What is a Healthy Diet?
Prevention is better than cure and a healthy diet
can not only reduce your chances of developing heart disease, but also protect
your heart from further problems if you’ve already been diagnosed.
It’s never too late to start eating healthily, and a good
diet can also protect against some cancers and diabetes.
Eating healthily can help you keep your weight, cholesterol and blood pressure under
control and prevent blood clots and fatty deposits building up
in your arteries. Make sure you include plenty of fruit, vegetables
and starchy foods, like wholegrain bread, pasta and rice, and
reduce the amount of saturated fat, salt and sugar that you include
in your diet. It’s easy to eat properly and healthy food is
delicious – try our heart healthy
recipes and munch your way to a healthier you.
Fruit and vegetables
Eating at least five portions of fruit and veg a day – there’s
good evidence that they help lower the risk of coronary heart
disease. They can be fresh, frozen, dried or tinned and cooked or
raw.
Fats
Eating too much fat, especially saturated fat, can have a
bad effect on your cholesterol, which can increase your
risk of coronary heart disease. For most people, the amount
of saturated fat they eat has much more of an impact on their
cholesterol than eating foods that contain cholesterol like
eggs and shellfish. Help your heart
stay healthy by cutting back on the total amount of fat you eat and
replace saturated fats with monounsaturated
and polysunsaturated fats.
Oily fish
Eat at least two portions of fish a week, and make one portion
an oily fish, such as mackerel, trout or salmon – making this small
change to your diet could improve your chances of survival after a
heart attack. You can find a list of oily fish on the
Food Standards website.
Salt
Reducing salt will help you maintain a lower blood pressure,
which in turn may reduce your risk of coronary heart disease –
time to bin the salt grinder and use herbs to season your food
instead.
Alcohol
Too much alcohol can
increase your blood pressure, which could lead to heart disease and
stroke. Alcohol is high in calories and may make you pile on
the pounds, and heavy drinking can also damage your heart
muscle.
More information
You can learn more about eating healthily at the Food Standards
Agency, the British
Nutrition Foundation and the British Dietetic
Association.
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