How to Use the Mediterranean Diet to Improve Heart Health

Eating your fruits and vegetables is not all that the Mediterranean Diet plan has to offer. On this diet, you will work to improve your cholesterol levels and help to lower your risk of heart disease. If you love food and wine and want tasty dishes with fresh ingredients, then use this diet to harness your heart health.

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderately Challenging

1. Design a day-to-day strategy for eating. Devise a menu for breakfast, lunch and dinner incorporating the foods of the Mediterranean diet like fruit, grains, nuts, fish and an abundance of vegetables. To control your weight, replace high-calorie foods with fruits and vegetables. Favor the deeply colored vegetables and fruits, such as spinach, carrots, peaches and berries, which tend to be higher in vitamins and minerals than other veggies like corn.
2. Strive to lower your cholesterol by eating the suggested foods on a Mediterranean diet. When too much LDL (or bad) cholesterol circulates in the blood, it can slowly build up in the inner walls of the arteries that pump blood to the heart. Along with other substances, it can form plaque in the arteries and make them less flexible. Use this diet for its rich source of essential fatty acids and antioxidants, a combination which can help improve cholesterol levels and protect your heart.
3. Promote your heart health by ingesting the omega-3 fatty acids found in fish. Those on a Mediterranean diet eat fish weekly. Fish is a primary source of protein that doesn't have the high saturated fat that fatty meat products contain. Mackerel, lake trout, herring, sardines, albacore tuna and salmon are high in 2 kinds of omega-3 fatty acids.
4. Choose healthy snacks to promote a healthy heart. Make use of the wide variety of tasty nuts you can eat to control your unhealthy snacking habits. Avoid the snack aisle in the grocery store. Foods like greasy potato chips and heavily processed chocolate bars can build up fat in your diet and promote heart disease. Treat yourself to a mid-afternoon helping of nuts (almonds, peanuts, pecans, walnuts) or make a healthy trail mix to munch on when you're tempted to binge.
5. Find out where you stand in the heart health area. At the American Heart Association website, learn about the warning signs of a heart attack, where to find a healthcare professional to check your cholesterol levels and gauge your overall progress while on your new eating schedule (see Resources below).

Tips & Warnings

• To improve your poor eating habits, replace fatty sweets with fresh fruits for dessert. Choose frozen and canned vegetables and fruits in water without sugar, saturated and trans fat or high levels of sodium.