Hi there!
My name is Kathleen Turner and
I'm a registered dietitian
working here at the University
of Ottawa Heart Institute.
Over the next few slides, we're
going to chat a little bit about
how to make heart healthy
choices and how you can start to make
changes to your eating patterns
to start thinking about eating
in a heart healthy way.
So let's get started.
When we're talking about
heart healthy eating,
we're really thinking about how
can the food choices that I make
help to keep my heart healthy
and what we know is that when
people make heart healthy food
choices we see improvements in
things like your cholesterol,
your triglycerides,
your blood pressure,
your blood sugars,
can even help you to
manage your weight as well
as your waist circumference.
It can also help lower your
chance of developing heart
disease as well as
lower your chances
of having a heart attack.
Now if you're watching this and
thinking well I already have
heart disease, we also know that
heart healthy eating can also
help slow the progression
of heart disease.
Not only that but it can
also help improve the
health of your arteries.
There are lots of reasons
to start thinking about
making heart healthy choices.
So let's talk about what those
heart healthy choices are.
We're going to start out by
talking about meal timing so
we're going to go
right back to basics.
Now it sounds like a really
simple thing but it's not always
so easy when you're at
home thinking about
making these choices.
What you want to aim to do is
to try and eat your breakfast
within about an
hour of waking up.
It doesn't mean that you wake,
your feet hit the floor and
you're already eating breakfast.
What it means is
that, maybe get up,
read your newspaper and then eat
breakfast but ideally within
that hour of first waking up.
It doesn't matter what time
you're waking up whether you're
getting up at six in the morning
or eight in the morning,
it's within that hour.
After you've had breakfast, what
you want to try and do is aim to
be eating every 4 to 6
hours following that.
So if you get up and
eat breakfast at 8,
you might have lunch
at noon, supper at 5,
snack at 10 and bed at 11 but it
doesn't really matter what time
those meals are, so long
as you're aiming to have
the 4 to 6 hour gap.
Now unfortunately in
today's day and age,
we don't always get to
eat at exactly 4 to 6
hour time intervals.
So if you know that you're going
to be longer than 4 to 6 hours
between meals, what you can
think about is trying to plan a
snack and you want to choose
something that is going to fill
you up and sort of tie you over
to prevent you from getting
ravenous before that next meal.
So you might have something like
2 tablespoons of nuts and a
quarter of a cup of dried fruit;
you might choose a piece of
toast and peanut butter; or
maybe you would have a yogurt.
There are lots of different
options but a little healthy
snack is certainly something you
want to consider when you're
getting into long
gaps between meals.
When we're talking about
vegetables and fruits,
we have lots of evidence that
tell us when people make or
people aim to eat fruit and
vegetables every day and they
are able to include
7 to 10 servings;
we see a lot of improvements
in things like blood pressure,
cholesterol, triglycerides,
help you to manage your weight.
Just eating enough fruits and
vegetables has a lot of
heart healthy benefits.
Canada's food guide recommends
between 7 and 10 servings of
fruit and vegetables in a day
depending on your age and your
sex, you really want to try
and aim for that 7 servings of
fruits and vegetables.
Now a serving is not as
big as you might think.
A serving of vegetables is
only about half of a cup.
Now if you cup your hand,
that's about half of a cup.
A serving of fruit is
also half of a cup.
So if you're finding the idea of
trying to eat 7 to 10 servings
of fruits and vegetables
in a day a bit daunting,
break it down.
What you're really thinking is,
can I eat a fruit or a vegetable
at every meal?
And if you can do that, you're
going to be closer to that 7
servings of fruits
and vegetables.
Now they don't have to be fresh.
They can be frozen.
That's a great alternative,
a great option.
You can keep it in your
freezer and pull it out
when you need it.
So fresh or frozen is equally as
good when it comes to nutrition.
If you're going to eat
canned fruits or vegetables,
canned fruit is a
really good option;
you just want to pour off
the juice that's in there.
If you choose to eat
canned vegetables,
what you want to think about is
rinsing those vegetables with
water really well.
By doing this, you get rid
of about half the sodium.
So the bottom line, when it
comes to fruits and vegetables,
you want to try and include one
at every meal in an effort to
get to that 7 servings.
Alright, let's talk a
little bit about fibre.
Fibre has a number of health
benefits and one of those
benefits is that it can help
to lower your LDL cholesterol
and that's soluble fibre
that can help to lower
your LDL cholesterol.
There are two types of fibre.
There is soluble fibre and
there is insoluble fibre.
You don't have to spend a lot
of time thinking about whether
you're including soluble
or insoluble fibre.
Many foods, particularly
fruits and vegetables,
actually have a
combination of soluble
and insoluble fibre in them.
So what you really want to
be thinking about is food.
So which foods do you
want to choose more often?
Well part of getting your fibre
recommendation is getting your 7
servings of fruits and
vegetables in a day.
The other thing that you
can do is to start choosing
whole grain products.
So things like brown rice, brown
bread or whole wheat pasta.
Those choices are going to have
more fibre in them than white
bread, white pasta
or white rice.
And again, these changes
can happen slowly.
You might try the brown pasta
and once you figure out that you
like the brown pasta then maybe
you'll try the brown rice but
you want to be working towards
making most of your choices,
whole grain choices.
Let's talk about portion size.
People will often say that
this is the thing they
find the most challenging.
You can look at this
plate and think
"Wow, that's pretty simple!".
But when you get home and you're
starting to think about what
you're going to eat, it can
become more challenging.
This is something that's really
easy to think about when you sit
down at your table and
you're starting to eat.
What you really want to try and
think about is the portions of
your starch and protein.
So you'll notice the bottom left
hand corner has starch in there.
So things like your
potatoes, your brown rice,
your brown pasta...
those types of foods.
When sitting at home, you can
actually make a fist and that's
about how much starch you
want to aim for in a meal.
That's not a lot but it is
certainly enough that you would
feel satisfied.
When we're talking about your
protein, things like your fish,
your lean meat,
chicken, beans, lentils,
those are things
that include protein.
That can be the other
quarter of your plate.
Now sitting at home,
I want you to look at
the palm of your hand.
That's about how big that piece
of meat you eat should be.
Now in terms of thickness, you
want that piece of meat to be
about the thickness
of your pinkie finger.
So now you figured, okay, I want
to have a fist full of starch
and I want to have
about a palm of protein.
What you want to fill up
on here is vegetables.
You want to try and have at
least two kinds of vegetables at
your meal and it should
be about half your plate.
Vegetables are very filling
and they're low in calories.
They also taste great so that's
what you want to fill up on.
So when you sit down to
your meal you think, okay,
I'm going to have a little bit
of my potatoes or rice or pasta
and I'm going to have a little
piece of meat or fish or chicken
and then I'm going to have a lot
of vegetables to go with that.
You could also have a glass of
milk and maybe you want a piece
of fruit for dessert but this is
ideally what you want your plate
to look like.
So you're sitting there
and you're like, holy man,
my plate doesn't look
like that at all.
This comes with time.
You don't have to make changes
to your eating overnight.
You can start to
make small goals.
So maybe you might start out by
decreasing your protein piece a
bit or you might increase your
vegetables a little bit and
that's okay.
Things don't have
to happen overnight.
You can take your time
to make these changes.
When we're talking about fats,
fats in food have an impact on
the cholesterol in your body.
There are three
main types of fats.
There are unsaturated fats,
saturated fats and trans fats.
They all have different
impacts on your cholesterol.
So we're going to start off with
the good news and we're going to
talk about unsaturated fats.
Unsaturated fats can help to
lower your LDL cholesterol which
is your lousy cholesterol.
When you choose these
unsaturated fats
over saturated fats.
So where do you find
unsaturated fats?
Well you find unsaturated fats
in liquid oils and generally
speaking, those oils come from
vegetables so it's things like
canola oil, olive oil, safflower
oil, and sunflower oil.
These kinds of oils are full of
unsaturated fats and these are
what you want to be
choosing at home.
So if you're making a stir fry,
you can use canola oil instead
of something like
butter or lard.
Many of us have already made
that change but it's always good
to think about that
on a regular basis.
Other good sources of
unsaturated fats are things like
nuts and seed, avocado, nut
butters like peanut butter or
almond butter.
These are all things you
want to choose more often.
Talking a little bit about
these bad fats or saturated
and trans fats.
Now saturated fats come
mainly from animal sources.
So things like steak, red meat
will have a lot of saturated
fats in it but you also find
saturated fats in chicken and
pork tenderloin but you
find much less of it.
So the big culprits in what we
eat are typically red meat
and dairy products.
So what does this
mean for you at home?
This means that you want to try
and include red meat only once
or twice a week.
The other nights of the week or
at lunch time you want to choose
things like fish, chicken,
lean cuts of pork,
perhaps pork tenderloin and
you might even want to try and
include a vegetarian meal.
So something like a vegetarian
chili or maybe making
a stir fry with tofu.
But again, you know
you don't have to be a
vegetarian to be healthy.
You just want to choose those
red meats in moderation.
Now when it comes to trans
fats, we find trans fats
mainly in processed foods.
We're seeing less and less trans
fats now but it is important to
be aware that they
are still out there.
So your best way to find out
about trans fats is to look on a
food label and aim to find
something that has close to zero
as possible because those trans
fats have no redeeming features.
They're going to make your LDL
or your lousy cholesterol go up,
and your HDL or your happy
cholesterol go down.
So you really do want to try
and limit those trans fats.
The bottom line when it comes to
saturated and trans fats is you
want to look at your food
label and aim to find things
as close to zero
as possible in trans fats.
For saturated fats, you want to
limit red meat to only once or
twice a week and try and choose
some low fat dairy products so
1% or skim milk, lower
fat yogurts and maybe even
trying some low fat cheese.
Salt.
We're going to talk a
little bit about salt now.
Salt is made up of
sodium and chloride.
The dangerous part of
salt is the sodium.
Sodium increases your risk for
developing high blood pressure
and high blood pressure
increases your risk of having
a heart attack or stroke.
In a day, we recommend
that you have about
1500 to 2400 mg of sodium.
A teaspoon of salt has
2300 mg of sodium in it.
Now what we know is that
most of the sodium that we
are eating is actually
coming from processed foods.
It's not so much the salt that
you might add in cooking
or the salt that you might
add at the table.
It's really coming from the
foods that you eat that you
buy that are already made.
What you can do is you can
actually read a food label
to find out how much
sodium is in there.
You're aiming to find something
that has less than 10 percent
daily value written on
the food label for sodium.
That's your target.
Now salt is very much
an acquired taste.
If you're used to
eating a lot of salt,
so you put salt in your cooking
and you add salt at the table,
and if all of a sudden you go
cold turkey and stop eating that
salt, you're going to notice
a really big difference.
You're going to find your food
tastes a little bit bland.
You can do a cold turkey and
you will adapt to that flavour.
The other option is, of
course, to do it gradually.
If normally you put a teaspoon
of salt in your recipe,
try three quarters
of a teaspoon,
then you can do
half of a teaspoon,
then maybe a quarter of a
teaspoon and you might be able
to get rid of it all together.
If you're salting
food at the table,
instead of salting your food,
salt your hand then put the salt
on your food from your hand
and gradually cut back.
As you use less salt, you
get used to the flavour of
things not having that
salty taste and you'll start
to really like that.
You may want to use other
ways of spicing your food.
Herbs and spices are a great
way of giving things flavour.
You may also want to
use things like lemon juice
or vinegar on your food.
It gives your mouth a nice
taste but it doesn't have
that salt in it.
Feel free to use other
spices as much as you want.
We'll talk a little
bit about alcohol.
You should always check with
your physician about alcohol
but generally speaking,
alcohol is considered safe.
We do recommend
alcohol in moderation.
Now moderation is always
the key piece here.
What moderation means is 1 to 2
drinks per day to a maximum of
14 drinks per week for men and
9 drinks per week for women.
One mixed drink is
considered about one
and a half fluid ounces and
that could be something like
vodka, gin, brandy, or rum.
When we're talking about wine,
a drink is considered five
ounces and when we're talking
about beer or wine coolers,
a drink is considered 12 ounces.
This is a good thing to keep in
mind if you choose to include
alcohol in what you're
eating and drinking.
We're going to talk a
little bit about how to make
changes to your eating patterns.
When you're thinking about
making changes to your eating
patterns, these changes don't
have to happen overnight,
they can take time.
You want to start out small.
Start by picking a goal you are
certain that you can succeed at.
Once you've succeeded that
goal, you might want to
set another goal for
yourself but these changes
don't have to be overnight.
You can take your time
to make these changes.
That's all I have to say for the
nutrition section but if you'd
like more information
you can refer to your
healthy living guide.
Thank you very much.
