Nutrition and Your Family

What we feed our families matters to their heart and brain health.
Family saying grace before a meal at a dining table

Finding Balance 鈥� A healthy family is a happy family.

A heart-healthy eating plan emphasizes eating fruits, vegetables, whole grains, lean protein, nuts, seeds and cooking in healthy oils (like olive oil and canola oil).
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Need help deciding what to eat?

Understanding Nutrition and Health

Eating healthy is a key way for individuals to take control of their health. Unfortunately, too many people consume too many foods high in saturated fats, added sugars, and sodium, and they eat too few fruits, vegetables, and whole grains, placing them at increased risk for cardiovascular disease.

Understanding what we feed our families and how we cook our meals is the first step to preventing and treating health conditions like high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and diabetes.

Manage Blood Pressure

Keeping your blood pressure within acceptable ranges can keep you healthier longer. Levels less than 120/80 mm Hg are optimal. High blood pressure is defined as 130-139 mm Hg systolic pressure (the top number in a reading) or 80-89 mm Hg diastolic pressure (bottom number).

Hispanic adults have some of the highest prevalence of poorly controlled blood pressure compared with any other race-ethnic group in the United States.   

View How to Manage Blood Pressure Fact Sheet PDF

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English (PDF) | Spanish (PDF)

Control Cholesterol

High levels of non-HDL, or “bad,” cholesterol can lead to heart disease. Your health care professional can consider non-HDL cholesterol as the preferred number to monitor, rather than total cholesterol, because it can be measured without fasting beforehand and is reliably calculated among all people.

Among Hispanic/Latino adults with high cholesterol, almost half (49.3%) were unaware of their condition, and only 29.5% received treatment.

View How to control cholesterol fact sheet PDF

View or Download Fact Sheet
English (PDF) | Spanish (PDF)

Manage Blood Sugar

Most of the food we eat is turned into glucose (or blood sugar) that our bodies use as energy. Over time, high levels of blood sugar can damage your heart, kidneys, eyes and nerves. As part of testing, monitoring hemoglobin A1c can better reflect long-term control in people with diabetes or prediabetes.

Hispanic or Latino people all are more likely to have type 2 diabetes, which is why we need to pay close attention to our nutrition.

View How to manage blood sugar fact sheet PDF

View or Download Fact Sheet
English (PDF) | Spanish (PDF)

Advocating for Your Community

You may have noticed that in your state, some communities have grocery stores all around, while in other areas it鈥檚 difficult to find a single grocer. Healthy food access 鈥� and affordability -- are essential factors in how healthy a family can be in their day-to-day lives. Together, we can drive change so that more people in your community can eat nutritious foods daily. Join the hundreds of thousands of You鈥檙e the Cure advocates in making healthy food a reality for every child, neighbor, and family member near you!

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