It is said that you should stay young at heart irrespective of your age. For that you should keep your heart healthy. There are different ways to keep you heart healthy and one of the most significant ways is to snack on foods on a regular basis that are good for your heart.
You can find different food items that now come with a heart-check mark when you visit a grocery store or a restaurant when you dine out. Check these out if you want to keep you as well as your family healthy.
Healthy eating is not about following a very strict dietary restriction and staying thin unrealistically by depriving yourself of your favorite foods. In fact, it is all about:
- Proper planning
- Selection of food items
- Timing your snacks and meal to maintain proper gap between the two to give the foods enough time to get digested and most importantly
- Enjoying your food while you stick to a healthy diet.
This will help you to feel great, stay more energized, improve your health, and boost your mood at the same time.
However, this is not easy. You will often find that you are overwhelmed when you come across all those conflicting nutrition and diet suggestions and advice out there coming from different people, most of them claiming to be diet experts. Well, you are not alone as most people find that a specific food suggested being good for their heart and health by one specific diet expert is categorically opposed by another.
If you want to avoid such confusion while ordering for a healthy snacks delivery and end up eating unhealthy foods for your snacks and meals, use these simple tips. If you do so, then apart from cutting through the confusion you will also be able to learn about how to create a nutritious, varied and tasty diet and stick to it. This will be good for your mind as well as for your body.
A healthy diet
A healthy diet does not have to be excessively complicated. There are a few things that you should keep in mind at this point.
- The most important thing to consider while making a diet plan is your overall dietary pattern. This will help you to identify and include those specific foods that are high on nutrient value and are proven to make a significant effect on your mood as well as your health. This makes these food items extremely beneficial and essential items to include in your diet chart.
- The foundation of a healthy diet chart is to replace all those processed food wherever possible with ‘real’ food. When you eat food items just as close as possible to the way nature has made it will surely make a huge difference in the way you look, feel and think.
- Be as realistic as you can while making a plan and make sure that you can stick to it. Since snacking is important to stay healthy, you should follow the healthy eating pyramid. This will help you to snack in moderation and also eat healthy food items for your heart.
It is quite natural to crave for something sweet or salty, sugary or junky when you come back home after a long day at work just in order to overcome your workday lull. However easy and tempting it might be, this is not the smart way to deal with your hunger. Your food choice should be such that in the end it makes you look and even feel better.
The terms “healthy snacks” may sound very boring as well but if you are smart you will be surprised to see just how tasty these can be. There are a lot of new thing out there for you to try and include in your health chart. These are also very easy to include and tote around with you while you are on the move. These are as good as any other prepackaged material and will fit in your purse, laptop or workout bag and your backpack.
Food items to add
Here is a complete list of healthy food items that you can add in your diet chart to improve your heart condition and stay healthy and energized.
First, add a few munchies that crunches such as:
- Apples
- Pears
- Carrots
- Celery sticks
- Cucumber circles
- Bell pepper slices
- Zucchini
- Broccoli and cauliflower florets
- Roasted chickpeas
- Popcorn
- Rice cakes
- Whole grain crackers
- Nuts and
- Seeds.
Second, when you are done with those good fats and whole grains, you must now focus on your drink. Give up those drinks that contain high amount of sugar and try out the following:
- Sparkling water
- Plain water with some herbs and fruit in it
- Fat-free milk
- Plain soymilk
- Unsweetened tea
- Sugarless coffee
- Pure fruit juice
- Low sodium tomato juice and
- Mixed vegetable juice.
Third, add a few snack items that will satisfy your need and are guaranteed to fill you up such as:
- Whole grain toast preferably dipped in almond or peanut butter
- Fat free or low fat cheese
- Cherry tomatoes along with hummus
- Plain or low fat yogurt paired with your favorite fruit
- Veggie or fruit smoothie and
- Whole grain crackers along with canned salmon or tuna.
Finally, in order to curb your sweet tooth, try out these specific snack items:
- A baked apple
- Canned fruit in light syrup or natural juice
- Raisins
- Thin slice of angel food cake
- Dates
- Homemade banana and nut bread
- Figs
- Frozen banana or grapes
- Any other unsweetened dried fruits and
- Fresh fruit salad.
You can be as creative and use your imagination when you choose the types of fruits to include in your fresh fruit salad.
The final thought
When you choose your food items make sure you check the label for its nutritional value and choose sensibly. While shopping look for added sugar, salt, and choose better ingredients to make healthier versions of snacks at home. Take cue from the Harvard Healthy Eating Pyramid to know the latest nutritional science and the essential to avoid and to include.
