1. WEIGHT – Yes, your weight plays a major role in your heart health. If your BMI is over 25 kg/m2 (that is the

photo: eatingright.org

overweight/obesity range) and/or if you have extra love around your midsection, you are at a higher risk for heart disease, including heart attack and stroke.  The good news is that you can improve your heart health by losing weight.   To achieve weight loss, try to focus on exercise, food selections, and portion sizes.

2. FAT – Of course fat plays another major role in heart health! Be alarmed if your diet is loaded with higher fat foods, specifically foods high in saturated fat from animals including beef, pork, poultry fat and whole or 2% dairy.

Guidelines: Saturated fat should be limited to 7% of your total calories, due to its contribution to increasing your blood cholesterol. Following the American Heart Association’s guidelines, a heart healthy 2,000 calorie diet should be limited to 65 grams of total fat and 15 grams of saturated fat.

3.  SODIUM– Our bodies need a little bit of sodium (a.k.a. salt), though too much sodium can raise your blood pressure – not in the heart throbbing, good loving type of way – and increase your risk of heart disease including, heart attack and stroke.

Guidelines: The average American takes in 3,800 mg of sodium per day, which is nearly 2 times the recommended intake of ~2,000 mg per day for a heart healthy diet.

Helpful Tips: To lower your sodium intake, be sure to read the labels of any food in a package, jar, or can.  These processed foods have a lot of sodium to help preserve them to sit on the shelf.  Look for foods with reduced sodium label claims, such as “Sodium-free”, “Very Low Sodium”, or “Low Sodium”.  Another route is to go for the foods without packaging, especially the lovely colorful fresh fruits and vegetables!

4. CHOLESTEROL – Increased circulating cholesterol in your bloodstream can slowly make its home on the walls of your blood vessels, narrowing those important passage ways from your heart to your brain, lungs and other important parts of your body.  Our bodies naturally make cholesterol; therefore, it is important to limit the cholesterol in our foods to keep our blood flown properly!

Helpful Tips: One of the most important foods to be aware of when limiting your cholesterol is eggs!  One egg has 213 mg Cholesterol which is enough for your entire day!  Try to substitute those eggs with a cholesterol free egg substitute, just as it claims 0 mg of cholesterol and no fat!  Double heart loving bonus!

 5. FIBER – Fabulous, functional fiber can also help keep that lovable fiber heart of yours healthy.  Specifically soluble fiber, which binds with cholesterol and then takes a lovely ride out of the body, in turn reducing your blood LDL cholesterol (that’s the “bad” one).

Helpful Tips: To maximize the benefits of soluble fiber, include fruits, such as apples, bananas, pears, plums, peaches and citrus fruits, vegetables, such as carrots, brussel sprouts, broccoli, and chick peas, whole grains, such as barley, oats, psylium, and beans in your diet.

Renew your love for your heart and commit to making these heart healthy changes!

Have questions? Please don’t hesitate to contact us, we’re here to help!

By Emily Barr, MS, RD, CNSC

Whether you have a little extra around the middle, a muffin top, a little baby fat, a spare tire, love handles, or a beer belly, you need to know you are at risk!

Some of these terms of endearment, or some not so glamorous terms for extra weight around the waistline, are actually a big red flag of danger!  We call this central adiposity or AKA belly fat.  This is the fat that unfortunately made a home around your belly button and is the most scary type of fat of all.  It increases your risks of heart disease (heart attack and stroke), cancer, insulin resistance, type 2 diabetes, sleep apnea, and metabolic syndrome to name a few.   The feat of losing the weight around your midsection may seem difficult and frustrating at times, but what if we let you in on a little secret?

Research shows that adults who ate a low-calorie diet including at least 3 servings of dairy, lost more weight!  Oh and wait, that’s not all.  These adults also had lower blood pressure, risk of obesity, lower risk of insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes, stronger teeth and bones, and lower risk of heart disease and stroke.  It seems like an obvious solution for that extra jiggle in our middles and our commitment to better health.

So are you ready to add some extra dairy to your day?  Try having 3 or more servings  a day! One serving is equal to one cup of milk, yogurt, cottage cheese, or pudding. You can also get your daily servings of dairy from cheese. It’s easy; 1 oz (about the size of 4 dice) of cheese equals 1 daily serving of dairy.  Choose the low-fat or nonfat versions to help control your overall calorie and fat intakes.   Here are some ideas to help you eat more dairy to lose more weight!

• Use milk in place of water when making hot cereals, hot chocolate, and soups
• Make yogurt parfaits with low-fat yogurt topped with cereal
• Make smoothies with yogurt, low-fat milk, fruits and for a bonus a spoonful of flaxseed!
• Use plain nonfat yogurt in place of sour cream for dips and sauces.
• Have high calcium snacks on hand such as yogurts, string cheese, low-fat pudding.
• Add low-fat cottage cheese to your salads.
• Add a little light chocolate syrup to your low-fat or nonfat milk.
• Try fruit or vegetable and cheese kabobs for a fun treat!

Whether you enjoy your low-fat smoothie, chocolate milk, or reduced fat cheese, remember 3 servings a day in combination with a healthy diet will help reduce your belly fat!

In honor of National Dairy Month, I would like for all of us to raise our nice frosty mugs of milk and toast to losing that jiggle around your middle!

By Emily Barr, MS,RD,CNSC

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