Meals are needed by everyone. However, the random and unhealthy meals will not be a good thing especially for the people who suffer for particular health condition such as high cholesterol. Eating the healthier foods will be an important step to be taken aside of taking products like Choleslo. The high levels of cholesterol will bring harm to the heart and might cause heart attack or stroke. This is more than enough reason to get the meal ideas that will be friendly for the heart.
The Key to the Healthy Meals for the Heart
Before checking the great ideas, it is better to know the important key to the healthy meals. The key is actually simple; reduce the amount of saturated fat in the meals. Does it sound easy? It can be easy but can be rather uneasy for some people. In order to reduce the amount of saturated fats, it is recommended to use plant oils such as olive oils. Frying foods should be avoided. Baking foods will be a better choice to be done. Adding more dietary fiber (beans and pulses), soy products (soy milk, tofu etc), most nuts (almonds, peanuts and others) and oats will be a great thing to be done.
In the efforts of controlling cholesterol levels, it is also important to reduce the usage of ingredients with high fats such as full fat cheese, lard, butter, red meat, chicken skin and other fats that come from animals. Fish like salmons will be great to be added to the meals because the high omega-3 fatty acids. Get more plant fats will be recommended because plants contain HDL that is the opposite of LDL and will be good for the body. Now that the key to the healthier meals for heart and controlling cholesterol has been revealed, it is time to get the right meals. Let’s check several ideas here.
The Tasty and Healthy Breakfast
Breakfast is important. No matter how busy someone, eating healthy and energizing breakfast will be recommended. For breakfast, oatmeal will be a great choice. Oats are excellent to control the levels of cholesterol. Get a bowl of oatmeal porridge and add additional ingredients to it. The additional ingredients can be various berries, bananas, nuts like pecans and various other ingredients such as cinnamon or a little bit of honey for the sweeter taste. Preparing the oatmeal porridge is easy and will take only 4 to 5 minutes. Remember that the oatmeal porridge needs to be prepared with low fat milk or skim milk or the better option, natural soy milk..
Great Lunch Friendly for the Heart
Healthy lunch meal for the hungry stomach can be varied. Sandwich is a simple choice. Try to use breads made with oat bran. What about the filling? There are various choices to be tried. Try crushed haricot beans mixed with the artichoke heart and finely chopped red onion. Try to get the fillet of fish like salmon, tuna or sardine and cook the fillet with a little bit of olive oil (preferably baked). Prepare the sandwich by combining the fish fillet with lettuce and sliced tomato and a little bit of mayo. If sandwich is not enough, add an apple and a cup of vegetable soup with low sodium.
Salad can be included as lunch as well. Try soya bean and salmon salad. For this salad, prepare soya bean, lentils and sliced spring onion. In other plate, prepare lemon juice and lemon zest from one lemon to be mixed with a little bit of flax seeds oil. The salmon needs to be poached and separated from the skin. Mix all ingredients together and the salad is ready. Spiced chicken salad with a little amount of rice can be chosen as well for lunch.
The Healthy Hearty Dinner
What should be eaten for dinner? What about trying fish fillet (salmon, tuna or others) cooked beautifully with olive oil on a pan. To accompany the fish, make a refreshing salsa such as the pineapple salsa. A little bit of salad and rice will make the dinner complete. Vegetable soups will be nice dinner too. Adding a glass of wine is nice too because wine can increase HDL albeit a slight increase.
Ideas for Healthier Desserts
For some people, meals are not complete without dessert. What kind of dessert that will be tasty but also healthy? What about ice cream or even yogurt? Both of them are great. For ice cream, it must be made of the evaporated skim milk, egg substitute and sweetener that free of calories. Yogurt will be great if it is made of low fat skim milk or maybe from the soy milk. The simple fruit salad will also be a great thing. What about trying avocado juice that has been freeze by putting it inside of the fridge? It will be very nice and refreshing.
Light and Healthy Snacks
Some people love to chew on snacks. Snacks can be very healthy too. Try to get small portion of vegetable salad or simply chew on small portion of particular vegetables like baby carrots. Trying the low-fat popcorn baked inside of microwave is a great thing to be done as well. Just make sure to not sprinkle too much salt for the popcorn. Trying oat biscuits will be another great thing. Remember that oats are one of the best foods to control cholesterol. Aside of oats, a handful of nuts like almonds, peanuts, pecans and walnuts will be great.
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