Heart-healthy foods

Posted on by Forest in Diet, General, Health, Opinion

Try and stock up on heart-healthy foods in your next shops….

It’s a new year and you likely have a bit of a wrecked body from a month of bad eating, drinking and less than normal levels of exercise. Well the good thing is it is pretty much over now and it’s time to get back to those routines and start thinking seriously again about your diet and health. This year why not pay special attention to improving your diet to help your body and especially your heart.

A look at heart-healthy foods

We all know what our heart does but it’s hard to actually think about that thing inside our chests being a lump of working muscle literally a pump pushing blood all around the body. Like any pump or machine part it needs to be kept in the best working order to do the best job. We can do that by keeping the muscle healthy, have as little saturated fat around it and blocking our arteries and also to keep our general blood pressure at normal levels.

It’s generally accepted that the heart needs a diet  high in Omega 3 Fatty acids, fiber, vitamins and nutrients. The great thing is the rest of the body benefits from all that too. It’s also important that foods with low cholesterol and sodium are picked. Fat can clog up your system and sodium can raise blood pressure. Also just because you are not fat does not mean you can’t have high cholesterol in your body so beware of this!

Here are some foods that are generally believed to be great for heart health and that should be in your shopping basket. All of these foods are high in Omega-3 fatty acids.

• Fish, especially salmon and cold water river fish because they are very high in nutrients. Trout is good cheaper alternative.
• Oatmeal, comes from whole grain oats and is high in fibre and many other minerals.
• Flax Seeds, you may have seen these in little bags in the health isle. They can be put in almost any food and are extremely high in something called phytoestrogens which are thought to be great for the heart.
• Almonds, Walnuts, are full of vitamin E and the fats are thought to be heart friendly. It’s still worth keeping intake lowish as you don’t need many to get your nutrients and they are full of calories that can quickly add up.
• Tofu, made from soya which is general is a great heart food. Tofu is versatile and also a great low fat source of protein and various heart-healthy minerals.
• Blueberries, these super berries are also fantastic brain food and are stuffed with minerals and vitamins including beta-carotine that are just great for overall health.
• Carrots, they contain alpha-carotene and can be sweet enough to stop you from wanting candy bars as a snack plus they are full of other vitamins.
• Black and kidney beans, beans in general are great for the heart but black and kidney beans are thought to be particularly heart friendly which is great as they taste amazing!

Asides from Omega-3 Fatty Acids these foods contain different levels of the most common heart friendly elements that experts feel keep things ticking over.

WebMD has an exellent article titled “25 Heart-Healthy Foods” and at the end of it they explain the elements in a little more details. I suggest you read the full article but below is an excerpt:

Source: 25 Heart-Healthy Foods

Phytoestrogens are substances in plants (like flaxseed) that have a weak estrogen-like action in the body. Studies suggest that flaxseed lowers the risk of blood clots, stroke, and cardiac arrhythmias. It may also help lower total and LDL “bad” cholesterol and triglycerides, and even blood pressure.

Phytosterols are plant sterols that chemically resemble cholesterol — and seem to reduce blood cholesterol. All nuts and seeds, including wheat germ, have phytosterols.

Carotenoids are heart-protective antioxidants in many colorful fruits and veggies. Alpha-carotene, beta-carotene, lutein, and lycopene are carotenoids.

Polyphenols are another set of antioxidants that protect blood vessels, lower blood pressure, reduce LDL “bad” cholesterol. Flavonoid polyphenols include catechins, flavonones, flavonols, isoflavones, reservatrol, and anthocyanins. Non-flavonoid polyphenols include ellagic acid (found in all types of berries).

Omega-3 fatty acids (found in fatty fish like salmon) and alpha-linolenic fatty acids (found in plant foods like walnuts) help boost the immune system, reduce blood clots, and protect against heart attacks. They also increase good HDL levels, lower triglyceride levels, protect arteries from plaque buildup, are anti-inflammatories, and lower blood pressure.

B-complex vitamins — like Vitamin B-12 (folate) and vitamin B-6 — protect against blood clots and atherosclerosis, or hardening of the arteries. Niacin (vitamin B-3) helps increase HDL “good” cholesterol.

Vitamins C and E are antioxidants that protect cells from free radical damage.Magnesium, potassium, and calcium help lower blood pressure. Fiber-rich foods help lower cholesterol levels.

There are a lot of heart-healthy foods available and it’s just a case of eating as healthy as you can overall. If you search somewhere like WebMD (read the article I linked but they have more too) you will find a million more suggestions to help you on your way.

Thanks for reading.

Tags: foods good for your heart, heart foods, omega-3