quinoa, millet or bulgur, along with well-known whole wheat breads and pastas, brown rice and oatmeal.
Oatmeal got a shout-out recently from the American Heart Association.
“It has many, many good qualities,” according to Candida Rebello, director of the nutrition and chronic disease research program at Louisiana State University’s Pennington Biomedical Research Center, in Baton Rouge.
While offering heart-healthy benefits, oats also are good for weight control because their fiber thickens in water and helps a person feel full longer.
“The key, when you look at the whole grains, becomes enjoyment,” Diekman notes. A person might read that a particular grain is the best one, but “if you don’t like that food, it’s not going to work for you.”
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Healthy fats
Healthy fat provides energy and also helps the gut absorb certain vitamins, according to the National Institutes of Health (NIH).
Healthy unsaturated fats include a variety of oils that are liquid at room temperature, such as olive, soybean, canola, peanut and safflower. The NIH also lists fatty fish as rich in unsaturated fats, including salmon, sardines and herring, in addition to avocados, nuts and seeds.
“Low-fat diets have the same effect on body weight gain or weight loss as higher-fat diets, or higher-protein diets,” according to Dr. Frank Sacks, a professor of cardiovascular disease prevention at Harvard. “For weight loss, it’s about getting a handle on whatever foods in your diet are giving you excess calories.”
Healthy seeds include flax, chia, nuts, pumpkin, sesame and sunflower, according to the Cleveland Clinic. Most nuts are