How to eat heart healthy foods

Tips to Increase Nutritional Value of Natural Foods

• Salad dressing. Cut out the mayonnaise and ladle the olive oil as salad dressing. Or squeeze in lemon juice instead. Low fat alternatives to dressing your salad are perfect for lowering your calories.
• Grilling meat. Quit frying and start grilling your beef, chicken and pork ribs. You’ll melt the natural animal fat and cook the meat without coating it in saturated fats from cooking oil. There’s less opportunity for trans-fatty acids to clog your arteries in the long run.
• Using herbs. Add herbs to reduce the sodium in your soups and salads. You’ll be cutting back on the hypertension and blood pressure risks associated with elevated intakes of sodium.
• Fresh fruit juices. Slice apples or watermelons and juice them in a mixer for a nutrient rich beverage. Skip the sodas and Diet Cokes – and the beers too. Your date with diabetes won’t be anytime soon.
• Muesli and cereals. Whole grains pack a lot of fiber in a single spoonful. Great for eliminating waste, fiber aids your intestines in running smoothly. Less chances of constipation or irritable bowels affecting you.
• Carrots and leafy greens. Lightly sauté vegetables in water to preserve their nutritional value. There’s plenty of Vitamin A and C in vegetables to keep your eyes and skin glowing. Turn back the clock of time with three servings of vegetables a day.

Eat Meat and Dairy Products Sparingly

Red meats like beef and lamb are rich in fatty tissue and cholesterol, the number one cause of heart disease. Choose white meats such as chicken and duck as alternatives. Cultivate a taste in grilled fish. Pick low fat cheese and skimmed milk off the shelves at the store. Avoid butter or lard as far as possible.

The keys to good nutrition will guarantee your body flourishes with energy and vitality. You have a continuous responsibility for nurturing your health. Adopt proper nutritional practices in your diet from today. Make sure your daily meals are always primed for nourishment. And you’ll be singing in the rain for many years to come!

It is one thing to say, eat healthier and another altogether to do it.  What constitutes eating healthier?  It begs to have a beginning point from which you can measure what is healthier eating.

Where are you now in some kind of measurement of how healthy you are eating?  What measurement tool are we using?  A caloric measurement?  A measure of number of nutrients we take in?  Or, are we asking a person to follow guidelines for healthy eating set forth by the USDA?

Healthy eating defined may be different to different individuals.  According to the Dietary Guidelines for Americans, healthy eating is defined as “eating the recommended types and amounts of foods, nutrients and calories that are recommended by the Dietary Guidelines for Americans, while limiting low-nutrient, high-fat and high-sugar foods and beverages that will promote health and achieve and maintain an optimum body weight and energy balance.”  Now, that’s a mouthful!

In simple layman’s terms, the benefits of eating healthier are:  improving your overall health and improving your well-being.  You will feel better and have more energy.  A healthier diet helps you to stay fit and active and can also help to fight stress in your life.

Healthier eating includes eating smarter.  Here are a few ways to eat smarter:

Take smaller bites of food and chew the food for longer time periods.  As we chew food, saliva mixes in which is the first step in digestion. Chewing our food slower and for longer periods of time not only is better for digestion, but we also taste it longer allowing us to enjoy the food more.

Stress can compromise digestion so avoid all stress while you are eating. This includes not rushing through your meal, avoid confrontations, do not partake in serious discussions at the dinner table, and relax if you are stressed out before you sit down to the table.  Set a relaxed mood with music or candles and create a soothing atmosphere in which to eat such as a pretty tablecloth, nice dinnerware, and colorful serving dishes.

Healthy eating also means to stop when you are full.  Eat slowly so that you can pay better attention to the signals that your body is giving you regarding when it is full.  If you eat only enough food to satisfy your hunger and no more, you are more likely to get to or maintain the proper weight.

Eating more food earlier in the day gives your body more time to digest, so your biggest meal should be at the start of your day, a modest meal at noon and a smaller sized meal at night. Eating frequent smaller meals throughout the day is actually good for your metabolism.

You can also eat healthier by eating a well-balanced diet.  Each day your meals should center on the six basic food groups – whole grains, vegetables, fruits, milk and other dairy, protein and oils.  Remember to consume at least 7 servings of fresh whole foods (preferably raw).  Whole food nutrition is the best way to get the nutrients you need to keep your body healthy.

All six-food groups are necessary for optimum health. Your body receives nutrients such as vitamins and minerals from all food groups when you ignore a group you are not getting the nutrients from that group in your diet and therefore will not be as healthy as you could be.

First of all, remember that everyone is different and so the diet that you should be creating will probably be at least a bit different than that of one of your friends who is also trying to lose weight.  If you do not worry about this then you are just going to end up putting the pounds right back on and in fact probably even more.  If you expect to succeed, it is important that you are honest with yourself and accept the reality of your situation.

When it comes to creating a diet for weight loss, you are not going to be able to do anything until you realize what foods are healthy and what foods are not.  This is perhaps the biggest problem of all because there are so many people who really do think that they are eating at least relatively healthily but who are not at all.  Processed foods, anything that you can cook in the microwave in a few seconds, these are foods that are not going to be healthy.  Anything that you can put in a microwave is likely not going to give you any great value nutritionally, but will probably give you some extra pounds.

There are no quick tricks to weight loss, and you certainly will not be able to lose pounds by taking in chemicals that promise a quick fix.  Your body was not made in a lab, so it’s obviously illogical to assume that you will be able to do repairs by consuming pills and potions that were created in a lab.  You may hear hyped-up solutions on advertisements or infomercials but, if you really take the time to think about it, you will realize that they are lies trying to get your money.  These are the same filthy advertisements that used to say smoking was okay, and that margarine is better for you than butter.  Now, research has proven both of them as lies.

The fact is, our bodies need us to consume all-natural LIVE foods like: fresh fruits, veggies, nuts, seeds, legumes, and grains.  So if you want a good diet for weight loss, a good solution is to consume live whole foods.

I found a great book that will help answer questions on weight loss.  You can get a free copy of the book called “Feed Yourself Thin“.