making heart healthy food choices

Some of the ways to have a healthier heart is to reduce your saturated fat intake, eliminate your trans fat intake and replace them with heart healthy unsaturated fats (both polyunsaturated and monounsaturated). Saturated fat can be found in both oils (i.e., coconut, palm or palm kernel) and animal sources (i.e., fatty beef, lamb, pork, poultry with skin, lard, cream, butter, cheese and dairy products made from whole or 2% milk).

Further reduce your saturated fat intake by:

  1. Trimming all visible fat off meats before cooking.
  2. Using a nonstick skillet or grilling to minimize oil or vegetable spray.
  3. Using racks to drain off fat when broiling, roasting or baking.
  4. Cooking stews, boiled meat or soup stock ahead of time, refrigerating, and then removing the hardened fat from the top.
  5. Removing skin from chicken or turkey before cooking.

 

When it comes to dairy products, it is always a good idea to choose the low-fat or skim variety. You will benefit from all of the calcium and nutrients as the full-fat variety, but without the extra saturated fat and calories.

When you do include fat in your diet, choose heart-healthy unsaturated fats. They can be found in a variety of oils, such as olive, canola, peanut, sunflower, soybean and corn oil.  There are also unsaturated fats in avocados, peanut butter, many nuts and seeds, and fish like salmon, mackerel, herring and trout.

For more tips and information, return to our nutrition page.