After a heart attack, many patients ask their cardiologists what foods to avoid. However, one may not realize that food avoidance is not what cardiologists preach. After all, food is something we enjoy, so the focus should never be what we cannot eat, but rather how we should eat. It is about a balanced diet.

The key to healthy eating is to learn what foods are the best, what foods are good, what foods are not so good. The new Healthy Heart visual food guide from the Heart Foundation is a very practical way of striking that balance and is worth spending some time studying it.

Some important points worth mentioning include:

- Starchy vegetables such as potato and kumara count towards starchy foods like breads, grains and rice.

- Not all fats are off-limit. Polyunsaturated fat, such as nuts and vegetable oils (except palm oil and coconut oil), is important for heart health.

For more information, please visit the heart foundation website.