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Simple
steps for making your diet more heart-healthy
September 23, 2009
Suzanne Havala Hobbs
When
your heart health is at risk and you know you have to eat
well, putting dietary advice into practice can still be a
challenge.
You may be well aware of the recommendations: eat less salt,
eat less saturated fat, eat more fiber. Translating these
into what to make for dinner tonight – or what to order
when you go out to eat – is where it all breaks down.
That’s what a friend told me recently after his second
heart attack.
He and many of you have asked me for simple suggestions about
where to begin and how to get better at it. It’s harder
than it sounds.
But there’s good news, too.
Most, if not all, of the information I share in my columns
is applicable to people with coronary artery disease. It doesn’t
matter if we’re talking about diabetes, obesity, high
blood pressure or cancer prevention.
The general guidelines still apply.
Translating the advice into food choices is the hard part.
It requires you to apply what you’ve read and heard,
to put the bits and pieces together into decisions about which
entrees, sides and desserts to eat and how much and how often
to make exceptions.
That’s why it makes sense to start with a few simple
changes.
Limit your focus to one or two manageable steps. Give it some
time.
As you master new meal-planning skills, you’ll develop
more confidence about your food choices, and decisions will
come more easily. Start with some reasonable first steps:
* Eat more soluble fiber. It’s the kind that lowers
blood cholesterol levels. Find gobs of soluble fiber in oatmeal
and beans of all sorts – pintos, black beans, garbanzo
beans, kidney beans and navy beans, for example.
This fall, switch to a big bowl of oatmeal every morning,
and bean soup, bean burritos and bean chili for lunch or dinner.
* Cut the saturated fat. Do it by radically reducing your
meat intake and steering clear of cheese and other high-fat
dairy products, including ice cream and butter.
Eat more grain- and vegetable-based entrees and vegetarian
meals. Think of meat as a condiment – not more than
a minor ingredient in the foods you eat – instead of
as the focal point of the plate.
Need some ideas? Peruse vegetarian cookbooks, and look to
Indian, Middle Eastern, and Chinese vegetable stir-fry meals
for inspiration.
* Double up on the fruits and veggies. Heap your plate with
large servings of these foods, and let them replace the foods
that used to occupy your plate.
Serve fruit desserts more often. Pack fruit as a snack during
the day, and keep several types of fresh fruit on hand at
all times at home.
* Dodge the junk. It’s very hard to do if you bring
a lot of processed foods into your home or you buy fast foods
and snack foods when you’re out.
I’m talking about biscuits, fries, fried sandwiches
and burgers, most vending machine snacks, commercial cookies
and cakes. Cut them out.
Start with any one of these steps, and move on to the next
when you feel you can. Refine your diet from there.
If you feel overwhelmed or lost, get individualized help from
a registered dietitian, or simply revisit the list above and
focus on one big change with the potential to yield substantial
results.
Move at your own pace. Change takes time.
Suzanne
Havala Hobbs is a licensed, registered dietitian and clinical
associate professor in the Department of Health Policy and
Management and the Department of Nutrition in the UNC Gillings
School of Global Public Health. Send questions and comments
to suzanne@onthetable.net.
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