Whether you're super fit or have a cardiovascular condition, you need to practice dietary heart health. This means limiting your consumption of saturated and trans fats, cholesterol and sodium. Overdoing detrimental food nutrients can gradually create conditions such as hypertension, or high blood pressure, and atherosclerosis, or clogged arteries. To avoid these serious risks for heart disease, avoid fatty meats and other foods that are not healthy for your heart.
Cured Meats
High-sodium meats to watch out for include salami, ham and pepperoni. While some cured meats, such as ham, can be low in saturated fat, they are processed with large amounts of salt, the main source of dietary sodium. Excess sodium causes hypertension in some people, so the American Heart Association recommends eating food servings that contain no more than 20 percent daily value, or DV, of sodium. Combination meat entrees, such as chili-covered hotdogs and submarine sandwiches may contain as much as 70 percent DV of sodium. All of these meats also have significant saturated-fat content.
Fatty Entrees
Say good-bye to cheeseburgers, spareribs and fried chicken for their harmful saturated fat and cholesterol contents. Some of the dietary saturated fat, trans fat and cholesterol that you consume over your lifetime builds up as plaque inside your arteries. A certain amount of blockage is defined as atherosclerosis, which may cause blood clots and heart attacks or strokes. Choosing foods with low total fat content is a good way to limit saturated fat, and the American Heart Association suggests 7 percent DV of total fat per suggested meat serving as the ideal.
Canned Soups and Vegetables
For all their healthy vegetable and grain ingredients, regular-sodium canned soups deliver unhealthy amounts of salt per 1-cup serving. If you normally eat more than that portion, you increase the sodium totals, which may be as high as 45 percent DV. You can cut the salt nearly in half by purchasing reduced-sodium soups. The difference between canned vegetables and those cooked from fresh is similar: 1 cup of canned spinach contains 25 percent DV of sodium, versus 5 percent DV for the same amount of fresh-cooked spinach.
Egg-Based Dishes
Eggs carry too much cholesterol to be eaten as entrees frequently, especially if you consume them as ingredients in other dishes. With more than 75 percent DV of cholesterol per egg, a typical two-egg omelet will put you over your daily allowance and add some saturated fat to your totals. Egg dishes that incorporate other unhealthy ingredients are worse for a heart-conscious diet. Potato salad contains high cholesterol and sodium, and biscuit sandwiches with egg and sausage have high cholesterol, saturated fat and sodium, and may contain trans fat as well.
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