CARDIOVASCULAR WELLNESS- FOOD AND NUTRITION

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NUTRITION BASICS

Carbs:

• "Carbohydrates: Good Carbs Guide the Way" from the Harvard School of Public Health. Also, check out their Healthy Recipes page and up-to-date collection of Nutrition in the News articles
• Carbohydrates and Sugars: Minimizing the intake of sugary foods is one of the American Heart Association's diet and lifestyle goals for cardiovascular disease risk reduction.
• Choose Carbohydrates Wisely: A brief guide to choosing healthy carbs with an emphasis on fiber content.  
• A Sensible Approach to Low-Carb Foods: The low carb diet craze has been going strong with books like the south beach diet topping the best seller list. Now food-manufacturers are getting in on the "low carb" trend. 
• Carbohydrate Calculator: Calculates your daily carbohydrate intake requirement based on factors like age, height, and gender.
• Whole Grains Made Easy: In the past, whole grains were thought to provide nothing more than fiber. However, new research reveals that whole grains offer vitamins and minerals, plus high levels of antioxidants and other healthy plant-based nutrients. 
• "Health Gains from Whole Grains" includes a list of whole grains and their health benefits.
• Sneaky Sugars Can Foil Diet: How to be on the look-out for hidden sugars that may sabotage your diet.
• "Artificial sweeteners: A safe alternative to sugar?": Eating large amounts of sugar adds extra calories, which can cause weight gain. So many people opt for artificial sweeteners — also referred to as sugar substitutes or low-calorie sweeteners — as a way to enjoy their favorite foods without as many calories.

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Diets:

• DASH Diet: Research shows that high blood pressure can be prevented—and lowered—by following the Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension (DASH) eating plan, which includes eating less salt and sodium.
• "Low-carb diets: Can they help you lose weight?": A general description of low-carb diets including purpose, typical menus, and potential results.
• "Many Paths to Successful Weight Loss": Compares the benefits of low-fat, low-carb, and Mediterranean diets.
• Quick-weight-loss or Fad Diets: Overview of ways to spot fad diets, including discussion of the flaws of these types of diets. 
• Stopping Winter Weight Gain: Fight that dreaded winter weight gain with these helpful tips.

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Fats:

• "Face the Fats": The American Heart Association’s page on fat facts including quizzes and interactive calculators.
• Count Your Fat Grams Worksheet: Determine your ideal weight, the daily calories needed to maintain that weight, and your maximum allowance of fat grams per day.
• The Low-Down on Trans Fats: Trans fats raise your “bad” cholesterol levels and lower your “good” cholesterol levels. Eating trans fats increases your risk of developing heart disease – learn to avoid them.
• The Truth About Trans Fats: What are trans fats and why are food producers feeling so pressured to leave them out of their products?
• Check out these ideas for Fat Substitutes

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Fiber:

• Dietary Fiber: An Essential Part of a Healthy Diet: Dietary fiber offers many health benefits. Here’s how to include more in your diet.   
• List of High Fiber Foods with their total fiber content.
• "Fiber: Start Roughing It!" Fiber is one of those nutrients that many of us know is important but that remains a bit of a mystery. Exactly what is it? What are the best sources of fiber? And what are its health benefits?
• The Truth About Fiber: We’re supposed to get 20-35 grams of fiber a day, but most of us get less than half of that. Find out how you can incorporate more fiber in your diet.

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Fruits & Vegetables

• Fruit and Vegetable Recipes Find great meals and create your own cookbook on the CDC’s Fruits and Veggies Matter Website
• How to Use Fruits and Vegetables to Help Manage your Weight: Includes simple ways to cut calories and eat fruits and vegetables throughout your day.
• Nutrient Information: Features a chart that lists specific nutrients and tells you how these nutrients contribute to good health. You can also find out which fruits and vegetables are good and excellent sources of these nutrients.  
• Shopping for Fruits and Veggies: Make healthy choices for your family by shopping smart and understanding what goes into the foods you buy.

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General

• Interactive Nutrition Quiz: 10 question quiz to help you separate nutrition fact from fiction. 
• mypyramid.gov: MyPyramid replaces the old Food Guide Pyramid; it incorporates recommendations from the Dietary Guidelines for Americans,2005, and offers personalized eating plans, interactive tools to help users plan food choices, and advice on how to balance food and physical activity.  
• Following the Food Pyramid: The government has come up with new versions of the food pyramid to “shape” our menus. But is it any simpler for a family to follow?
• USDA Nutrient Database: Provides detailed nutrient analysis for over 7,200 foods.
• Functional Foods and their Benefits: Functional foods contain additives that go above and beyond meeting your basic nutritional needs.
• Healthy Eating Community Site: Blog posts, discussion boards, news, images, and videos on healthy eating.
• Dietitians List the Ten Best Foods for Women: Dietitians weigh in on top ten best foods for women.
• Cyberkitchen by Shape Up America: Shows how to balance food intake with physical activity. Also provides information on how to achieve and maintain a healthy weight through interactive assessment, meal planning, and recipes.
• America on the Move: Allows users to keep track of their physical activity (steps) and dietary progress.
• Hunger vs. Cravings: Do You Know the Difference?: Learn to separate hunger from cravings and you’re sure to tame your next snack attack.

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Portions

• Portion Distortion Quiz: Interactive Web site with two quizzes to compare portion sizes now and 20 years ago.
• Download this Serving Size Card to remind you what standard food serving sizes look like
• Just Enough for You: About Food Portions (from NIH’s Weight Control Information Network): Discusses the difference between portions and serving sizes, and shows how to identify serving sizes by comparing them to everyday objects.  
• Analyze My Plate is an interactive tool from the CDC based on the balanced plate concept.
• The New American Plate: Gives a graphic representation of a healthy portion and plate of food, and invites comparison to people’s current proportion of foods and portion sizes on their own plates. Sample menus and recipes are also included.
• Portion Control Tips: Know the difference between portion size and serving size? This lack of understanding can contribute to weight woes.

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Protein

• "Protein: Moving Closer to Center Stage": Pay attention when selecting proteins. Fish, poultry, nuts, and beans are the best choices.  
• "How Much Protein Do You Need?": The idea of eating more protein has gained popularity in the past few years. Some people may think the way to build body muscle is to eat high-protein diets and use protein powders, supplements and shakes.
• Beans and other Legumes: Types and Healthy Tips: Legumes — a class of vegetables that includes beans, peas and lentils — are among the most versatile and nutritious foods available. Legumes are typically low in fat, contain no cholesterol, and are high in folate, potassium, iron and magnesium. They're also a good source of protein and can be a healthy substitute for meat, which has more fat and cholesterol.
• Four Rules for Healthy Meat Eating: Red meat is a good source of iron, magnesium, zinc, and vitamin B12. Learn how to enjoy without sacrificing your health.

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Other

• Add Potassium to Help Lower Blood Pressure: How much potassium do you need and what are the top food sources?
• Almonds and Heart Health: A little goes a long way when it comes to almonds, the most nutrient-dense nut ounce-for-ounce.
• Barley: A Healthy Heart Solution: This grain makes an excellent choice as the starring ingredient in main courses, side dishes, breakfast fare and more. In addition to its versatility, barley is a nutritious food that’s high in fiber and low in fat.
• Get Smart About Salt: You can reduce your risk of high blood pressure, stroke and heart disease by getting smart about salt. Retrain your taste buds by gradually replacing added salt with herbs and spices. Add health benefits without reducing taste and flavor.
• "Snacks - How they fit into your weight-loss plan": Well-planned, healthy snacks can complement your weight-loss plan. This article suggests creative and healthy ways to satisfy your hunger.
• Snacking Secrets: Your diet is going great until that snack attack! Find out how to snack and lose weight.
• "Alcohol: Balancing risks and benefits": Moderate drinking can be healthy—but not for everyone. You must weigh the benefits and risks.
• The Center for Mindful Eating: Learn about the theory and practice of mindful eating. Mindful eating has the powerful potential to transform people’s relationship to food and eating, to improve overall health, body image, relationships and self-esteem.
• Spanish Language Food and Nutrition Materials: Over 100 educational materials covering a wide variety of basic and therapeutic nutrition and food safety topics. Materials include those developed by New York Online Access to Health.

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SHOPPING AND COOKING

• Get the Facts on Food Labels: Become a smart shopper by reading food labels to find out more about the foods you eat.
• New Food Labels: New food labels are focusing on nutrition and heart health.
• Make Healthy Food Choices: A heart-healthy diet is delicious and varied — rich in vegetables and fruits, with whole grains, high-fiber foods, lean meats and poultry, fish at least twice a week, and  fat-free or 1 percent fat dairy products.
• Eating Healthy Starts with Healthy Food Shopping: The new National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute Obesity Guidelines say that you can reduce the time you spend cooking healthy by using a shopping list and keeping a well-stocked kitchen.  
• A Healthier You - My Shopping List: Make a healthy foods shopping list, based on the Dietary Guidelines for Americans 2005.
• Shopping for Fruits and Veggies: Make healthy choices for your family by shopping smart and understanding what goes into the foods you buy.  
• Best Frozen Food Choices: Learn the dos and don'ts of picking out frozen dinners.
• Find a Farmer's Market in your State: Search for farmer’s markets in your area by name, city, country, zip code, or forms of payment accepted.
• Is It Really Organic? Before you spend extra money buying organic, find out how to read a label then you can decide if it is really worth it.
• Top 10 Healthy Cooking Tips: From the American Heart Association, for people with high blood pressure and their families.
• Recipe Remix: Find helpful tips to reduce the total fat, saturated fat, calories, and sodium in your favorite recipes.
• Lean Meats: 10 Tips for Low-fat Cooking: Knowing how to pick the right cuts of meat and practicing low-fat cooking techniques can cut unnecessary fat from your diet and help you achieve your healthy eating goals.
• Cooking With Healthy Oils:  Fats are a necessary part of a balanced diet. But not all fats are equal. Cooks who reach for healthy oils are on the right track.
• Sample Reduced Calorie Menus: Features traditional-American, Asian-American, Southern, Mexican- American, and lacto-ovo vegetarian 1200 and 1600 calorie menus.
• Cook's Corner: Has popular ethnic dishes that have been modified by dietitians to reduce fat, sugar and/or sodium content.  
• Heart-Healthy Home Cooking African American Style: This recipe book brings together many African American favorite recipes, prepared in a heart-healthy way lower in fat, especially saturated fat, cholesterol, and sodium! It shows how to prepare dishes in ways that help protect you and your family from heart disease and stroke.
• Delicious Heart Healthy Latino Recipes/Platillos latinos sabrosos y saludables: This bilingual (Spanish and English) cookbook contains 23 tested recipes that cut down on fat, cholesterol, and sodium but not on taste. Information on ordering print copies is located on the same web page.  
• Eating Healthy Economically: You can take one step at a time to make your diet healthier. Each step you take will make a big difference. Here are some steps to choose from courtesy of the Center for Mind-Body Medicine.  
• Supermarket Savvy: Get expert tips on navigating your supermarket’s fat-filled minefields.
• Healthy Cooking Community Site: Blog posts, discussion boards, news, images, and videos on healthy cooking including specialized recipes and tips.
  • Healthy African American Recipes
  • Healthy American Food Recipes
  • Healthy Chinese Recipes
  • Healthy Cuban Recipes
  • Healthy Japanese Recipes
  • Healthy Microwave Meals
  • Low Salt Recipes

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EATING OUT

• Tips for Eating Out from the American Heart Association. Includes tips on fast food and various ethnic foods.
• Eating Healthy When Dining Out: The new National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute Obesity Guidelines say that whether or not you're trying to lose weight, you can eat healthy when dining out, if you know how. Here are some tips.
• Tips for Restaurant Eating: Eating in a sit-down restaurant doesn’t guarantee a healthier meal. Portions are often large and foods usually have a lot of fats added to them during cooking.
• Tips for Eating at Fast Food Restaurants: More than ever before, there are many options at fast food restaurants. Vegetables and fruits such as salads, apple slices and carrots are easier to find on menu boards. These are some of the obvious foods that will fit into a healthy meal plan. What about the sandwiches and other foods?
• Healthy Fast Food: Healthy Choices at Fast Food Restaurants: Yes – it is possible! Eating just one fast food meal can pack enough calories, sodium and fat for an entire day, but the quick-and-cheap temptation can be hard to resist. The good news is that by making yourself knowledgeable and choosing carefully at chain restaurants you can maintain your healthy diet goals when eating out!
• Fast Food Survival: You really can make smart choices in today's fat-filled, fast-food world. Find out how.
• Take-Out Food Tips:  Take-out doesn’t have to mean the end of a healthy diet. Try some suggestions on how to trim trouble out of your take-out.
• The Healthy Dining Finder allows you to look at nutrition facts for restaurants in your area.  
• Healthy Restaurant Choices: Here are expert tips on keeping your restaurant meal from turning into a dieting disaster.

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