Nutrition, Healthy Eating and Heart Health

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March 01, 2010

Lifelong healthy eating can help play a role in keeping your heart healthy. Follow these basic guidelines:

• Achieve and maintain a healthy weight. Know your Body Mass Index and keep yours in the healthy range.
• Follow Eating Well with Canada’s Food Guide and:
• eat the recommended amounts of Vegetables and Fruit for your age and gender
• make at least half of your grain products whole grains every day
• choose fats like canola, olive and peanut oils more often and fats coming from higher fat dairy products, meats and processed foods less often
• eat omega-3 fat containing fish (such as char, herring, mackerel, sardines, salmon and trout) more often along with plant sources of omega-3 fats such as flax and walnuts.
• For people without a history of heart disease, diabetes or high blood cholesterol levels, eating an average of 1 egg/day does not increase the risk of developing heart disease.
• Eating large amounts of salt and high sodium, processed foods puts you at risk for developing high blood pressure, a risk factor for heart disease and stroke.  Limit the salt you add to foods and get in the habit of reading food labels. Salt is hidden in many processed foods such as canned soups, deli style meats and relishes.  Aim to choose foods which provide less than 200mg of sodium per serving.

If you are affected by heart disease, nutrition and healthy eating become an important part of your treatment and a dietitian will be a key member of your health care team.

The Heart and Stroke Foundation  (http://www.heartandstroke.ca/) provides patients and their families with current and credible information on a wide variety of topics relating to heart health and heart disease. You can find guidelines for healthy eating to help prevent heart disease along with nutrition tips for living with heart disease.

Dietitians are your source of trusted advice on food and nutrition. To find a dietitian in your area, visit www.dietitians.ca/find.