Tips for Heart-Healthy Eating and Exercise

Heart-Healthy Eating

• Read food labels for essential information. Labels can tell you how many calories are in a food item per serving and how large a serving is. You can also find out how much fat is in a serving and how much of that fat is from saturated fats (the ones to avoid). 



• Emphasize foods from 5 areas: fruit, vegetables, whole grains such as cereals and breads, beans, and fish. These are low in cholesterol (and will contribute to lowering your child’s blood cholesterol).



• Try lean meat such as skinless chicken breast. Trim off all fat you can see on any meats.



• Choose low-fat dairy products such as skim milk or low-fat yogurt. 



• Avoid fats in cooking. Grill or bake. Do not fry. 



• In healthy weight children, reduce intake of soft drinks, fruit drinks, and low-fat snacks. Avoid these products in overweight children. These provide empty calories and no nutrients.



• Reduce intake of foods high in cholesterol. Cholesterol is found in dairy products (choose skim milk and fat-free dairy products), meat, poultry, fish, and shellfish such as shrimp. Especially avoid organ meats such as liver. Eggs are one example of a food that has an easy cholesterol-free solution. Substitute egg whites or cholesterol-free egg beaters. Try these in recipes that call for eggs.



• Use liquid or tub margarines instead of butter. They are lower in saturated fat. 



• Avoid trans fats. These are a type of saturated fat usually found in cookies, crackers, baked goods, and hard margarines. You will be able to see how much trans fat is in a product because this information will soon be on food labels, as mandated by the FDA. Until then, read the list of ingredients. Avoid the food if among the ingredients is hydrogenated oils (these are trans fats). Use soft margarines instead.



• Switch your child’s snacks away from cookies and crackers to fruits, raw vegetables such as baby carrots, and plain unsalted popcorn or pretzels. The best snacks are apple slices with natural peanut butter, orange sections, fruit stirred into nonfat yogurt, juice bars, sherbet, lite or nonfat popcorn, low-fat pita chips, and low-fat bagel chips.



• Pack a healthy lunch for your child to take to school. For school lunches, pack low-fat or fat-free lunch meat sandwiches made with whole-grain bread. Low-fat cheese can be added. 



• Vending machines can be a dilemma. Help you child choose the lower fat versions of chips or pretzels or avoid machines entirely. Avoid using soda machines.



• Kids are kids, and you will have trouble denying fun foods at birthday parties and school events. High-fat foods such as hot dogs, ice cream, fries, and pizza can still be part of your child’s diet when balanced with other healthful foods the same day and during the rest of the week.



• Use breakfast as a time to select high-fiber foods such as cereals (with skim or 1% milk) and whole-grain breads for toast. Fruit such as an apple will have more fiber than apple juice, so opt for the fruit and not the juice.

Exercise

Regular aerobic exercise, such as biking, running, walking, and swimming, will help raise HDL levels and lower your child’s risk for coronary heart disease in combination with dietary changes. Exercise combined with a healthy diet definitely helps prevent obesity. See if your child is interested in team sports. Lobby for recess activities and physical education classes in your schools.

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