Nourish your heart
Enjoying a variety of foods from the different food groups is the key to healthy eating. Try to base your eating pattern on these healthy eating guidelines:
- Use margarine spreads instead of butter or dairy blends.
- Use a variety of oils for cooking - some suitable choices include canola, sunflower, soybean, olive and peanut oils.
- Use salad dressings and mayonnaise made from oils such as canola, sunflower, soybean and olive oils.
- Choose low or reduced-fat milk and yoghurt or "added calcium" soy beverages. Try to limit cheese and ice cream to twice a week.
- Have fish (any type of fresh or canned) at least twice a week.
- Select lean meat (meat trimmed of fat and chicken without skin). Try to limit fatty meats including sausages and delicatessen meats such as salami.
- Snack on plain, unsalted nuts and fresh fruit.
- Incorporate dried peas (e.g. split peas), dried beans (e.g. haricot beans, kidney beans), canned beans (e.g. baked beans, three bean mix) or lentils into two meals a week.
- Make vegetables and grain-based foods such as breakfast cereals, bread, pasta, noodles and rice the major part of each meal.
- Try to limit take-away foods to once a week. Take-away foods include pastries, pies, pizza, hamburgers and creamy pasta dishes.
- Try to limit snack foods, such as potato crisps and corn crisps, to once a week.
- Try to limit cholesterol-rich foods, such as egg yolks and offal e.g. liver, kidney and brains.
Heart Healthy Recipes
The Heart Foundation's range of cookbooks are packed with tasty, healthy recipes that are easy to make. Click here or call 1300 36 27 87 to order your copies today.
Check out some of our favourite recipes from these great cookbooks:
Chicken cacciatore
We've given everyone's favourite red dish, chicken cacciatore, the Heart Foundation treatment to make it quick, easy and healthy. You can check out this delicious recipe in The Heart Foundation New Classic Cookbook. To buy your own copy now for just $16.95, click here to visit our online shop or call 1300 36 27 87.
Chicken cacciatore
serves 4
prep time: 20 mins
cooking time: 30 mins
4 x skinless, boneless chicken breasts, about 100g each, each cut into 3 pieces
1 tb extra virgin olive oil
1 red onion, halved and sliced
1 large green capsicum, seeds and membranes removed, cut into long strips
2 celery stalks, cut into 1cm dice
2 medium carrots, cut into 1/2cm slices
2 large cloves garlic, finely chopped
1/4 cup dry white wine
400g can Italian peeled no added salt tomatoes, coarsely chopped
1 cup button mushrooms, cut into 1/2cm slices
freshly squeezed juice of 1/2 lemon
1/4 tsp chilli flakes
2 cups instant polenta
2 tb chopped flat-leaf parsley
- Season chicken with freshly ground black pepper. Heat the oil in a non-stick pan over moderately high heat, add the chicken and saute until browned on both sides. Remove from the pan and set aside.
- Add onion, capsicum, celery and carrots to the pan and cook over moderate heat until vegetables are soft, about 10 minutes, stirring frequently. Stir in garlic and cook a further 2 minutes.
- Add wine, scraping browned bits from the bottom. Add tomatoes, mushrooms, lemon juice and chilli flakes and bring to a simmer.
- Return chicken to the pan, cover with crumpled, wet baking paper, and simmer over low heat until chicken is cooked through, about 15 minutes.
- Meanwhile prepare polenta. Spoon into bowls, add the chicken and scatter with parsley.
Pick the Tick
Foods with the Tick are a healthier choice of their type. There's a Tick alternative to most of the foods you eat everyday. In fact, there are around 1,200 foods across more than 50 supermarket categories. But broadly, all foods with the Tick fit into three groups:
- Fresh foods like eggs, lean meat and poultry, vegetables, fruit, nuts and seeds.
- Everyday foods or staples such as bread, margarine, breakfast cereals and yoghurt.
- Occasional foods likes pies, oven fries and most recently on some meals when we eat away from home.
Click the following link to download a copy of the Trans Fat FAQs Download