Dark chocolate, red wine, green tea, black coffee... some of life's most flavorful pleasures have been recently touted in the media as heart-healthy choices. How convenient! Supposedly, if consumed in moderation, we can do good for our hearts just by indulging our common cravings.
But, before you stock your pantry with chocolate bars, let's take a reality check: The research is still preliminary and may be bolstered, in part, by wishful thinking.
In the meantime, there are plenty of delicious things to eat that your heart will love. According to the American Heart Association, adults should include fruits, veggies, fish, fiber-rich whole grains, legumes, nuts and seeds as part of a healthy diet.
So how can you get more of these foods into your diet to keep your ticker happily ticking? The recipes below incorporate them into tasty dishes for inspiration. Have a great one we missed? Share your best tips for heart-healthy cooking in the comments!
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Harvest Vegetable Chowder
Enjoy this country-style creamy stew packed with varied veggies -- a delicious slow-cooked dinner!
Prep Time: 10 min
Total Time: 9 Hr 10 min
Servings: 6
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Roast Salmon Provençal
Fat-free Italian dressing adds the zing in this easy and colorful salmon and vegetable creation.
Prep Time: 20 min
Total Time: 40 min
Servings: 4
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Baked Salmon With Mango Salsa
Fresh tropical and southwestern flavors mingle in a sensational three-ingredient mango salsa.
Prep Time: 10 min
Total Time: 30 min
Servings: 8
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Cereal Chill-Out Parfaits
Turn Cheerios cereal, yummy bananas and yogurt into a tasty breakfast parfait or easy nutritious snack.
Prep Time: 10 min
Total Time: 10 min
Servings: 2
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Herb Barley And Asparagus
Combine grains and vegetables into one super side dish! To boost the flavor when cooking with grains, a trick of the trade is to cook them in broth (chicken, beef or vegetable), apple juice or vegetable juice.
Prep Time: 20 min
Total Time: 1 Hr
Servings: 8
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Warm Tuscan Bean Salad
Dinner ready in 30 minutes! Try this hearty bean salad that has a fresh herb flavor -- perfect if you love Italian cuisine.
Prep Time: 15 min
Total Time: 30 min
Servings: 4
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Quinoa With Black Beans
Quinoa is high in protein, low in fat and cooks quickly, making it a terrific dinner choice. As is, this recipe works well as a grain side dish; to make it a main dish, double the serving size.
Prep Time: 30 min
Total Time: 30 min
Servings: 8
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This comment has not yet been postedDepartments of Exercise and Nutrition Sciences (K.M., M.M., P.J.H., A.B.A.), Physiology and Biophysics (D.R.P.), and Orthopedics (J.J.L.), School of Public Health and Health Professions and School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, State University of New York at Buffalo, Buffalo, New York
Objective: The desired level of dietary fat intake is controversial. The effect of decreasing fat intake to 19% and increasing it to 50% from a control diet of 30% on nutritional status and cardiovascular risk factors in healthy individuals was studied.
Results: Total caloric expenditure was similarly balanced to intake on the 30% and 50% fat diets, but intake was significantly lower on the 19% fat diet and led to a loss of 0.6 kg body weight.
Changing the levels of fat intake did not affect % body fat, heart rate, blood pressure, blood triglycerides, total cholesterol (TC), LDL cholesterol, apolipoprotein B (ApoB), TC/HDL-C and ApoA1/ApoB ratios.
Conclusion: A low fat diet (19%) may not provide sufficient calories, essential fatty acids, and some
micronutrients (especially vitamin E and zinc) for healthy untrained individuals, and it also lowered ApoA1 and HDL-C.
Increasing fat intake to 50% of calories improved nutritional status, and did not negatively affect certain cardiovascular risk factors.
Now that's good cooking.
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