3. Avoid the two bad fats — saturated fat and trans fat. Saturated fats are found in anything derived from an animal. Meats and cheeses are the main sources of saturated fat. Trans fats are created in a lab when molecules are rearranged to become fat that is added for taste and preservation in processed foods. Trans fats can even lurk in foods labeled "0 trans fats." Hendel says, "Companies are legally allowed to say '0 trans fats' in the mathematical breakdown on the label, but if you go down to the ingredients, you can find trans fat there. If you eat 10 servings of these half-a-gram-of-trans-fat foods in one day, you could be unknowingly consuming five grams of trans fats. Multiply that by a week and a month, and you've got a lot of artery-clogging fat in your diet that's insidiously found its way there."

4. Don't skimp on dairy. "There is so much mythology out there on dairy products," Hendel says, "but there are many studies that show people who consume several portions of fat-free dairy products per day are at a lower risk for hypertension or heart disease and are more able to shed pounds."

5. Cut your sodium intake to two grams (2,000 milligrams) per day. Read food labels to find the sodium content. A regular can of soup might have 900 to 1,000 milligrams, which would be half of your sodium for the day. "Many years ago," Hendel says, "hospitalized patients were put on a diet with two grams of sodium per day to get them healthy enough to leave the hospital. Now all the cardiac health care professionals recommend two grams a day or less to the general public, which means we've all been consuming too much sodium." To cut back on your sodium intake, try using fresh herbs rather than salt to season your food.