Handout - Healthy Heart, Healthy Family, A CHW Manual

Session 8 Handout Heart Healthy Eating Plan

Whole Grains
Rice, bread, cereal, and noodles (pasta) (6 to 8 servings a day) - The amount of food from each food group that is right for you depends on how many calories you need. This is based on your age, gender, and how physically active you are.

Noodles and steamed rice
Sliced bread (such as wheat, rye, or white), sandwich buns, dinner rolls, English muffins, bagels, and pan de sal
Unsalted, low-fat crackers (such as graham crackers), unsalted pretzels, and plain popcorn
Cooked hot cereals (not instant) and whole-grain cold cereals

Fruit
(4 to 5 servings a day) - The amount of food from each food group that is right for you depends on how many calories you need. This is based on your age, gender, and how physically active you are.

Fresh, frozen, canned (packed in fruit juice), or dried fruits without added sugar (such as oranges, papaya, grapefruit, bananas, apples, mangoes, pineapples, watermelon, peaches, fruit cocktail, grapes with skin on, and raisins)
Fresh, frozen, or canned fruit juices (with no sugar added)

Vegetable
(without added fat) (4 to 5 servings a day) - The amount of food from each food group that is right for you depends on how many calories you need. This is based on your age, gender, and how physically active you are.

Fresh, frozen, or no-salt-added canned vegetables (such as peas, green beans, carrots, cabbage, tomatoes, yucca, squash, broccoli, potatoes, and corn
Cooked dry beans, peas, and lentils

Fat-free or low-fat milk and milk products
Milk, yogurt, and cheese (choose low-fat more often) (2 to 3 servings a day) - The amount of food from each food group that is right for you depends on how many calories you need. This is based on your age, gender, and how physically active you are.

Lactose-free products, such as soy milk and other soy products
Fat-free or low-fat (1%) milk
Fat-free or low-fat yogurt
Cheeses low in fat and sodium

Lean meats, poultry, and fish
Meat, poultry, fish, seafood, dry beans, eggs, tofu, and nuts (2 or fewer servings a day) - The amount of food from each food group that is right for you depends on how many calories you need. This is based on your age, gender, and how physically active you are.

Chicken or turkey without the skin
Fish and seafood
Lean cuts of meat
Beef: round, sirloin, chuck, loin, and extra lean ground beef
Pork: leg, shoulder, tenderloin, and lean ham
Tofu
Dry beans and peas (black beans, pinto beans, kidney beans, navy beans, chickpeas, lentils, and split peas)
Frozen butter beans and lima beans
Eggs (no more than four yolks a week)

Nuts, seeds, and legumes
(4 to 5 servings a week) - The amount of food from each food group that is right for you depends on how many calories you need. This is based on your age, gender, and how physically active you are.
Nuts, peanut butter, and seeds

Fats and oils
(2 to 3 servings a day) - The amount of food from each food group that is right for you depends on how many calories you need. This is based on your age, gender, and how physically active you are.

Margarine (liquid, soft-tub, or reduced-calorie)
Oils (canola, corn, safflower, olive, peanut, or sesame)

Sweets and added sugars
(5 servings or fewer a week) - The amount of food from each food group that is right for you depends on how many calories you need. This is based on your age, gender, and how physically active you are.

Frozen treats (such as frozen juice pops, low-fat frozen yogurt, or ice cream)
Low-fat cake and cookies (such as angelfood cake, fig-bar cookies, gingersnaps, animal crackers, vanilla wafers, graham crackers, puto, and mamon)

Information on this page is taken from the English print version of “Healthy Heart, Healthy Family: A Community Health Worker's Manual.” U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, National Institutes of Health, National Heart Lung and Blood Institute, NIH Publication No. 08-3674, Originally Printed 1999, Revised May 2008.

Last Updated March 2012