheaper than store bought) is olive oil, balsamic, salt and pepper, and some lemon juice Mmmmmm!
Here are some food guidelines to help you and your family make informed decisions about food in your home. Do you have a pen and paper? No? Go get one to write down a shopping list. Got it? Good, now you can read on.
Total Intake of Macronutrients per Adult per Day
Carbohydrate: 130g (safe range 45-65g)
Fiber: 25-38g
Total Fat: 20-35g (REDUCE SATURATED FATS).
Protein: 35-56g
What foods should I eat to help prevent heart disease and stroke?
You should eat mainly:
- Fruits and vegetables
- Grains (at least half of your grains should be whole grains, such as whole wheat, whole oats, oatmeal, whole-grain corn, brown rice, wild rice, whole rye, whole-grain barley, buckwheat, bulgur, millet, quinoa, and sorghum)
- Fat-free or low-fat versions of milk, cheese, yogurt, and other milk products
- Fish, skinless poultry, lean meats, dry beans, eggs, and nuts
- Polyunsaturated (pol-ee-uhn-SACH-uh-ray-tid) and monounsaturated (mon-oh-uhn-SACH-uh-ray-tid) fats (found in fish, nuts, and vegetable oils)
Also, you should limit the amount of foods you eat that contain:
- Saturated fat (found in foods such as fatty cuts of meat, whole milk, cheese made from whole milk, ice cream, sherbet, frozen yogurt, butter, lard, cakes, cookies, doughnuts, sausage, regular mayonnaise, coconut, palm oil)
- Trans fat (found mainly in processed foods such as cakes, cookies, crackers, pies, stick or hard margarine, potato chips, corn chips)
- Cholesterol (koh-LESS-tur-ol) (found in foods such as liver, chicken and turkey giblets, pork, sausage, whole milk, cheese made from whole milk, ice cream, sherbet, frozen yogurt)
- Sodium (found in salt and baking soda)
- Added sugars (such as corn syrup, corn sweetener, fructose, glucose, sucrose, dextrose, lactose, maltose, honey, molasses, raw sugar, invert sugar, malt syrup, syrup, caramel, and fruit juice concentrates)
My personal TIP to add is when you are choosing what to put on your plate for dinner make sure to have a variety of colors! Those colors are by products of the nutrients they hold. Also boiling veg removes a lot of the nutrients from them, so I suggest steaming. Instead of white potatoes, make sweet potatoes or even better PURPLE potatoes (those are my new favorite).So now that y'all have the basics, here is my recipe of the day (I edited it a bit to make it suit me).
The link has nutritional information about this recipe.
Over stuffed avocado
Ingredients:
- 1 medium Avocado
- 3 oz. can salmon, drained
- 1/4 cup each: green pepper, red onion, cucumber - all diced
- 1/3 cup nonfat greek yogurt, plain
- 1 tsp dijon mustard
- 1 tsp lemon juice
- 1/4 tsp each: sea salt
- 1 teaspoon of sugar
- 1/4 cup fresh orange sections, diced
How to Prepare
- Slice Avocado in half, lengthwise (be careful of the pit, it’s big!) Split open and remove the bit.
- Scoop out the center of the avocado, leaving about ¼ inch of the fruit all around, and put the scooped out fruit into a bowl. Set the halves aside.
- Add salmon, pepper, onion, cucumber yogurt, mustard, lemon juice, salt and sweetener to the bowl with the scooped out avocado. Mix all ingredients until very well blended.
- Add orange sections and mix gently.
- Scoop half of the mix into each of the Avocado halves.
- Put in refrigerator for approximately 10 minutes to slightly chill. (Or wait to take them out until you’re ready to leave for your picnic!)
- Grab a spoon and eat up! Yum. Enjoy!
Have a Healthy Day!
Sara
There are many places you can go to find heart healthy recipes.
Mayo Clinic
Heart.org
Food Network!
Here are my sources and places to go for thorough information about nutrition (it is a bit dense).
Guidelines Executive Summary
Eat for a Healthy Heart
Choose My Plate
Nutrition FAQs
Hi Sarah!
ReplyDeleteI've got to make a couple of comments! ;)
Let's start with saturated fats: They are not always bad! Avocado consits of saturated fats and so does coconut oil, which are both extremely healthy!! Coconut oil is in fact the only oil you should use for frying as it doesn't create carcinogens when heated to high temperatures!
Read more about the health benefits and about why there are different types of saturated fats here:
http://www.naturalnews.com/036156_Coconut_oil_superfood_healing.html
Also, the problem with sodium is not (just) foods that contain it (baking soda can actually be healthy, if it's just pure sodium bicarbonate, it regulates pH) but mainly how the foods are metabolized in our body: sugar, all refined foods (white bread, white rice, ...), meat and dairy create acids, which means that our body uses minerals (e.g. calcium) to neutralize the acids which will lead to long term deficencies and is the reason for tons of diseases or even little things like headaches, bad sleep, low concentration...
We should mainly be consuming alkalizing foods, that means fresh fruit and vegetables, especially leavy green vegetables! ;) citrus fruits are alkalizing as well, it does not depend on how acidic the food itself is but on how it is metabolized!
Oh and one more thing: There are absolutely NO benefits in dairy (unless you're talking RAW milk maybe)
If you find the evidence, show it to me, but I'm sure I can debunk every single argument! ;)
Try nut milks! Almond milk is high in magnesium which is extremly important for the heart I believe and for tons of other functions in our body and most people really don't have enough, since our soils are not as "healthy" as they used to be...
http://www.naturalnews.com/025567_magnesium_calories_calcium.html
Ok, enough said, keep up the good work! xoxo
Daniela
Hi,
DeleteI appreciate the comments! The list provided is from womenhealth.gov (a pretty legit and well researched website) and is not a list I personally built. While I agree with a lot of what you said -- and will address some of those later-- this is just supposed to be a guide to show people they can eat better without giving a lot of things up. For example, with milk you may never convince some people that it is not good for you-- and if it isn't they like the taste of it better than nut milks. I am personally lactose intolerant so do not drink any milk, and eat limited amounts of cheese.
I don't think it is bad to indulge every once in a while with some foods, but as an overall life style people should be a bit more shopper conscious!
Thanks for the comment and thoughts!!!
Sara
Hey Sarah,
DeleteOh yeah, I can see your point and absolutely agree with you!
I just know it's really hard somtimes with all this conflicting and biased information out there to figure out what is actually right and even official sources contain outdated info...
But yes, a healthy body can fight anything so it's ok to indulge every once in while for sure! (although personally I've lost all desire for anything that's unhealthy), I just think we have to find back to health first after ingesting all this junk food for so long :-D
So, this blog is a really good idea!! :) Hope you can encourage a lot of people to start thinking about their health!! ;)
This is Sara's beloved roommate who does not have a blog spot account but as an exercise science major would love to add her input :)
ReplyDeleteThe TOP FIVE killers of americans are diet and habit related, the number 1 being heart disease closely followed by diabetes. Many types of cancer are diet related as well, particularly GI track cancers. So I commend Sara for starting this blog because all I want is for the world to be more knowledgable of healthy habits and practicing of preventative medicine.
So exciting!
A few things I did want to clarify/add to the prelude of posts:
It is true meats and dairy do create an acidic effect in the body. But also so does exercise. So does breathing in cigarette smoke from the person across the room. Eating antioxidant rich foods (PURPLE POTATOES) bind to the acidifying free-radicals and filter them out of your blood, so that you have more efficient circulation and better managed blood pressure. Also exercising regularly trains your body to regulate acidity itself. Also exercising makes you feel good.
I think there is plenty good reason for us to eat dairy, especially if those dairy products contain wonderful things like protein, iron, calcium, vitamin D, and probiotics. I know dairy free people will probably tell me i can get these things from other foods, but hey if my body has evolved over the past million or so years to continue producing lactase (that is why we are the only mammals who continue drinking milk beyond infancy, other animals stop producing it with adulthood), then I'm gonna have my cheesecake and eat it too.
Coconut oil is wonderful and it is absolutely true it is a less carcinogenic oil to cook with. However it is a saturated fat so if you are at high risk for cardiovascular disease/ heart attack/ stroke (You are at high risk if you are obese or have a family history of it, like Sara's dad) then you should limit it. No matter how healthy you eat you can be congenitally predisposed to it, ya know? So the free radicals released when heating unsaturated fats can easily be combatted by eating lots of fresh fruits and veggies, just like Sara and all the healthy eaters of the world are advocating. The darker the produce = the more antioxidants = more free-radical clearance. WHOO
Finally I am going to say it again and hope sara posts a blog about it: EXERCISE!!! The minimum amount of exercise your body requires to keep your organs running at their best is 150 minutes a week. Also you brain makes more synapses when you begin an exercise program :)