Are you aware that what you feed your family on a daily basis affects their health and cooking heart healthy food maintains the health of their hearts? Since the family eats at home the majority of the time compared to eating at restaurants, you should be very aware of what you serve on the table. Your family’s health is in your hands and this is a huge responsibility but with knowledge, you can do it.
You can protect the heart and blood vessels by cooking heart healthy food with less saturated fat. Remember, not all fats are bad. You just have to know how to identify the bad ones. The ingredients you will use and the way you cook the food will make a big difference in cooking heart healthy food.
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Basic Things To Remember
- Less Fat– You can cut down on the fat through cooking methods like boiling, broiling, steaming, roasting, baking, grilling and microwaving food instead the usual frying.
If you need to fry, use non-stick pans and a cooking spray instead of frying oil.
Fats can really add flavour to the food, so what do you do if it is lessened? Opt for using seasonings and spices instead. Lemon juice is great for steamed vegetables and broiled fish. Pepper is great for chicken seasoning. Onion and garlic can boost the flavour of meat and vegetables. Or you can use products such as Herbamare – a salt and herb seasoning mixture from Bioforce (that’s available in the shop) that also helps reduce your salt intake.
- Lean Cuts– You can’t avoid meat, pork and poultry unless you become vegetarian but you can keep the cholesterol down by choosing leaner cuts.
With beef, choose cuts like round, flank, sirloin, tenderloin, rib, chunk, rump roast, T-bone, porterhouse and cubed.
In poultry, white breast meat is low in fat, but definitely avoid the skin. And with pork, the leaner types are pork loin, centre loin chops, Canadian bacon and ham.
- Low Dairy Fat– Dairy should be part of your meals because of the calcium. However, dairy can be pretty fatty if you do not know how to choose.
Instead of drinking full-cream milk, opt for fat-free skim milk or low-fat buttermilk. For yogurts, buy the low fat or fat-free ones. For cheese, Parmesan and cottage cheese have less fat.
- Find Substitutes– Fatty food is definitely tastier but you can still make your food delicious by using substitutes. For instance, instead of using regular salad dressings, you can go for low-fat mayonnaise and low-fat salad dressing. Instead of plain yogurt, go for sour cream when cooking.
By cooking heart healthy food for your family, you can help protect them from heart diseases. In addition, if they learn about cooking heart healthy food at home, it will be easier to continue a heart healthy lifestyle from then on.