How to plan your meals
Planning a heart - healthy menu is easy, and your arteries will do the rest.
1. Base your meals on these four food groups:
grains: rice, pasta, bread, oatmeal, cereal, etc.
legumes: beans, peas, chickpeas, and lentils
vegetables: asparagus, broccoli, carrots, cauliflower, potatoes,
spinach, sweet potatoes, Swiss chard, etc. fruits: apples, bananas, oranges, pears, strawberries, etc.
2. Avoid all animal products. Meats, poultry, fish, eggs, and dairy products all contain cholesterol and nearly all are high in fat. It is impor - tant to avoid them completely. Including even small amounts can have a surprising effect on your cholesterol, not to mention their tendency to seduce your taste buds toward fattier tastes.
3. Keep vegetable oils to a minimum. Cooking oils, shortening, and salad oils sneak into foods and can contribute fats that raise your cholesterol level. Even though vegetable oils are better than animal fat, they do contain some saturated fat, because all fats and oils are mixtures.
While we tend to think of olive oil and other oils as pure (and even “virgin”), keep in mind that they are highly concentrated and biologically unnatural. Olive oil is made by extracting the oil from thousands of olives and discarding the pulp. Corn oil is, likewise, extracted from many ears of corn, leaving behind their complex carbohydrates, fiber, and protein. They can affect your cholesterol level if used in more than modest amounts.
4. To insure complete nutrition, it is important to have a source of vitamin В 12, which could include any common multivitamin, fortified soymilk or cereals, or a vitamin B12 supplement of 5 meg or more per day.
To turn these guidelines into meals, some people like to keep things basic and familiar: salads, baked beans, mashed potatoes, green beans, broccoli, or lentil, vegetable, or split pea soup. Some like to take ad - vantage of the meat substitutes that have appeared in grocery stores in recent years: burgers, hot dogs, and sandwich “meats,” all made from various soy and wheat derivatives. Others prefer “ethnic” cuisine: minestrone, spaghetti marinara, pasta e fagioli, Mexican bean burritos with Spanish rice, curries, Middle Eastern hummus, vegetable sushi, etc.
If fatty toppings are your nemesis, you’ll find no shortage of health - ier choices. Have jam or cinnamon on toast instead of butter or mar - garine. Try Dijon mustard on a baked potato. Look at the range of fat - free salad dressings on supermarket shelves. Be sure to read labels on commercially prepared foods. Hydrogenated and partially hydro - genated oils in snack foods, baked goods, and margarines behave like animal fats and will increase your cholesterol level.
