There four mantras for a healthy diet are:
- Diet with less fat and less carbohydrate
- Diet with more fibers
- Eat with moderation and with sufficient time interval
- Follow a routine every day
Overall eating pattern is more important than obsessing with any particular food. A judicious selection of healthy food and the way it is cooked is important for a healthy diet. It is imperative to incorporate a list of healthy food stuff in a sensible way and include it in your daily food habit
Controversies over good and bad diets:
- There is always a controversy on whether fish is good or bad for health? One or two servings per week is good for health because they contain unsaturated fats which reduce high blood pressure and risk of heart disease. Up to 6 ounces of sea fish can be beneficial. It is better to avoid large predatory fishes like shark, sword fish, tile fish or king mackerel.
- Chocolate: Dark chocolates are better than milk chocolates because of increase content of flavenoids which reduces stiffness of blood vessels wall and hence blood pressure and therefore beneficial for heart. The obvious question that crops up then is; why not eat plenty of dark chocolates every day? The answer to which is the commercial content of flavenoids vary from one type to another. Also apart from flavenoids chocolates deliver lots of calories and when unutilized those calories are deposited in the body as fat and carbohydrate.
- Soft Drinks: Any carbonated soft drink (including “diet” drinks) is not good for heart and health. They contribute towards the metabolic syndrome—“syndrome X”.
- Coffee: Caffeine in coffee is bad for heart and health. It releasesfatty acids into the circulation, decreases sensitivity to insulin and increases the blood pressure. But there are substances apart from caffeine which may protect your heart.
We must regulate food intake such that the content of our food should be less in saturated fat and more in unsaturated fat, more in fibers and less in carbohydrates.
Healthy foods to be included in our diet:
Healthy fats: raw nuts, olive oil and fish oil
Nutrients: Colorful fruits and vegetables
Fibers: Cereals, breads from whole grains, legumes
Omega 3 and protein: fish and shell fish, poultry
Calcium and proteins: Egg whites, egg substitutes, skimmed milk, yoghurt
Foods than should be taken in small quantities:
- Trans fats from deep-fried foods
- Saturated fats from whole-fat diary or red meat.
- Packaged foods
- Egg yolk
- Whole milk with more than 3% fat.
Seven Foods that can keep your heart Young and active:
1. Fish
2. Oats
3. Walnut
4. Ginger
5. Oil
6. Vegetables
7. Green Tea
A good bit of advice to go by, when sticking to a healthy heart diet is to control your sugar and saturated fat intake. This along with an active lifestyle that includes regular exercising helps in keeping the yellow fat content of your body at optimal levels.
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