� Eat a variety of fruits and vegetables. Choose five or more servings per day.

� Eat a variety of grain products, including whole grains. Choose six or more servings per day.

� Include fat-free and low-fat milk products, fish, legumes (beans), skinless poultry and lean meats.

� Choose fats with 2 g or less saturated fat per serving, such as liquid and tub margarines, canola oil, and olive oil.

� Balance the number of calories you eat with the number you use each day. (To find that number, multiply the number of pounds you weigh now by 15 calories. This represents the average number of calories used in one day if you�re moderately active. If you get very little exercise, multiply your weight by 13 instead of 15. Less-active people burn fewer calories.)

� Maintain a level of physical activity that keeps you fit and matches the number of calories you eat. Walk or do other activities for at least 30 minutes on most days. To lose weight, do enough activity to use up more calories than you eat every day.

� Limit your intake of foods high in calories or low in nutrition, including foods like soft drinks and candy that have a lot of sugars.

� Limit foods high in saturated fat, trans fat, and/or cholesterol, such as full-fat milk products, fatty meats, tropical oils, partially hydrogenated vegetable oils, and egg yolks. Instead choose foods low in saturated fat, trans fat, and cholesterol.

� Eat less than 6 g of salt (sodium chloride) per day (2,400 mg of sodium).

� Have no more than one alcoholic drink per day if you�re a woman and no more than two if you�re a man.

Source: American Heart Association. Available at: www.americanheart.org/presenter.jhtml?identifier=1330. Accessed on Nov. 12, 2004.