Don’t eat your heart out

Not too long ago, a square meal was a big piece of red meat, a starch, and a vegetable. We put butter on rolls and cream gravy on our fried chicken.

Whatever happened to the way we ate? It was killing us.

Eating habits have changed, but we’re still hooked on unhealthy foods. Favorites like ice cream, French fries and pepperoni pizza are high in fat and cholesterol, key contributors to atherosclerosis. This fatty build-up on the lining of the arteries is commonly referred to as “clogged arteries” or “hardening of the arteries.”

When there’s too much of this fatty build-up in an artery, it narrows. If this narrowing occurs in a coronary artery of the heart, it can result in chest pain. If the coronary artery becomes completely blocked, a heart attack occurs.

According to the American Heart Association, the best foods to eat include fruits, vegetables and foods that contain whole grains, such as pasta, bread and cereal, as well as rice. The worst foods to eat include bacon, sausage, hot dogs, ice cream, heavy cream and butter.

But be careful. There are plenty of "sneaky" foods–those that look healthy but really aren’t. A good example of this is a salad loaded with vegetables . . . and also loaded with ham, cheese and creamy dressing. Other examples are vegetables or fish that are dripping with butter. Or a bowl of healthy whole-grain pasta . . . swimming in butter.

The way to outwit sneaky foods is to substitute healthy foods. Instead of ham and cheese in your salad, use white meat turkey and a low-fat cheese. Instead of butter, try a sauce made with plain yogurt flavored with spices.

It’s easier than you think
A few years ago, trimming the fat was a difficult task. But these days it’s easy because the food industry offers low-fat or no-fat substitutes for almost everything that we eat. Even the beef and pork industries are producing meats with less fat!

So when it comes to eating, get heart-smart. Watch your food labels, and watch your risk of heart disease go down.

How many times a day?
The American Heart Association suggests that all healthy Americans age two and older aim for the following:

• Breads, cereals, pasta and starchy vegetables: 6 or more servings a day.
• Vegetables and fruits: 5 or more servings a day.
• Dairy products: 2 or more servings a day for adults over 24 years and children 2 to 10 years; 3 to 4 servings a day for ages 11 to 24 and women who are pregnant or breastfeeding.
• Meat, poultry and fish: No more than 6 oz. cooked a day.
• Fats and oils: Use sparingly, consuming no more than a total of 5 to 8 servings (about 2 teaspoons in a serving) a day, depending on your caloric needs.
• Eggs: 3 to 4 egg yolks per week (egg whites are unlimited).

Skimming the fat from your diet
Fat should not exceed 30% of our daily calories. That’s not as hard to figure out as you might think.

Start by looking at the nutrition information on food labels. Let’s say a food contains 100 calories. To find out how many calories come from fat, look at the number of fat grams. Each fat gram contains 9 calories. So if there are 3 grams of fat, you multiply 3 x 9. The result, 27, is the number of fat calories in this food item. Twenty-seven calories of fat in a food item of 100 calories mean that the percent of fat calories is 27. That’s under 30 percent, so eat it and enjoy.

Watch out for these sneaky foods
At first glance, that food choice you made may seem pretty healthful. But how the food is prepared–and how much of it you eat–can turn it into a heart-health disaster.

• Popcorn. If popped in oil, even unbuttered popcorn can derive most of its calories from fat.
• Chef’s salad. The lettuce and tomatoes are great, but the cheese, ham and salami–not to mention the dressing–can hike fat content into the stratosphere.
• Low-fat chocolate-chip cookies. The percentage of fat calories may be under 30 percent–but if you eat a whole box at a sitting, you’ll exceed your daily fat requirements by a long shot.