How to Demonstrate a Heart-Healthy Diet

The heart is the body's most important organ. Without a healthy heart, a body cannot function to its full capacity. Americans die each year of heart disease, heart attack and stroke. One way to prevent heart-related illness is by starting a heart-healthy diet. By monitoring and controlling your fat, sodium and calorie intake, you can lower your risk.

Instructions

1

Write down everything you eat in one day in a notebook, and consider this your food diary. Beside each item, include fat content, sodium content and calorie content. Such information is most often found on the packaging of food products. Fat is listed in grams, sodium is listed in milligrams and calories are listed in number form followed by the letters CAL. Note if you add any sauces, dips or seasonings to your food, such as salt, pepper, ketchup or mayonnaise. Do this for a minimum of one week.

2

Add up your daily calorie intake on each day and calculate your average daily caloric intake of the week you recorded in your food diary. Add up the percentages of fat and sodium that you consume on an average day, and calculate the percentage of each compared to your daily caloric intake. For instance, if you are eating 2,000 calories per day and you consume 200 grams of fat per day, then 10 percent of your daily caloric intake comes from fat.

3

Limit your fat intake to no more than 30 percent of your average day's total calories. In addition, be certain to monitor the types of fat consumed. A maximum of 10 percent of your day's total calories should come from saturated fat, and trans fats should be avoided altogether. Polyunsaturated fats, such as those found in avocados and olive oil, are the most heart-healthy fats.

4

Calculate your daily milligram intake of sodium simply by adding together the amount of sodium in each of the foods you eat (sodium levels come listed in milligrams on the packaging of most food.) Sodium content of foods that do not come in packages can be found by visiting a sodium-content listing website such as Healthy Living Club. Limit sodium to 2,400 milligrams per day. Sodium is often added to food marketed as "low-fat" to compensate for the taste lost from the fat removal. Replace salt with low-sodium seasoning like herbs, spices or garlic.

5

Evaluate whether your overall calorie intake should be adjusted. An average person needs 1,800 to 2,400 calories per day, and if your calorie consumption exceeds that, you may need to make adjustments to avoid becoming overweight. Portion control is an important factor when demonstrating a heart-healthy diet, because overeating leads to being overweight, which is a major contributing factor to heart disease and hypertension. Use measuring cups and spoons at first to make sure you're only eating one serving of the food you've chosen.