Feeling Sluggish? Try Heart Healthy Dieting!

There are hundreds of diets that promise the world in helping you to lose weight, spot reduce certain areas of your body, improve your general health or to help your health and reduce your cholesterol and help you to get a healthy heart. Heart disease is the number one killer in the United States and stroke is the #3 cause of death. The normal progression of heart disease starts with a build up of a fatty substance called plaque in the arteries heading to the heart. Over time blood flow is restricted to the point where the arteries are nearly or completely blocked and hardened and the heart does not get enough oxygen to function properly. This lack of oxygen manifests itself in chest pain, shortness of breath or even a full blown heart attack.

Strokes occur when there is a blockage of the blood supply to the brain which then impairs a great deal of normal function on the side of the body affected. You can get several symptoms including speech impairment, loss of memory, paralysis of varying degrees and even death. With these two causes of death within the United States on the rise maintaining heart healthy dieting is so much more important now more than ever.

Just what constitutes heart healthy dieting? Many diets that stress keeping your sodium, cholesterol and other fat intake down are considered heart healthy diets. Diets high in low fat meats like chicken, fish and pork are also considered heart healthy. There is a diet that goes by the name Heart Healthy Diet and it was developed by the National Heart, Blood and Lung Institute to help people keep their total cholesterol and LDL (the bad cholesterol) levels low.

There is a great tool called create-a-diet that allows you to pick from several types of foods to create three meals for your self. You will input your current weight, height in feet and inches, your age group and your activity (light, moderate and heavy) level to determine your approximate caloric needs. Saturated fats need to be kept to under seven percent of your total calories. Trans fats should be avoided at all costs and at no time should they exceed one percent of your total calories. Cholesterol should be limited to less than 300 mg for healthy adults and less than 200 mg per day for those with tested high levels of LDL (low-density lipoprotein). Those patients taking any cholesterol reducing medication should also adhere to these levels.

The easiest way to reduce your intake of saturated and trans fats in your diet is to avoid butter, margarine and shortening. Some healthier alternatives include using olive oil instead of butter for cooking or on bread. You can use canola oil instead of lard for baking. Avoid coconut, palm, cottonseed, cocoa butter (found in chocolate) at all times and look for partially hydrogenated in the ingredient list of anything to avoid trans fats. Whether you have high cholesterol or high blood pressure heart healthy dieting is a way to make sure you live to see your grand children.

Click here for information on americanheartdiets.com Heart Healthy Dieting and Smart Heart Diets [americanheartdiets.com/category/smart-heart-diet/].