The ABC's of Eight Delicious Heart Healthy Decisions

Eat Your Heart Out in Annual Heart Month of February

Annually, February has become the heart conscious month for so many people for all sorts of reasons. When it comes to diet, what you eat with a view to a healthy heart can mean something to you in February, too.

It is commonly believed a healthy heart diet for most persons means taking in no more than 30% fat, and 10% saturated at that, in our total daily diet. That's easy to stay within. Think about it. If you make sure that one meal a day is based on heart healthy food, then based on a three meal a day diet you've ensured that roughly 1/3, or 30%, of your daily meals is within the commonly held belief of what's a heart healthy diet. Eight Delicious Heart Healthy Decisions is eight heart healthy foods to choose to use as the base for one meal a day, seven days a week, plus one for good measure. Deciding to make sure you eat a heart healthy meal eight days a week if your a Beatles fan, seven days for all others, gets you 1/3 of the way there! Go Eat your heart out in February! Just eat heart healthy.

Numero uno is Avocado! Avocado is only now beginning to be recognized for what it really is-extremely heart healthy good food. For the longest the popular misconception about the avocado was that it was fattening, and not necessarily in a good way. However, in the last several years this little dynamo of a fruit has turned the industry upside down upon further inspection.

Contrary to popular belief the avocado can be quite beneficial to a weight-management program, and a heart healthy diet. The avocado is virtually the only fruit that has fat which is mono-unsaturated. Only 5 grams of fat per serving and most of that of the mono-unsaturated kind. It's mono-unsaturated fat speeds up the basal metabolic rate as compared to saturated fat. It is very, very low in cholesterol, the bad kind. And it's Omega-3 rich. Avocados provide more than 25 essential nutrients. They are a very good source of vitamin E, good amounts of vitamin C, containing credible amounts of thiamine and riboflavin. And compared to the banana, it has 60% more potassium. It is very low in sodium, very low sugar. And it's high in dietary fiber.