High Cholesterol: Stocking a Heart-Healthy Kitchen

Heart-healthy foods are essential to a heart-healthy diet.

If you want to eat a heart-healthy diet but are not sure what foods you should buy, check out this heart-healthy kitchen essentials guide. From fruits and vegetables to whole grain goodness, learn what foods to keep on hand.

Fresh Fruits & Vegetables

Fill your fridge with seasonal fruits such as berries, oranges, apples, pears, and grapes, and vegetables such as bell peppers, broccoli, kale, cauliflower, tomatoes, dark leafy greens, celery, eggplant, zucchini, and squash.

Dairy and Dairy Alternatives

• Skim or 1% milk
• Soymilk (plain, unsweetened, vanilla, or chocolate)
• Low - or nonfat buttermilk
• Nonfat half-and-half or nonfat creamers
• Nonfat or reduced-fat cheese (bricks, slices, or shredded)
• Soy-based cheeses (bricks, slices, or shredded)
• Nonfat or light cream cheese
• Nonfat or 1% fat cottage cheese or ricotta cheese
• Nonfat or 1% fat yogurt (includes fruited, vanilla, or plain)
• Soy-based yogurts
• Nonfat sour cream
• Egg substitutes, egg whites

Meat, Poultry, Fish & Meat Substitutes

• Skinless, boneless chicken or turkey breasts and tenders
• Skinless, white breast meat ground chicken or turkey
• Pork tenderloin, trimmed of fat
• Lean ground beef such as ground round or ground sirloin (Note: When buying beef, look for words like "round" or "loin" and choose lean cuts -- the less marbling, the lower the fat content.)
• Assorted fish: salmon, mackerel, tilapia, trout, herring, tuna
• Tofu silken, soft, firm, or extra firm
• Tempeh
• Seitan

Frozen Foods

• Frozen vegetables and vegetable blends without added sauces, gravies, and added sodium
• Frozen fruits without added sugar (for example, frozen blueberries, strawberries, or raspberries)
• Frozen soybeans (edamame)
• Frozen vegetarian burgers, sausage patties, or links (For example, Boca Burgers, Yves, Morningstar Farms or Gardenburger)
• Reduced-fat and sodium vegetarian chili, burritos, and entrees like Amy's Organic and Health Valley.

Fats, Cooking Oils

• Assorted cooking oils (olive, canola, walnut, grapeseed, peanut, and sesame)
• Non-fat cooking sprays (for example, Spectrum Naturals, Pam)
• Baking fat replacements (for example, pureed prunes, applesauce, or Smucker's Baking Healthy)
• Non-hydrogenated shortening (for example, Spectrum Naturals)
• Trans-free liquid or tub margarine (for example, Promise Activ, Benecol, Fleischmann's Light, Smart Balance)
• Reduced-fat or nonfat salad dressings

Herbs, Seasonings & Spices

Here are some delicious seasonings to take the place of salt.

Sweeteners

• Splenda, Equal, Nutra Sweet, Sugar Twin, and Brown Sugar Twin (sugar substitutes)
• Sugar free or "light" maple syrups
• Honey
• Brown rice syrup for a sweetening alternative to use when baking

Pantry Essentials

Snacks

• Assorted raw nuts and seeds (almonds, walnuts, sunflower seeds, sesame seeds)
• Dried fruits
• Whole-grain breads, tortillas, pitas
• Whole-grain, trans-fat free crackers (such as Health Valley whole wheat crackers, Kashi TLC crackers, Reduced Fat Triscuits, Fat Free Rye Crisp, Wasa)
• Baked, trans-fat-free tortilla chips
• Brown rice cakes, popcorn cakes
• Whole-grain pretzels (such as Snyder's oat bran or honey wheat)
• Plain popcorn or light microwave popcorn