Heart-Healthy Eating for Children

Heart-healthy eating means eating foods that can help lower the risk of heart disease, heart attack, and stroke. It focuses on eating mostly healthy foods and limiting less healthy foods. Starting these habits in childhood can support healthy growth and development now and help protect your child’s heart as they get older.

You can help your family make healthy food choices by offering a variety of nutrient-dense foods. Include protein foods, dairy, vegetables, fruits, healthy fats, and whole grains.

• Protein foods. Choose a variety of protein sources, such as beans, lentils, nuts, seeds, fish, poultry, eggs, and lean meats.
• Dairy and fortified alternatives. Milk, yogurt, and cheese are examples. Fortified non-dairy alternatives, like soy milk are also good choices.
• Vegetables. Offer a variety of types and colors of vegetables.
• Fruits. Choose fresh, frozen, or canned in juice. Limit fruit juice.
• Fats and oils. Include healthy (unsaturated) fats, such as those from vegetable oils, nuts, seeds, and avocados.
• Grains. Choose whole-grain breads, cereals, rice, and pasta most of the time.

Limit highly processed foods, added sugars, and refined carbohydrates, such as packaged snacks, sugary drinks, and white bread. For heart health, experts also recommend limiting foods high in saturated fat and sodium (salt).

Unsaturated fat is a type of fat in foods, mainly from plant sources. It's often liquid at room temperature. This type of fat doesn't usually increase cholesterol when eaten in moderate amounts. Choose foods high in unsaturated fats, such as:

• Olive oil.
• Canola oil.
• Safflower and sunflower oil.
• Nuts and seeds.
• Peanut butter.
• Corn oil and vegetable oils.
• Avocados.

Saturated fat is a type of fat found in foods, mainly from animal sources. It's often solid at room temperature. This type of fat may raise the body's cholesterol level more than other types of fat. Limit saturated fat in your child's diet and replace it with unsaturated fat to help decrease the risk for heart disease. Some of the main sources of saturated fat include:

• Butter.
• Cheeses.
• Fatty meats (bacon, hot dogs, ribs, and sausage).
• Chicken skin.
• Whole milk.
• Ice cream.
• Pizza.
• Grain and dairy based desserts.
• Coconut oil.
• Palm oil.

Trans fats are a type of fat found naturally in small amounts in some animal-based foods such as whole-fat dairy and certain meats. Trans fats used to be added to processed foods like margarine, baked goods, and fried foods, but most artificial trans fats have been removed from the U.S. food supply.

Trans fats should be avoided because they increase the risk of heart disease.

• Eat more fresh fruits and vegetables.
• Bake, broil, or grill foods instead of frying.
• Choose low-fat meats, like chicken, fish, turkey, lean pork, and lean beef (meat without visible fat and without skin).
• Limit high-fat meats, like sausage, bacon, hot dogs, salami, pepperoni, bologna, and fried meat.
• Use fruits as dessert instead of high-fat desserts like ice cream, cake, cookies.
• Limit amounts of added fat, like margarine, butter, oil, salad dressing, and mayonnaise.
• Use low-fat or fat-free dairy products, like milk, cheese, sour cream, and cream cheese.

Consider these examples of food for healthier eating for your family: