Healthfinder.gov suggests you follow these eating tips for a healthy heart:

1. Eat less saturated and trans fat. Stay away from fatty meats, fried foods, cakes, and cookies.
2. Cut down on sodium (salt). Look for the low-sodium or “no salt added” brands of canned soups, vegetables, snack foods, and lunch meats.
3. Get more fiber. Fiber is in vegetables, fruits, and whole grains.

Take this list with you the next time you go food shopping.

Healthy Vegetables and Fruits

Eat a variety of vegetables and fruits. To save money, buy vegetables and fruits that are in season, frozen, or canned.

• Fresh vegetables such as tomatoes, cabbage, broccoli, and spinach
• Leafy greens for salads
• Canned vegetables low in sodium (salt)
• Frozen vegetables without added butter or sauces
• Fresh fruits such as apples, oranges, bananas, pears, and peaches
• Canned fruit in 100% juice, not syrup
• Dried fruit
• Frozen berries without added sugar

Healthy Milk and Milk Products

Look for fat-free or low-fat milk products. Or choose soy products with added calcium.

• Fat-free or low-fat (1%) milk
• Fat-free or low-fat yogurt
• Cheese (3 grams of fat or less per serving)
• Soy-based drinks with added calcium (soymilk)

Healthy Breads, Cereals, and Grains

For products with more than one ingredient, make sure whole-wheat or whole-grain is listed first.

• 100% whole-wheat bread
• Whole-grain breakfast cereals like oatmeal
• Whole grains such as brown or wild rice, barley, and bulgur
• Whole-wheat or whole-grain pasta

Healthy Meat, Beans, Eggs, and Nuts

Choose lean cuts of meat and other foods with protein.

• Seafood, including fish and shellfish
• Chicken and turkey breast without skin
• Pork: leg, shoulder, tenderloin
• Beef: round, sirloin, tenderloin, extra lean ground beef
• Beans, lentils, and peas
• Eggs and egg substitutes
• Nuts and seeds

Healthy Fats and Oils

Cut back on saturated fat and look for healthy products with no trans fats.

• Margarine and spreads (soft, tub, or liquid) with no trans fats
• Vegetable oil (canola, olive, peanut, or sesame oil)
• Non-stick cooking spray
• Light or fat-free salad dressing and mayonnaise

We know that a diet high in fast foods tend to put weight on children and teens, but did you know that fast food consumption is also tied to an increased risk of certain health conditions?

A study coming out of New Zealand found that:

• Children and teens eating fast foods a number of times each week are at an increased risk for severe asthma, rhino-conjunctivitis, and eczema.

• Fruit eaten three or more times a week provide children and teens with a protective effect against severe asthma.

According to Philippa Ellwood, DDN, DPH, of the University of Auckland in New Zealand, and her colleagues, eating fast foods three or more times a week is associated with a 39% increased risk of severe asthma and a 70% increased risk of severe eczema among teens.In addition, children who eat fast foods with the same frequency have an increased risk of rhino-conjunctivitis and severe eczema.

The study article, published in journal Thorax, went on to report that reducing consumption of fast foods to two times a week, or less, reduced the incidence of wheezing and severe asthma in children. Ellwood and colleagues also found that eating fruit three or more times a week, among children and teens, offered a protective effect against severe asthma.

The authors stated,  “If the associations found in this study are causal, the findings have major public health significance owing to the rising consumption of fast foods globally,”

The authors noted that earlier research had found diets with high intake of cereal, rice, and nut and cereal protein showed decreased prevalence of the allergic conditions and a protective effect against the conditions with elevated fruit consumption. Similarly, other research has shown a harmful effect of linolenic acid and trans fatty acid consumption.

The researchers gathered symptom prevalence data on types of food intake and symptom prevalence of asthma, rhino-conjunctivitis, wheezing, and eczema from 319,196 teens, ages 13 and 14, from 51 countries, and 181,631 children, ages 6 and 7, from 31 countries through the third phase of the International Study of Asthma and Allergies in Childhood (ISAAC). The latter is a multi-center, multi-country, multiphase cross-sectional study.

Teen participants, or parents of young children, were administered questionnaires that looked at symptoms and symptom frequency over the 12 months prior to the study. Questions about food intake looked at types of foods and whether foods were eaten once, twice, or three or more times weekly.

Milk consumption was inversely associated with current wheeze at once or twice weekly, severe asthma three or more times weekly, and severe rhino-conjunctivitis and severe eczema once or twice a week in teens.

Consumptions of eggs, fruit, meat, and milk three or more times a week protected against “all three conditions, current or severe” among children.

“The positive associations with severe disease suggest that fast foods are a predictor of disease severity rather than disease occurrence, although it is difficult to separate out the two in this study,” researchers concluded.

Study researchers also shared that the protective association between fruit and vegetables and the three conditions need to  be further explored at country and regional levels.

The researchers found the study was limited by a number of factors, including self-report biases or classification errors, socioeconomic status’ effect on food consumption, and missing temporal data on disease outcome relative to diet.

With all the concerns about children’s food consumption, and gaining unhealthy amounts of weight, the following guidelines, on what to feed children 4-8 years old, may prove helpful.

The guidelines are from WebMD (fit.webmd.com).

DAIRY

Total Servings a Day: 4

Look for reduced-fat, low-fat, or skim.

1 Serving Size

Milk

1/2 to 3/4 cup

Cheese

Choose 1:

• 2 to 3 dice-sized cheese cubes

• 1/2 to 1 slice packaged cheese

Yogurt

1/2 cup to 3/4 cup (4 to 6 oz)

PROTEIN

Total Servings a Day: 2

Make most meat choices lean or low-fat.

1 Serving Size

Meat, Fish, Poultry, or Meat Substitute

1 oz (about the 1/3 to 1/2 the size of an adult’s palm)

Tofu or Tempeh

1/2 cup

Egg

1 egg

4 Tbsp (about the size of your child’s fist)

Beans or Peas

Nuts (includes peanut butter)

2 Tbsp

VEGETABLES

Total Servings a Day: 4 to 8

Serve mostly green or brightly colored veggies.
Limit starchy veggies like potatoes.

1 Serving Size

3 to 4 Tbsp

Starchy Vegetables (like white potatoes)

Limit to 1 to 2 servings a day.

FRUIT

Total Servings a Day: 2

Raw fruit is best.

1 Serving Size

Choose 1:

• 1/2 to 1 small raw fruit

• Canned 4 to 6 Tbsp

Opt for fruit packed in water, juice, or light syrup
instead of heavy syrup.

4 to 6 oz total per day

Fruit Juice

GRAINS

Total Servings a Day: 4

Choose whole-grain options when possible.

1 Serving Size

Choose 1:

• 1 slice of bread

• 1/2 English muffin

• 1/2 Bagel

• 1/2 to 1 Tortilla

Cooked cereal

1/2 cup

Cold, Dry cereal

1 cup

Pasta, noodles, rice or grains

1/2 cup

Sources:

Pediatric Nutrition Handbook 6th edition, American Academy of Pediatrics Committee on Nutrition. 2009.

American Cancer Society: “Controlling Portion Sizes.”

Let’s Move: “Healthy Families.”

A Parent’s Guide to Childhood Obesity, American Academy of Pediatrics. 2006.

© 2011 WebMD

fit.webmd.com