BATON ROUGE, La. (BRPROUD) – February is heart health month, and with cardiovascular disease being the leading cause of death in the United States it’s important to keep up with heart-healthy eating.
A healthy diet and lifestyle are the keys to preventing and managing cardiovascular disease. It’s not as hard as you may think, registered dietician Ellen McKnight Hill with The Maxine firm says it can be as simple as making easy substitutions.
Hill suggests eating an overall healthy dietary pattern that emphasizes:
- A wide variety of fruits and vegetables
- Whole grains and products made up mostly of whole grains
- Healthy sources of protein (mostly plants such as legumes and nuts; fish and seafood; low-fat or nonfat dairy; and, if you eat meat and poultry, ensuring it is lean and unprocessed)
- Liquid non-tropical vegetable oils
- Minimally processed foods
- Minimized intake of added sugars
- Foods prepared with little or no salt
- Limited or preferably no alcohol intake
Visit American Heart Association and TheMaxinefirm.com for more dietary tips.
