Cook Smart for a Healthy Heart
Want to lower your risk for heart disease? Here are 12 tips for cooking the heart-healthy way.
- Always remove skin from chicken and trim off any visible fat from meat before cooking.
- Grill, steam, poach, microwave, stir-fry, boil or bake in preference to frying or deep-frying.
- Avoid adding or cooking in unnecessary fat-for example, spray a thin film of oil into the pan when cooking, don’t pour it in.
- Dry-roast meats on a roasting rack to allow the fat to drain away.
- Skim fat from meat juices before making gravy.
- Use unsaturated cooking oils such as canola, olive, safflower or soybean.
- Replace some of the meat and chicken in curries and casseroles with a handful of chickpeas, lentils or other legumes.
- Let homemade soups and casseroles cool before serving so that any fat can solidify on top. Remove this fat layer before reheating.
- Substitute low-fat natural yogurt for sour cream in casseroles or dips.
- In place of a melted cheese topping on baked pasta dishes, use a little shaved Parmesan or mix together whole-wheat breadcrumbs with reduced-fat Cheddar.
- Use low-fat evaporated milk or soft tofu as a replacement for cream.
- Cut in half the amount of cream added to a cup of coffee or replace cream with reduced-fat or skim milk.
Check out the latest preventative health tips!
Explore Reader’s Digest Canada.
