Preventing Heart Disease Through Diet

There are certain hereditary conditions that can cause rare forms of the disease, but for the majority of people heart disease is preventable. Being overweight or obese is a risk factor for heart disease. By eating healthy foods you can reduce your risks for this disease. In the process you will also be lowering your risks of heart attacks, strokes, and losing weight.

The first thing to do is to examine your current diet and determine what foods make up your main meals. The easiest way to do this is get yourself a small notepad and write down everything you eat, including snacks and beverages. You should track your eating habits for at least a week or two to get a good idea of your current eating habits. The next step in the process is to compare the foods you eat to a list of high risks foods. High risk foods include anything that is high in saturated or trans fats, deep fried foods, pizza, certain dairy products, high sodium consumption and all the sugary snack foods we love to eat.

Next you should start eliminating the bad foods slowly and replacing them with healthy choices. In order to be successful with your diet change, you should change foods out gradually. If you try to completely change everything all at once, you may start out doing well for the first few weeks, but you will eventually backslide into your old eating habits. You should also initiate portion control and stick to recommended serving sizes. It is healthier to eat several smaller meals and a few snacks each day, rather than one big meal in the evening followed by a dessert.

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Measuring out your food portions will allow you to limit the amount of food you eat throughout the course of the day. No more all-you-can-eat buffets, which are really not good for the body. By dividing your meals up into three smaller meals and allowing for two healthy snacks, you will find that you are actually eating about the same amount as before. You will also find that you will start losing weight by eating healthier and using portion controls.