Heart Healthy Foods

Eat Whole Foods

Whole foods are the foundation of healthy eating. No gimics, just simple, unprocessed, whole, natural, from the earth, foods.

For example, eating raw or cooked raw spinach, will result in much greater health benefits than buying a package of cream of spinach at the store in the freezer section. Why? Look at the back of the box. Can you pronounce all of the ingredients? Did you ever wonder why there’s all that sodium? When spinach is mixed with the cream, sodium, and other chemical preservatives are added to increase shelf life, the chemical make-up of the spinach changes, and the benefits decrease, or completely go away.

An excuse or objection you might hear to whole foods is, “but they go bad so quickly!” Hmmm…if all we’re eating is whole foods, I bet they won’t go bad before they’re eaten. Just try adding one or two items at a time each week, until it becomes habit.

 Red Wine

Nuts and Seeds

I know the objection…they are high in calories! But, they are high in calories only because nuts and seeds are rich in Omega 3 fatty acids, (aka good fats that we need to have more of in our diets!) In order to accommodate the calories, eat nuts and seeds instead of something high in saturated fats that you know you shouldn’t be eating anyway, (example – prepackaged desserts like Twinkies…or any kind of chips.)

The nutrients in nuts and seeds work synergistically together to help prevent cardiovascular disease. Walnuts are especially helpful. A study proved that people who ate a handful of walnuts five times per week reduced their chance of heart attack by at least 15%. However, all nuts and seeds have Omega 3 fatty acids and phytonutrients - plant based nutrients stock full of health promoting benefits - so eat up the nuts! (Side note – try to buy nuts with the least amount of salt, maybe even no salt.)

Spinach

There are so many micronutrients in spinach that work synergistically together to promote health, science is only starting to scratch the surface to understand the complete benefits. One of the many benefits of Spinach is its ability to prevent coronary artery disease and promotes cardio health in general. So, be like Popeye and eat up all of your spinach.

Polyunsaturated Fats

Protect and promote cardiovascular health by providing more fluidity in the arteries. Kind of like red wine, there is a catch.

There are two kinds of Polyunsaturated Fats:
Omega 6 and Omega 3 Fatty Acids.
The typical American diet is full of Omega 6 fatty acids. Too much Omega 6, and not enough Omega 3, increases our risk for blood clots and narrows the blood vessels. It’s best to keep no more than a 4:1 ratio of Omega 6 to Omega 3 fatty acids in our diet.

Here’s a small list of where you will find these:
Omega 6: Corn oil, safflower oil, sunflower oil
Omega 3: There are two kinds – plant derived (ALA) and Marine derived (EPA/DHA)
Salmon, Omega 3 rich eggs, soy nuts, walnuts, wheat germ, ground flaxseed, algae, leafy green, and seeds

Breif List of Heart Healthy Foods