Everyone wants to eat a diet that will help them maintain a healthy heart and keep veins and arteries plaque-free. But just what does it mean to eat a heart healthy diet? Recently the National Cholesterol Education Program (NCEP) provided some new guidelines for a healthy heart. The most important points of these new guidelines are as follows.

New Guidelines

•   Your diet should include no more than 200 mg of cholesterol daily
  
•   Your diet should have no more than 35% of total calories from fat AND most of the fat should be unsaturated.
  
•   Calories from saturated fat should be limited to 7% of total calories.
  
•   Foods that contain plant sterols and stanols (such as Benecol and Take Control spread) should be included in your diet.
•   Eat plenty of foods rich in soluble fiber such as oatmeal, beans, peas, fruits and vegetables.
  
•   Increase physical activity and control weight.
  
•   If dietary changes, weight control and exercise do not reduce your cholesterol, check with your physician about other options to reduce cholesterol.

New Recommended Blood Levels

•   Total cholesterol – less than 200
•   LDL cholesterol – less than 100
•   HDL cholesterol – greater than 40 for Men
•   HDL cholesterol – greater than 50 for Women
•   Triglycerides – less than 150.

How Can I Meet These Guidelines?

•   These guidelines may seem complicated but a few simple changes in your diet can help to achieve optimal blood fat levels.
•   Switch to very low fat or fat-free dairy products.
  
•   Limit the intake of meat to no more than 4 ounces per day.
  
•   Eat beef or pork for only 2 or 3 meals per week. Your other meals should be skinless poultry or fish. Try to eat 1 or 2 meatless meals per day.
  
•   Minimize the amount of fat you add to foods. Use more fat free salad dressings, fat-free mayonnaise, fat-free sour cream, fat-free cream cheese, and fat-free margarine.
  
•   Season steamed vegetables with spices and herbs.
  
•   Use a margarine that contains more unsaturated than saturated fat.
•   Or use Benecol or Take Control in place of the margarine.
  
•   Bake, broil, grill or boil foods. If you must fry, spray the pan with a non-stick coating. Stir fry with no more than 1 tsp. of vegetable oil per serving.
  
•   Use liquid vegetable oils rather than solid vegetable shortening.
  
•   Limit egg yolks to 2 or 3 per week.
  

Remember, maintaining a healthy heart is a lifetime effort. Eating a heart healthy diet and maintaining a good exercise program needs to be a daily habit to keep your cholesterol down for a long and healthy life.