The Mayo Clinic Heart Diet offers a commonsense approach to eating that can help promote lasting heart health. The diet's specific, yet realistic, guidelines identify foods to avoid or emphasize in order to reduce well-known risk factors for cardiovascular disease. Supported by medical science and designed for long-term livability, the Mayo Clinic Heart Diet can be an effective option for anyone concerned about heart health--even those who have had little luck with stricter, more traditional diets.
Purpose
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, or CDC, list heart disease as the leading cause of death among American adults. The Mayo Clinic created its heart diet to help reduce the frequency and severity of heart disease. Anyone with significant heart disease risk factors should strongly consider following the diet's guidelines. The diet can also help people with few or no risk factors to maintain good cardiovascular health.
Philosophy
The Mayo Clinic Heart Diet is not a strict dietary regimen, with certain foods required or forbidden. Instead, it is a set of general guidelines that help you make heart-healthy choices to reduce the risk of heart disease. Unlike diets designed to help followers achieve a concrete, short-term goal, the Mayo Clinic Heart Diet is a sustainable, long-term approach to eating that should lead to enduring better health. The diet even recommends indulging in occasional treats rather than holding yourself to unrealistic expectations of perfection.
Structure
Eight guidelines make up the Mayo Clinic Heart Diet. Only two guidelines recommend foods to avoid, including cholesterol, sodium and excess fat--saturated and trans fats, in particular. Three guidelines stress foods to incorporate in your diet, including low-fat protein sources, fruits and vegetables, and whole grains. Three additional guidelines offer advice to make the diet successful, such as paying attention to serving sizes, planning menus in advance and allowing yourself unhealthy treats once in a while.
Validation
The Mayo Clinic Heart Diet is based on recommendations by the American Heart Association, which publishes guidelines for the amount of fat, saturated fat, trans fat, cholesterol, sodium, alcohol and dietary fiber that you should consume to promote heart health. In addition, the Mayo Clinic guidelines are compatible with other heart-healthy diets, such as the popular Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension program--known as the "DASH diet"--developed by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute to help lower blood pressure.
Supplements
To help followers adopt a heart-healthy approach to eating, the Mayo Clinic offers additional useful resources to supplement its heart diet. For example, the clinic's recommended menus suggest amounts and combinations of foods for breakfast, lunch, dinner and daily snacks. The clinic's website also features dozens of heart-healthy recipes, ranging from appetizers and entrees to desserts and beverages. In addition, many other publications and websites offer recipes, meal plans, cooking tips and other resources for low-fat, low-sodium, heart-healthy eating that can be compatible with the Mayo Clinic Heart Diet.
