HEALTHY LIFESTYLE WITH IFY: HEART HEALTH.

HEALTHY LIFESTYLE WITH IFY: HEART HEALTH.: How to Prevent Heart Disease Do you take care of your family? Do you take care of your home? Definitely, yes. Do you take care of yo...

HEART HEALTH.

How to Prevent Heart Disease

Do you take care of your family? Do you take care of your home? Definitely, yes. Do you take care of your heart? Probably not.

It may not be at the top of most women’s to-do lists, but caring for your heart through a healthy diet and regular physical activity is the secret weapon to preventing heart disease. While many may assume that popping a few pills that your healthcare provider prescribed is enough to quell symptoms or prevent a heart attack, the real preventative power lies with real changes to your lifestyle – which can reduce the risk for heart disease by as much as 80 percent.

As you make daily food choices, base your eating pattern on these recommendations:

• Eat a variety of fresh, frozen and canned vegetables and fruits without high-calorie sauces or added salt and sugars. Replace high-calorie foods with fruits and vegetables.
   
• Choose fiber-rich whole grains for most grain servings.
   
• Choose poultry and fish without skin and prepare them in healthy ways without added saturated and transfat. If you choose to eat meat, look for the leanest cuts available and prepare them in healthy and delicious ways. 
   
• Eat a variety of fish at least twice a week, especially fish containing omega-3 fatty acids (for example, salmon, trout and herring).
   
• Select fat-free (skim) and low-fat (1%) dairy products.
   
• Avoid foods containing partially hydrogenated vegetable oils to reduce trans fat in your diet. 
   
• Limit saturated fat and trans fat and replace them with the better fats, monounsaturated and polyunsaturated. If you need to lower your blood cholesterol, reduce saturated fat to no more than 5 to 6 percent of total calories. For someone eating 2,000 calories a day, that’s about 13 grams of saturated fat.
   
• Cut back on beverages and foods with added sugars. 
   
• Choose foods with less sodium and prepare foods with little or no salt. To lower blood pressure, aim to eat no more than 2,400 milligrams of sodium per day. Reducing daily intake to 1,500 mg is desirable because it can lower blood pressure even further. If you can’t meet these goals right now, even reducing sodium intake by 1,000 mg per day can benefit blood pressure.
   
• If you drink alcohol, drink in moderation. That means no more than one drink per day if you’re a woman and no more than two drinks per day if you’re a man.

  Also, don’t smoke tobacco — and avoid secondhand smoke.

  Learn more about quitting smoking.