Maintaining a healthy diet is the practice of making choices about what to eat with the intent of improving or maintaining good health. Usually this involves consuming necessary nutrients by eating the appropriate amounts from all of the food groups, including an adequate amount of water. Since human nutrition is complex, a healthy diet may vary widely, subject to an individual's genetic makeup, environment, and health. For around 20% of the planet's population, lack of food and malnutrition are the main impediments to healthy eating; people in developed countries have the opposite problem, and are more concerned about obesity.

The following article contains a solid list of essential foods that you should incorporate into your diet to maintain a healthy heart. If you have some alternative suggestions for heart healthy foods by all means please submit your suggestions at the end with a few comments.

Achieving lower cholesterol is one of the best ways to protect yourself from heart attack and stroke. The more natural and cost effective way to lower cholesterol is to eat foods low in cholesterol. Using herbs to lower cholesterol is safe and effective.

"Go red" or "wear red" have become universal mantras for promoting heart-health during February, American Heart Month. But health and nutrition experts say we should also be eating red to protect our hearts. Americans are encouraged to discover the power of eating heart-healthy red foods during the first-ever National Eat Red Week, Feb. 4-10.

The fat gram has been blamed for single-handedly making you overweight, is supposedly responsible for heart disease and high cholesterol. And for years has been spurned and eliminated in "healthy" foods and diet plans. But was this wrong?

Do you need to lower your cholesterol considerably or only slightly? Only once you know your goals can you properly plan your new diet plan and begin to lower your bad cholesterol and reduce your risk of heart disease.