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Given its role in pumping blood around your body and delivering oxygen and nutrients to your cells, the health of your heart is paramount. Therefore, maintaining a healthy heart through exercise, stress management, and diet should be prioritized.
Your diet has the power to strengthen your heart and aid with or protect against heart disease. Not sure how to achieve a heart-healthy diet? This article will discuss good foods for your heart and foods to avoid. This information can help people with heart disease improve their condition and those at risk to prevent heart disease.
The Importance of a Heart-Healthy Diet
A heart-healthy diet can significantly reduce your chances of heart disease, stroke, and experiencing a heart attack. Unfortunately, many people are unaware of what nutrients strengthen your heart and which can damage your heart over time. If you want to achieve a heart-healthy diet, you’ll have to be willing to sacrifice some foods that aren’t doing your heart any good.
Eating for Your Heart
Eating for your heart can improve your heart’s health relatively quickly and help the heart repair itself. Below, we’ll explore foods that are good for your heart and why they’re good, along with foods that should be eliminated from your diet or enjoyed in moderation.
Foods Good for Your Heart
Heart-healthy foods tend to be rich in vitamins, omega-3s, and fiber. Below, we’ll discuss some of the best foods for strengthening and repairing the heart and foods that prevent heart attacks and heart disease.
Eggs and Rice
There’s a common misconception that eggs are bad for your heart. This isn’t the case. Eggs are a perfectly healthy source of vitamins, minerals, protein, and fats, though you should generally keep to about 6-7 eggs per week.
Rice is another heart-healthy food, as it offers lots of carbohydrates, protein, and omega-3s. Generally, all rice is good for your heart, but brown rice is a particularly great source of dietary fiber and magnesium. Brown rice and other whole grains are among the best foods for preventing heart attacks.
Fish
Fish is one of the best foods for a heart-healthy diet. Replacing processed meats like bacon with fish is one of the most significant dietary changes you can make to strengthen your heart. The best fish you can eat for your heart are ones high in omega-3s, like salmon, mackerel, herring, trout, and tuna.
Omega-3 fatty acids protect against stroke and improve your heart health if you already have heart disease. Our bodies don’t make omega-3 on their own, so it’s essential to include this heart-repairing polyunsaturated fat in your diet. But, of course, fish isn’t the only way of ingesting omega-3. There’s also omega-3 in flaxseed and canola oil.
Fruits and Vegetables
As you may have guessed, many fruits are great for the heart. Delicious fruits like oranges, cantaloupes, and papaya are rich in heart-healthy minerals and carbohydrates, including magnesium, potassium, and fiber. They also contain the pigment beta-carotene, which gives them their beautiful color. Beta-carotene is a natural pigment linked to a reduced risk of cardiovascular disease. Berries are also a good choice, as they contain phytonutrients and soluble fiber.
Essentially all vegetables are healthy for the heart, whether you prefer red, yellow, orange, or green. Colorful veggies like carrots, red peppers, and sweet potatoes contain fiber and various vitamins that are good for your heart. Green veggies like spinach, kale, collard greens, broccoli, and asparagus offer many nutrients, including vitamins C and E, fiber, folate, and potassium.
Nuts, Seeds, Oats, and Legumes
Nuts, seeds, oats, and legumes are some of the very best foods for heart health! Nuts like almonds and walnuts are loaded with heart-healthy nutrients, including vitamin E, fiber, unsaturated fats, and omega-3s. They can also help lower your cholesterol and improve blood vessel health. Seeds such as flaxseeds and chia seeds are also a great source of omega-3 and fiber.
Oats are another source of nutrients. They’re easy to incorporate into your diet via trail mix, in salads, or on top of yogurt. You can also eat more legumes, such as garbanzo, kidney, black, and pinto beans, all of which are high in fiber and B-vitamins.
Drinks and Desserts
A heart-healthy diet doesn’t have to be completely void of alcoholic drinks and desserts. Dark chocolate contains fiber, protein, disease-fighting antioxidants, and a flavonoid subtype called flavanols, linked to a lower risk of heart disease. The darker the chocolate, the healthier it typically is. Just make sure it’s at least 70 percent cocoa!
Red wine is another surprisingly heart-healthy treat. The antioxidants in a 4-ounce glass of red wine can help improve cholesterol levels. To gain the benefits of red wine and dark chocolate, consume them in moderation. That means up to two 4-ounce glasses a day for men and one for women.
Foods Bad for Your Heart
For all the heart-healthy foods out there, there are just as many that are bad for your heart. These foods on their own won’t have a devastating effect, but those trying to achieve a heart-healthy diet should avoid or limit them whenever possible.
Processed Meat
Processed animal proteins like bacon, sausage, salami, and jerky aren’t good for your heart, as they’re high in saturated fat, calories, and salt. Swapping processed meat with fish high in omega-3s or skinless, boneless chicken or turkey is much better for your heart.
Sugary Beverages
The added sugar and empty calories in beverages like soda and energy drinks are not ideal for a heart-healthy diet. The same is true for iced coffee drinks with whipped cream and other toppings.
Water is truly the best thing you can drink for your heart and overall well-being. So if you’re craving a soda, try drinking a glass of water first. You may find that your craving goes away once you’ve hydrated yourself.
Vending Machine Snacks
Vending machine snacks are easy to categorize; salty and crunchy foods that come in small bags, like chips. These processed snacks tend to come full of salt and carbs and void of the fiber and nutrients you’d get from an apple or carrots.
Fast Food
If you’re wondering about lousy food for your heart, look no further than your nearest fast food restaurant. While some restaurants offer healthy options, most burger and chicken-based fast-food restaurants don’t. Fast food is typically void of beneficial nutrients and loaded with salt, grease, calories, and carbs.
Dessert
It would be best if you enjoyed desserts in moderation, especially those with lots of added sugars like ice cream, cake, and pie. Having smaller portions and indulging less frequently is key to achieving a healthy diet. Of course, if you feel like something sweet after supper, you can always opt for heart-healthy foods like dark chocolate or yogurt with berries instead!
Talk to Your Doctor About Your Heart Health
If you want to gain valuable insights into the current state of your heart and ways of improving your heart health, speaking to your doctor is vital. They can perform proper examinations to determine if you’re at risk for heart disease and make recommendations regarding your diet. We encourage you to discuss significant dietary changes with your doctor.
Need Support? Call Matthews Internal Medicine
Knowing about the various good and bad foods for your heart should empower you to achieve a heart-healthy diet. However, there’s nothing wrong with seeking more support from licensed professionals.
Matthews Internal Medicine is an integrated medical clinic in North Carolina specializing in improving each patient’s overall health. Treatment plans may include weight management, allergy testing, or preventative care, which consists of developing a diet plan. For more information, please consult our resources page or contact us to make an appointment. You can get in touch by calling (704) 246-3936 or completing our online form.