Heart-healthy food

Did you know that you can eat certain foods to help protect your cardiovascular system? Just as some food can do harm to our hearts and clog our blood vessels, there are lots of heart-friendly foods that can reduce the risk of heart disease.

Even cooked tomatoes are good for your heart! Photo from: http://wishflowers.tumblr.com

I was inspired to write this article because in recent weeks there was a heart scare in my family. Thankfully it did turn out to be just a scare but in the process of talking about it to several friends I discovered quite a few people I know have had similar scares and have actually been advised to make changes to their lifestyles to avoid future heart problems. I found this a little bit shocking due to the relatively young age-group of the people I was talking to.

Heart-healthy blueberries can be added to oatmeal, smoothies, juices, or fruit salad. Photo from: http://creativespathways.blogspot.com/

Everyone knows I’m really interested in nutrition and healthy eating, and I always make the effort to eat heart-healthy foods, but when I asked friends if they knew what foods are good for our hearts most of them didn’t. They were quick to list the types of foods that are bad for heart health, such as fried, fatty and salty foods, but struggled to list even a couple of foods that can strengthen our hearts or reduce the risk of heart disease. Again I was surprised at the lack of knowledge about heart-healthy foods so I thought it might be an idea to give you a fairly comprehensive list which hopefully will encourage you to incorporate a few more of the items into your everyday cooking.

Even dark chocolate is good for heart health! Photo from: http://www.womenshealthmag.com

According to the www.webmd.com these are the top 25 foods to protect the cardiovascular system:

1.     Salmon              14. Spinach

2.     Milled flaxseed     15. Broccoli

3.     Oatmeal             16. Sweet potato

4.     Black/kidney beans  17. Red bell peppers

5.     Almonds             18. Asparagus

6.     Walnuts             19. Oranges

7.     Red wine            20. Tomatoes

8.     Tuna                21. Acorn squash

9.     Tofu                22. Cantaloupe melon

10.  Brown rice          23. Papaya

11.  Soy milk            24. Dark chocolate

12.  Blueberries         25. Tea

13.  Carrots

A glass of red wine a day is good for your heart. Cheers to that! Photo from: visualphotos.com

Many of these heart-healthy foods (beans, chocolate, wine and berries) contain flavonoids which inhibit the adhesion of platelets in the blood which can reduce the risk of heart attacks and strokes. Other foods (fish, flaxseed, walnuts, almonds) contain omega-3 fats that lower blood pressure and reduce the levels of triglycerides in the blood that can contribute to blood clotting. Vitamins C and A, potassium and fiber are also important for a healthy heart and found in lots of fruit and veggies (for example tomatoes, oranges, peppers, apples, bananas).

Heart-friendly oranges- rich in vitamin C and fiber. Photo from: http://crushculdesac.tumblr.com

It is important to include a variety of these heart-healthy foods in your daily diet, not just stick to one or two, so that you get all the nutrients you need to keep all parts of your cardiovascular system healthy. I would say that most days I include at least four to five items from the list in my meal-plan, so fingers crossed me heart is nice and strong!

Apple & cinnamon baked oatmeal for breakfast. Photo from: http://www.familyfreshcooking.com

Aim at having one or two at each meal. You could start your day with a bowl of oatmeal or use soy milk instead of dairy on your cereal or in your smoothie. Throw a few blueberries into you juice/smoothie/cereal/oatmeal too. At lunch opt for brown rice or sweet potato instead of the regular white rice or potatoes. Snack on some almonds or walnuts or dark chocolate (I have approximately 10g or dark organic chocolate each day). Make sure dinner includes a few heart-healthy veggies such as spinach, carrots, broccoli, or red bell peppers, perhaps alongside some tuna/salmon or tofu.  Round it up with a fruit salad, including papaya and cantaloupe. You can even wash it down with a nice glass of red wine or a cup of tea. Doesn’t sound too bad does it?

Heart healthy spinach can be added to smoothies or eaten at lunch or dinner. Photo from: http://butyouarebeautiful.tumblr.com/

I don’t eat salmon or tuna but include lots of tofu and other heart-friendly soy products in my diet. I don’t drink tea as I try to avoid caffeine, but by adding milled flaxseed to most of my juices and yogurt, and raw cacao to my yogurt too I find it easy to increase my intake of heart-healthy foods from the list and so decrease my risk of heart disease.

Green tea is heart healthy. Photo from: http://www.ifood.tv

For some heart-healthy recipe ideas check out www.heartfoundation.org.au, www.bhf.org.uk, and www.eatingwell.com.

Try some of my Happy Juice recipes in previous blogs (Ginger and spinach zinger, Bugs Bunny, Tropical Berry) for a heart-healthy way to start your day. My Green Goddess Happy Juice recipe is coming soon too and is rammed full of all the right nutrients to keep your heart healthy and strong. Stay healthy, protect your heart! 

Heart-healthy ingredients for my Green Goddess juice.