What You Should Know
The Healthy Heart Diet is a general eating plan for people who wish to improve heart health and possibly lose weight in the process. Increased body weight and obesity can put great strain on the heart, so a healthy heart diet is crucial to reducing body weight and achieving better heart health. The plan is general and tends to leave dieters making many food and exercise choices without much guidance. If weight loss were that easy, the food pyramid would be enough to help everyone lose weight.
List of Ingredients
Altered menu plan with heart health in mind.
Product Features
There are a few specific requirements for the healthy heart diet. Fat intake should be limited to less than 30 % of total calorie intake. The 30% of calories from fat should be broken into 10% or less of saturated fat, 10% or less of polyunsaturated fat and 10 to 15% monounsaturated fats. Cholesterol needs to be limited to 300 mg or fewer per day. Dieters should intake less than 3000 mg of sodium or salt. Chemicals like caffeine, MSG and preservatives should be limited.
Aside from these precautions, the Healthy Heart Diet follows the food pyramid. The majority of calories should be taken from the bread, cereal, rice and paste group. Three to five servings of vegetables and two to four servings of fruit are next in line. Then come the dairy products which should be limited to two to three servings per day and finally protein from meat, eggs and dried beans at two to three servings per day.
The food pyramid is flawed for most dieters. Carbohydrates tend to cause a spike in blood glucose and a subsequent crash which may lead to more hunger and snacking on high carbohydrate foods causing a cycle of eating and weight gain. Weight loss and effect on blood glucose is not taken into consideration with the Healthy Heart Diet.
Advantages
- Information on the Healthy Heart Diet is free.
- Some concepts are easy to follow and healthy for dieters.
Disadvantages
- There is no structure to the Healthy Heart Diet.
- Dieters are forced to create a menu and exercise plan from a few suggestions.
- Calorie intake is not mentioned.
- High carbohydrate foods are encouraged.
- Healthy oils like omega 3 fatty acids are not mentioned.
Conclusion
The Healthy Heart Diet may help thin people improve heart health, but there is no mention of weight loss in any of the information we could find. Most of the suggestions for the Healthy Heart Diet are based on the food pyramid which is not dieter friendly. Dieters can limit carbohydrate intake, eat more healthy fats and protein and have a healthy heart.
coconut oil? good for you? how about when used in cooking.
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