A Heart-Healthy Diet
03 January 2020
Atherosclerosis is often known as hardening of blood vessels. It occurs when fat, cholesterol and other substances build up in the walls of blood vessels. This reduces blood flow through your arteries.
Eating a healthy diet is crucial for maintaining good heart health. Making simple changes to your diet can help prevent heart disease and improve overall heart function. In this article, we will discuss the importance of a heart-healthy diet, foods to include and avoid, and tips for maintaining a balanced and nutritious diet:
Watch out for saturated fat (it tends to increase LDL-cholesterol)
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Foods containing high saturated fat are fats on meat, processed meat, animal skin, full cream dairy products, coconut and palm oil.
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Choose legumes (beans, peas, lentils), fish, lean poultry and lean meat in your meals for most of the days.
Minimise trans-fat (it increases LDL-cholesterol & reduces HDL-cholesterol)
- Foods containing high in trans-fat are commercial baked products (doughnut, biscuits, cookies, cakes, egg tart, puff, croissant), deep fried foods, chips and hard margarine.
Limit dietary cholesterol
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Cholesterol only comes from animal sources.
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The most concentrated sources of cholesterol are organ meat, egg yolk, animal fats (butter, ghee, lard), poultry skin, processed meat (sausages, hams) and full cream dairy products (milk, cheese, yogurt, cream).
Lighten on sodium
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Reducing salt (sodium) in your diet can help to lower blood pressure.
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Avoid adding soy sauce or salt at the table.
Eat more vegetables and fruits
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Eat at least 3 serves* of vegetable and 2 serves** of fruit everyday.
* 1 serve vegetable: 1 cup of raw vegetable (salad, ulam) or ½ cup of cooked vegetable
** 1 serve fruit: 1 banana or 1 apple or 1 slice papaya or 2 kiwis or 10 grapes
