The NHBLI website in the spring of 2007 featured heart healthy diet guidelines and an online tool to create a personal eating plan.
The online activity starts with the person providing information about height, weight, gender, age, and level of physical activity. This action generates a recommendation for a daily calorie allowance.
That allowance is used to determine the percentage of total fat and saturated fat permitted at that calorie level. The consumer then receives prompts to select food choices for three meals and a snack.
As information is received, the person sees the amounts of calories, fat, total fat, cholesterol, and sodium that would be consumed. After the final entry is made, the nutritional information is totaled.
The total is compared with the recommended amounts. Along with that data are recommendations on how to modify the meal plan to lower fat and cholesterol consumption.
Meal planning on the heart healthy diet is based on these guidelines:
-A person should eat just enough calories to achieve or maintain a healthy weight and reduce blood cholesterol level. A doctor or registered dietitian can determine what a reasonable calorie level.
-Saturated fat should account for 8 to 10% of the day’s total calories.
-Total fat should be 30% or less of the day’s total calories.
-Dietary cholesterol should be limited to less than 300 milligrams per day.
-Sodium intake should be limited to 2,400 milligrams a day.
