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Dr. Kim Mulvihill ReportingConcerned about what your diet may be doing to your heart? The American Heart Association says you should be. Today they've come out with new, and what they hope will be simpler, guidelines to heart-healthy eating.
A lot of this is stuff you've heard before: choose smaller portions, eat more fruits and vegetables, cut down on sugars, exercise. But this year there are new recommendations on fat.
Diet advice from the grocery store:
Miguel Angel: "I have to read all the labels..."
Catherine Moore: "I stick to mostly vegetables and chicken..."
Lloyd and Gladys Davis: "You learn how to just say 'No' and pass it up."
All good. But the American Heart Association says to avoid cholesterol clogging your arteries, what you really need to focus on is fat.
Dr. Alice Lichtenstein/ American Heart Assoc.: "You realize by the coffee machine there are sweets every day and people are just nibbling on them without thinking about it."
And some of those sweets contain more than just sugar. The Heart Association now recommends making saturated fat less than seven percent of your diet. And keeping transfatty acids, like the oil that cooks french fries, under one percent.
But who can keep count?
Dr. Alice Lichtenstein, Tufts University, AHA Nutrition Cmte.: "It shouldn't be something overwhelming or punitive. Make minor changes and you get a benefit if maintained long term."
That means instead of stressing over numbers, choose salad over a burger. Downsize instead of super size.
And don't forget exercise. Mark Cricket runs an early morning boot camp.
Mark Cricket, instructor: "Make it part of your lifestyle. You can hike. You can run. You can swim. You can dance."
But he says if you join a gym, the bottom line is motivation.
Irene Crowe: "Ah - I signed up and paid large amounts and most exercise I got was looking at the bill!"
The Heart Association emphasizes lifestyle, combining a healthy diet with a good workout, and making small changes now to avoid big ones later.
The Heart Association's new report includes recommendations for schools to get students more physically active, and for restaurants to cut down on portion sizes.
