5 Heart Hazard Foods
A group of heart experts were asked what are the foods they do there best not to eat to support their heart health. Now, its pretty difficult to eat heart healthy all the time-even for heart health experts but, if you were looking to do better with your heart healthy diet you may want to consider limiting the foods mentioned here.
At the top of their do not eat list: cookies and doughnuts. Many are made with hydrogenated oils, trans fats that can increase your less desirable LDL cholesterol and decrease the good HDL cholesterol. We should mention that most are also loaded with excess calories and sugar.
Number two is ice cream. Gourmet ice cream can pack about 300 calories and 20 grams of fat per half cup. Now let’s be honest, who eats just a half a cup?!
Third on the list are French fries. A traditional serving can net you over 500 calories, 25 grams of fat and nearly 900 milligrams of sodium-ouch! A baked potato is a better bet topped with yogurt or salsa. A close relative – the potato chip (number 4) is not any better –they tend to be loaded with excess salt which can be a driving force behind high blood pressure!
Last on their list was white bread – a truly “empty” food with little heart healthy fiber or anything else of benefit. It’s easy to replace white bread with a whole grain bread to bump up the nutritional value and the heart health! Read your labels and make sure that your bread does not contain partially hydrogenated fats or oils and ideally at least 3 grams of fiber per slice.
Let’s be clear-it’s not about avoiding all these foods; more about limiting them and being creative to find suitable and heart healthy replacements!
March 23, 2010
by Optimum WellnessComments
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