Heart-Healthy Carbohydrates

If you are planning to cut down on saturated and trans fats in your diet, make sure you don’t overdo the carbohydrates to compensate for missing fat calories. If you choose rapidly digested empty carbohydrates such as sugar, white bread, potatoes, pasta or white rice, this can not only contribute to weight gain, but over a period of time it can cause a dangerous rise in triglycerides in your blood. Instead, try to keep carbohydrates to a maximum of 45%-65% of your diet, and get most of them from whole-grain foods, such as whole-wheat cereals and breads, as well as fruit and vegetables. The fiber in whole grains helps lower cholesterol and may increase the body’s anticoagulant activity, which helps prevent the formation of blood clots than can cause heart attacks and strokes. Once again, the UNSAT diet is a good choice, or the Mediterranean diet. Both have lots of vegetables, olive oil, fish, fruits, and nuts but less meat and dairy.