Help Lower Your Family’s Heart-Disease Risk with These Tips
Want to serve your family meals that will leave them satisfied while also helping to protect them from heart disease and stroke? Limit these ingredients to items considered special treats.
- Saturated fats. Saturated fat is usually found in pizza, ice cream, fried chicken, cakes and cookies, bacon, and hamburgers. Less than 10% of your daily calories should be from saturated fats.
- Trans fats. These are found mainly in commercially prepared baked goods, snack foods, fried foods and margarine.
- Cholesterol. Cholesterol is found in food such as bacon, whole milk, cheese made from whole milk, ice cream, full-fat frozen yogurt and eggs. (Eggs are a major source of dietary cholesterol for Americans, but studies show that eating one egg a day does not increase the risk for heart disease in healthy people.) Aim for less than 300 milligrams of cholesterol per day.
- Sodium. Most of the sodium we eat does not come from salt that we add ourselves. Most comes from bread, cold cuts, pizza, hot dogs, cheese, pasta dishes and condiments. Limit your daily sodium intake to less than 2,300 milligrams unless your doctor advises otherwise.
- Sugars. These include sugars in sodas, sports drinks, cake, candy and ice cream.
–Source: Office on Women’s Health, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
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