Healthy eating decreases the risk of heart disease and is good for the entire cardiovascular system. There are three important things to remember: balance the calories you eat with physical activity, eat a variety of nutritious foods, and eat less of the unhealthy foods.

Balancing calories: Balancing the number of calories you take in each day with the number that you burn from physical activity is an important step in working towards a healthy heart.

Healthy foods: It is important to eat healthy foods such as fruits and vegetables, whole-grain, high-fiber foods, fat-free and low-fat dairy daily and fish twice a week. These foods contain vitamins, minerals, fiber and antioxidants and other healthy substances not contained in dietary supplements, and include unsaturated fats instead of saturated and trans fats. Learn more about these contents of unhealthy foods:

• Fiber
• Whole grains
• Unsaturated fats

Unhealthy foods: Unhealthy foods include many fast foods, junk foods, highly processed foods, and fried foods. These foods often contain a lot of saturated fats, trans fats, cholesterol and sodium. Learn more about these contents of unhealthy foods:

• Saturated fats
• Trans fats
• Dietary Cholesterol
• Sodium
• Added sugar