Healthy : Eat to Protect Your Heart

Whether you have a heart condition or simply want to maintain your healthy heart, you will need to know the ins and outs of heart-healthy foods. In particular, you’ll need to know what foods to eat more of and what foods to avoid, as well as how to create your own meal schedule.

1. Foods to Eat

a. Eat lots of omega-3 fatty acids. Omega-3 fatty acids do many things to keep your body operating smoothly. In particular, they decrease your triglyceride levels, cholesterol and other blood vessel-clogging substances, and your blood pressure—all of which are related to your heart’s health. They also help to prevent your blood vessels from becoming inflamed, which can lead to blood clots. Foods that are rich in omega-3s include:

• Seafood like shrimp, tuna, pollock, scallops, cod, and salmon.
• Flaxseeds, walnuts, and soybeans.
• Brussels sprouts, cauliflower and winter squash.

b. Eat plenty of fruits and vegetables. Fruits and veggies are packed with nutrients like vitamins, minerals and fiber. Eating fresh produce can help to lower your blood pressure and reduce your chances of developing heart disease.

• Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension (DASH), a meal program developed to keep blood pressure down, suggests four to five servings of fruits and vegetables a day.

c. Include whole grains in your diet. Whole grains are high in fiber content. Soluble fibers are thought to reduce low density lipoprotein (LDL). Low density lipoprotein is also known as the bad cholesterol that contributes to plaque formation in the arteries that can cause coronary artery disease.

• DASH recommends six to eight servings of whole grains per day.

d. Choose low-fat proteins like fish. Lean proteins like fish and chicken are a good way to get nutrients that you need while also keeping your heart health in mind. In particular, fish has fatty acids that, as previously mentioned, help to combat many conditions that can affect your heart.

• The American Heart Association recommends healthy people eat roughly six ounces of some kind of fatty fish each week.

e. Look for foods that have a low salt content. Salt causes your body to retain fluids. When this occurs, your blood pressure can rise. Reducing your salt content in your diet can lower your blood pressure, especially when paired with antihypertensive medication.

• According to the Mayo Clinic, a normal healthy adult should have no more than 2,300 mg of salt a day.

f. Choose olive oil over butter. Butter contains bad fats that can clog your arteries. Olive oil, on the other hand, contains monounsaturated fats that can actually help you to reduce your cholesterol and make your heart healthier.

• Try using olive oil when cooking on the stovetop instead of butter.

2. Foods to Avoid

a. Keep track of the number of carbs you eat each day. When you eat an excessive amount of carbohydrates, you increase your chances of becoming obese, which in turn can lead to heart disease. Bad carbohydrates are believed to be more responsible for weight gain than actual fats are. This is because carbohydrates break down into glucose (sugar), which causes your body to release insulin. Insulin is a hormone that stores fat.

• This does not mean that all carbs are bad or that you should cut carbs out of your diet entirely. The trick is to cut out the bad carbs while retaining the good carbs.
• Good carbs are those that are high in fiber. These include vegetables, whole grains, beans, and fruits. Bad carbs, or processed and refined carbs, include things like white bread and white rice.

b. Limit the amount of fat you eat each day. Your should try to avoid trans-fat foods and foods rich in cholesterol (which is a lipid fat) if you are concerned about your heart’s health. These sort of fats can increase your chances of getting a stroke or developing heart disease. Try to avoid foods like:

• Butter, bacon fat, lard, gravies, hydrogenated margarines, and coconut or palm oils.

c. Eat less red meat. Red meat should generally be avoided if you are concerned with your heart’s health. This is because red meat contains L-carnitine. L-carnitine feeds bacteria that reside in your gut. These bacteria turn L-carnitine into a compound called trimethylamine-N-oxide, or TMAO. Studies indicate that TMAO causes atherosclerosis,^[8] which is the disease process known to lead to cholesterol-clogged arteries. Cholesterol-clogged arteries can lead to a heart attack.

• It is recommended that you only eat red meat a couple of times a month.

d. Limit the number of eggs you eat each week. You should only consume, in total, four whole eggs a week.^[10] The main issue with eggs is the amount of cholesterol that the yolk contains. One, medium-sized egg contains more than 185 mg of cholesterol, which is over half the recommended daily allowance. This cholesterol can accumulate in your arteries, which may lead to a heart attack.

e. Drink alcohol in moderation. Beverages like wine can be consumed in moderate amounts—roughly 3 ½ oz. for women and 7 oz. for men. Red wine—in moderation—is actually considered heart healthy due to the antioxidants it contains. One such antioxidant is resveratrol. This may be the key ingredient in red wine that assists with reducing the ‘bad’ cholesterol (low-density lipoprotein, aka LDL), preventing blood clots and inhibiting damage to blood vessels.

• You should try to drink no more than two drinks a day for men and one drink a day for women. These drinks should be had with meals.

3. Creating a Heart-Healthy Eating Schedule

a. Manage how much you eat at each meal. Try to keep track of what you eat during each meal. When you take larger portions than is necessary, you consume more calories that may lead to you gaining weight.

• The number of calories you need each day depend on your age, body composition and daily activities. You can figure out how many calories you need daily here.

b. Plan your meals ahead of time. Planning your meals ahead can be really helpful when you are trying to cut less healthy foods out of your diet. If possible, make a meal plan for each week. Work heart-healthy foods into every meal and start cutting out the unhealthy foods.

c. Work on replacing less healthy foods with heart-healthy foods. At first, you may find it challenging to replace foods that you love with more heart-healthy options. However, if you are concerned about your heart then it is necessary that you make these changes. Some suggestions include:

• Use canola or olive oil when you cook, rather than butter or margarine.
• Use beans as a protein replacement for the red meat that you should remove from your diet.
• Have seasonal vegetables and fruits available to snack on throughout the day. Having healthy snacks on hand can help you to cut out bad fatty snacks like potato chips and candies.

Source:

http://www.wikihow.com/Eat-to-Protect-Your-Heart