Heart Diet: Taking Eating To Heart
Heart Health > > Heart Diet: Taking Eating To Heart
We live in a diet-crazed time in history. There are more diets being touted as “the healthy choice” today, but which diets are the best for your heart? It can be a difficult decision to make. It is a good idea to ignore most of the fad diets you see, because some of them have not been medically proven and others can cause you more harm than help. The safest, most effective heart diet is a diet that is low in saturated fats and trans fats. The majority of people believe that excessive fat intake, especially saturated and trans fats, is bad for your appearance and causes a lowered self esteem, but more importantly this habit of eating is also extremely harmful for your heart health. High fat diets are a large reason that doctors have developed different variations of a heart diet to recommend to patients who may be at risk for heart disease and stroke.
A long-term heart diet will help reduce the chances of heart disease, which will overtake smoking as the number one cause of death in America before the year 2007. A heart diet, whether for nutrition for competitive training or just for overall heart health, also helps reduce the risk of diabetes, various forms of cancer, and even impotence. In addition to of these excellent heart health benefits, many people who go switch from a high fat diet to a heart diet for extended periods of time have more energy and feel more confident about themselves.
While a heart diet is great, it is vital to remember to maintain proper levels of caloric intake. A heart diet does not mean that you starve yourself, it simply means that fatty foods are reduced or eliminated from your diet altogether. If you do not have adequate caloric intake, you can suffer a variety of symptoms attributed to rapid caloric decrease. The best advice? Pick a heart diet that allows you to load up on healthy, non fat foods.
Also, when considering a heart diet, remember that certain fats are not as harmful for you as other fats. Naturally occurring fats, such as fats found in dairy products, milk, and fish are better for you than saturated and trans fats found in processed foods including potato chips, french fries, and salty snacks. To limit your intake of foods with bad fat, and to include some good fat in your diet, choose unprocessed, unrefined foods. A health food store is a great place to find foods that are essentially “heart smart”.
Heart diets are an important part of a healthy lifestyle. Heart diets can require a lot of discipline, especially if you’re accustomed to eating an uncontrolled amount of sugary sweets and fast foods. You’ll feel better about yourself, be more attractive, be healthier, and reduce your risk of a variety of heart conditions. And that’s not even taking into consideration the effect that a heart diet will have with regards to sports nutrition if you intend to compete professionally.