Current diet ‘Heart Healthy’

For this week’s assignment we were required to pick a day and evaluate what we eat, focusing on the fat and sodium intake. Since I can remember what I ate yesterday, the following is the breakdown. [Fat (g) / Sodium (mg)]

Breakfast:

Iced coffee [ 4g / 50mg]
Sesame Bagel toasted with butter [5g / 600mg]
Fuji apple [0.4g /2mg]

Mid-morning snack:

Pluot [0g / 1mg]
Fuji apple [0.4g / 2mg]

Lunch:

Water (16 oz)
Luna Chocolate Peppermint Stick bar [5g / 125mg]

Dinner:

Trader Joe’s Beef Tamale [13g / 670mg]
Homemade pico de gallo (heirloom tomato and 1/2 red onion with fresh ground pepper) [0g / 3g]
Trader Joe’s sweet potato chips [ 10.5g / 0mg]
Water (12 oz)

Evening Snack:

Dilmah Ceylon Black Tea (w/ milk and sugar) [ 2g / 29mg]
Slice of Marie Calendars corn bread with honey butter [26g / 555mg]

Total fat:     66.3g                  Total sodium:        2,034mg

Imagine you were restricted of salt and fat intake – could you easily adjust ? According to the American Heart Association (AHA), the recommended fat intake is as follows:

Saturated fats should be less than 7% of daily calories (less than 16 grams in 2,000 calorie diet).
Transfats should be limited to less than 1% of your daily calorie intake (or less than 2 grams in a 2,000 calorie diet).

The AHA also recommends a heart healthy sodium intake will range from 1,500 to 2,400 milligrams each day.

When I compare my daily intake to the AHA’s recommendations, my sodium intake seems to be within the healthy range. I can not say for sure how my fat intake compares to the recommended range because I did not differentiate between monosaturated, transfats,  and saturated fats when I collected my data. I would like to think however, that since the majority of what I eat on a day to day basis is fresh fruits and vegetables it could be considered “heart healthy.”