Online CPR Certification Blog

Your diet is about more than trimming inches from your waistline and getting your body beach ready. A healthy diet can also help you ward off diseases like heart disease, high blood pressure, diabetes, and gastrointestinal problems. Here are three healthy diets that medical experts say will not only improve your weight but also your overall health.

A Vegetarian Diet

Vegetarian diets, even those that include eggs and dairy products, are typically much lower in saturated fat and cholesterol than the diets of people who eat meat. While red meat has its own set of health benefits, too much red meat in the diet can increase the risk of obesity, heart disease, high blood pressure, and diabetes. By cutting out red meat and emphasizing whole grains, fruits, and vegetables, vegetarians reduce their intake of cholesterol and significantly increase their intake of dietary fiber, vitamin C, and other healthy vitamins. In fact, some of the most powerful disease fighting foods are vegetarian options such as berries and dark leafy greens.

A Pescatarian Diet

Pescatarians are essentially vegetarians who also eat fish. Fish is one of Web MD‘s top ten disease fighting foods, because fish is rich in Omega-3, an essential fatty acid that is important to health but which the body cannot produce on its own. Omega-3 can help lower blood fats, prevent blood clots, and even reduce the risk of heart disease.  In fact, people are encouraged to eat at fish at least two times a week by the American Heart Association.

A Low Glycemic Index Diet

While some fad diets call for carbohydrates to be cut out entirely, a low glycemic index diet instead focuses on the consumption of healthy carbohydrates with the goal of keeping blood sugar levels steady throughout the day.  Eating foods with a low glycemic index is a great way for people with type 2 diabetes to work to reverse their symptoms and stay on top of their blood sugar levels. Foods that are frequently emphasized in low glycemic index diets are pasta, quinoa, beans, and nuts.  People adhering to this type of diet eat an abundance of vegetables and fruits, but avoid certain types of carbohydrate-rich food like potatoes and pasta.