The Best Dietary Habits
It's not enough to just eat low-fat foods or foods low in cholesterol. Many foods help combat the different variables that influence disease. The foods you choose to eat can reduce weight, maintain weight loss, fight inflammation and oxidation, and remove cholesterol from your bloodstream.
You will feel and look better and your health will improve, no matter how unfit you are when you start. It just takes a little knowledge, some effort, and determination to change your lifestyle and eating habits.
The Rainbow Rule
The main rule is to make your plate as colorful as possible. If your food includes most of the colors of the rainbow, you can be confident that you are eating a well-balanced and nutritious diet.
Red foods, including strawberries and red peppers; orange foods, including carrots; yellow foods, like corn and squash; green foods, such as kale and spinach; and blue foods, including blueberries and grapes, should all be eaten in good quantities every day.
The recommended daily allowance for fruits and vegetables is at least five to nine servings a day, and even more is better. A serving isn't as large as people think. It's one medium fruit or one cup of raw small fruits, half a cup of cooked vegetables, three-quarters of a cup of juice, one cup of leafy greens, or one cup of raw vegetables.
It's easy to “sneak” vegetables and fruits into recipes, too. Add shredded carrots to a spaghetti sauce, make banana bread, and freeze fruit juices into popsicles for your kids.
Alert
Almost 20 percent of Americans don't eat any fruits or vegetables at all! Most of us fall short of the recommended daily allowances for fruits and vegetables, but this group is at high risk for poor health. It's not difficult to eat a serving of fruit; three-quarters of a cup of orange juice or one cup of blueberries is one serving.
Eat More Fiber
There are two kinds of dietary fiber in the foods you eat: soluble and insoluble. Soluble fiber, which dissolves in water, is key to reducing LDL cholesterol levels. Doctors think that it works by absorbing bile salts in the intestines. The body reacts by removing cholesterol from the bloodstream to create more bile salts.
It's important to eat at least 5 to 10 grams of soluble fiber a day. You can get this amount from your diet if you eat the American Dietetic Association-recommended 25 to 30 grams of dietary fiber a day. A vegetarian diet can supply even more fiber. Dietary fiber comes from fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and legumes.
Soluble fiber is found in foods like oat bran, apples, strawberries, citrus fruit, rice bran, barley, beans, and peas. Insoluble fiber, which doesn't seem to affect cholesterol but helps you feel full and keeps you regular, is found in most whole grains as well as carrots, cauliflower, apple skin, and beets. A high-fiber food has 5 grams or more of fiber per serving. A food that has more than 2.5 grams of fiber per serving is considered a “good source” of fiber.
Eat Healthy Fats
Doctors are realizing that the best diet isn't one that's simply low in fat but one that is rich in healthy fats. Monounsaturated fats are the best choice for your health. You should include oils like extra-virgin olive oil, unrefined safflower oil, nuts, and avocados in your diet.
Omega-3 fatty acids, found primarily in fatty fish, walnuts, soybeans, tofu, and flaxseed, are another fat you should be eating. Most Americans are deficient in omega-3 fats and eat too much omega-6, which are found in polyunsaturated oils. The balance between omega-3 and omega-6 is critical to health. Stressing monounsaturated fat consumption can help improve this balance.
Fact
The Mediterranean diet is considered one of the healthiest diets in the world. It is rich in fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and monounsaturated fats. It is not a low-fat diet but a healthy fat diet. There may be other factors at play in the lower heart-disease rates in the region, including more physical exercise and a more relaxed lifestyle, but eating these foods is a good place to start.
Most doctors, as well as the American Heart Association, believe that saturated fats, found in meats, butter, and tropical oils, are bad for your health and may increase LDL cholesterol levels. If your doctor tells you to avoid saturated fat, listen to her.
It's important, however, to eat monounsaturated and, to a lesser extent, polyunsaturated fats for the best health. You should consume about 30 to 40 percent of your daily calories from fat. On a 2,000 calorie-per-day diet, that means about 50 to 60 grams of total fat and 20 grams of saturated fat, less for those with risk factors for heart disease.
Include Antioxidants
Antioxidants are molecules that trap free radicals in your body so they can't cause cell damage and make cholesterol more harmful. Once again, these are found primarily in fresh fruits and vegetables. These molecules not only help reduce LDL cholesterol oxidation, but also help prevent the effects of aging.
