A healthy diet can help you maintain a healthy body weight and control your blood cholesterol, blood pressure and blood sugar.
Be mindful about choosing heart-healthy foods. For example, try to eat more:
Many of us eat too much without really knowing it. Portions at restaurants—even the size of bagels, baked goods and other prepared items—have grown over the years.
Know how much is too much, and which foods are better to load up on.
You may find it helpful to visually divide your plate and measure out portions of healthy foods for the week.
How you prep your food is important.Try to avoid frying food and replace unhealthy fats with good fats when possible. It’s also best to make snacks and meals from scratch and limit processed foods, which often contain hidden sodium and added
sugars.
When you do eat out, try to reduce your calories, fat and salt by asking for:
Don’t go it alone or attempt to cut out major food groups or make too many changes at once because your efforts can backfire.
Talk with your health care professional or nutritionist about how many calories you should consume each day and come up with a realistic eating plan that fits your life.
Ask your partner or family members to help you stick to a healthy diet.