A heart healthy diet is an eating plan that can help you sustain low levels of blood cholesterol and reduce your risk for coronary artery disease. Cholesterol is a substance your liver produces and you obtain from foods that, together with saturated fat, causes plaque. This can clog your arteries and increase your risk of heart attack. Certain foods in your diet can improve your heart health and reduce risk of heart disease.
Healthy Fat
Consuming healthy fats from your foods and avoiding unhealthy fats are an integral part of a heart healthy diet. Healthy fats include monounsaturated fatty acids from olive oil and avocado, polyunsaturated fatty acid from nuts and vegetable oil and omega-3 fatty acids, including eicosapentaneoic acid and docosahexaneoic acid from cold water, fatty fish, such as salmon and herring, and alpha linolenic acid from walnuts and flaxseeds. Increasing your intake of omega-3 fatty acids, may reduce your risk of heart disease. Research by scientists at the Department of Public Health Medicine at the University of Tsukuba in Ibaraki-ken, Japan, and published in "Circulation," discovered that a high intake of fish is associated with significantly reduced risk of coronary heart disease, especially nonfatal cardiac events, among middle-aged persons. Unhealthy fats include saturated fat from meat and dairy and trans fat from processed and fast foods, such as margarines, shortening, breads, cakes and french fries.
Whole Grains
Consuming whole grains and avoiding processed foods can improve your heart health and lower your heart disease risk. Whole grains contain the entire kernel or grain seed of a plant, including the bran, germ and endosperm. Eating whole grains lowers blood levels of total and LDL cholesterol -- the bad cholesterol -- while eating refined grains and sugar raises cholesterol and triglycerides. Research by scientists at Wake Forest University Health Sciences in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, and published in "Nutrition, Metabolism and Cardiovascular Diseases" in 2008, discovered that greater dietary intake of whole grains yields a 21 percent lower risk of cardiovascular disease, including heart disease, stroke and death.
Fiber
Soluble fiber is a substance in foods, such as fruit, vegetables, grains and legumes, that can reduce your cholesterol levels and risk of heart disease. Soluble fiber can also reduce your blood pressure and inflammation within your blood vessels. Research by scientists at the Division of Human Nutrition at Wageningen University in the Netherlands, and published in the "American Journal of Clinical Nutrition" in 2008, found that every additional 10 g of dietary fiber intake per day, reduces the death rate from coronary heart disease by 17 percent.
Low Sodium
Eating a low sodium diet can help you reduce your blood pressure and enhance the blood flow in your arteries. A low sodium diet minimizes consumption of processed foods that are often loaded with sodium. The USDA says the adequate intake level of sodium per day is 1,500 mg for people ages 9 to 50 years and between 1,000 and 1,300 mg for children and older adults.
References
- National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute: Introduction to the Heart Healthy Diet
- MayoClinic.com: Dietary Fats: Know Which Types to Choose
- PubMed.gov: Intake of Fish and N3 Fatty Acids and Risk of Coronary Heart Disease among Japanese: The Japan Public Health Center-Based Study Cohort
- International Food Information Council Foundation Whole Grains Fact Sheet
- Harvard School of Public Health: Health Gains from Whole Grains
