Eating healthy can be easy, affordable, and delicious. It’s all about making smart choices to build an overall healthy dietary pattern.
After all, a healthy diet can help reduce your risk of heart disease, stroke and lots of other things you’d rather avoid. In fact, our team member Curtis Chambers made several changes to his diet after his heart stopping at work. By choosing a healthier lifestyle, he’s been able to move forward and live a normal life.
Here’s the good news: eating right doesn’t have to be hard or require you to give up all of the foods you love.
Here are some tips from the American Heart Association to help you and your family adopt a healthier eating style:
1. Choose mindfully, even with healthier foods. Ingredients and nutrient content can vary a lot.
2. Read labels. Compare nutrition information on package labels and select products with the lowest amounts of sodium, added sugars, saturated fat and trans-fat, and no partially hydrogenated oils.
3. Watch your calories. To maintain a healthy weight, eat only as many calories as you use up through physical activity. If you want to lose weight, take in fewer calories or burn more calories.
4. Eat reasonable portions. Often this is less than you are served, especially when eating out.
5. Cook and eat at home. You’ll have more control over ingredients and preparation methods.
6. Look for the Heart-Check mark to easily identify foods that can be part of an overall healthy eating pattern.
Little by little we can all make changes. These small, bite-sized changes add up in the long-run.
For access to free recipes, nutrition tips and resources visit www.heart.org/eatsmart and for more ways to partner with us this month as we support the American Heart Association, visit https://www.pilotflyingj.com/life-is-why.
