Heart healthy food recipes should not be hard to come by these days seeing that America’s waist bands have been on the rise for a while. The problem lies in people grabbing convenience foods, which are usually high in bad fats, cholesterol and sodium. All of these do make food taste better, but at the huge cost of heart disease and other weight related health problems. The most common sense thing to do is make heart healthy food recipes the new convenience food of choice. To do that, some basic rules need to be followed.
Whole grains, whole grains, whole grains. You have probably heard whole grains are healthier than refined grains. But why? Whole grains keep the grain as it was picked from the fields intact. This would include the bran, endosperm and germ. The bran and the germ contain all the stuff good for your heart, fiber and vitamins. They add a little bit of different flavor than the refined grains (endosperm only), but that can actually add to a more tasty heart healthy food recipe. So next time you make a turkey sandwich or decide on a cereal, look for whole grains in the first five ingredients. This is a great first step in a healthier lifestyle.
Double the veggies and fruit. Take any recipe your currently make that already calls for fresh vegetables and/or fruit and either double the amount that the recipe calls for or make another side of veggies or fruit to complete the meal. Veggies and fruit can really fill you up creating fulfilling heart healthy food recipes. For example, if that easy chicken and broccoli casserole calls for 8 ounces of broccoli try 12 or 16 ounces more and see how it turns out. If it throws off the flavor too much, try just increasing the broccoli to 10 or so ounces, but then make a simple side salad with homemade vinaigrette dressing (fancy word for vinegar and oil). Or, grill up some mango, peaches or bananas and then drop them over some fat-free vanilla yogurt for an easy yummy dessert, and still quite healthy.
Cook heart healthy food recipes with as many foods with 5 or less ingredients in them. Again, fruits and vegetables don’t even require an ingredient list. Brown rice noodles instead of enriched flour noodles have about 3 ingredients, one of which is a whole grain. At the very least, make sure you can pronounce or know what all the ingredients are (this doesn’t count if you are food chemist).
Following these few simply rules can get you along the first steps in changing eating habits and your lifestyle from today’s “heart attack in a bag” to tomorrow’s “bill of good health lunch box”. Look for more resources for heart healthy food recipes based on these rules. Websites for dieticians, cookbooks and healthy lifestyle programs can give you even more ideas. Here’s to a healthier your!
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