Patient was educated on foods to avoid on a healthy meal as follows:
- Avoid/minimize having any unhealthy fats/oils, by limiting fried foods in your diet. To avoid extra calories from unhealthy fats and oils, choose food items that are baked, roasted, or grilled against fried. Choose lean meats that are baked or grilled, instead of meat that is fried.
- Using cooking sprays versus oil, butter, or margarine can lower the fat consumption for cooking. Also, using a nonstick pan can help reduce adding additional oil during cooking.
- Rely more on extra-virgin olive oil, extra-virgin avocado oil, and macadamia nut oil for cooking, over less healthier oils such as, vegetable oil, canola oil, sunflower oil, safflower oil, and cotton seed oil. Olive oil, avocado oil, and macadamia nut oil are less processed, low on unhealthy saturated & trans fats, and high on heart friendly fats.
- Avoid having unhealthy snacks like candy bars, fried cheese balls, corn fritters, fried mozzarella sticks, dill pickle fries, and chips. Choose from healthier options, such as, fresh fruit, low fat cheese sticks, beef/turkey sticks, vegetable chunks, soy patties, or whole grain crackers for snacking.
