Diet tips for a healthy heart

by Taryn Davies | 19 June 2013

Keep your heart healthy with this diet advice

Whilst a lot of people look to diet tips as a way to lose weight, this is definitely not the case all of the time. Eating the right foods can have beneficial effects on our overall health.

Here we look at the foods that will help us have a healthy heart.

Carol Baguley - Dietitian at HCA Hospital 'The Harley Street Clinic' www.heartcarelondon.co.uk, has put together her tips on what you should and shouldn't be eating for a healthy heart.

Foods To Eat To Keep Your Heart Healthy

Eat More Wholegrains – E.g wholegrain bread, All Bran cereal, Weetabix, whole grain rice and pasta or be more adventurous and try a new whole grain e.g wholegrain couscous, quinoa or barley.These foods are a good source of fibre and other nutrients that play a role in regulating blood pressure and heart health.

Eat more fruits and vegetables – Keep vegetables washed and cut in your fridge for quick snacks. Keep fruit in a bowl in your kitchen so you remember to eat it. Choose recipes which have fruit or vegetables as the main ingredient, such as vegetable stir fry or fresh fruit mixed into salads. Fruits and vegetables are god sources of vitamins and minerals, they are also rich in fibre. Eating more of these foods may help you eat less high fat foods, such as meat, cheese and snack foods.

Aim to have 2 portions a week of fish - One of which should be an “oily” fish – e.g herring, mackerel, pilchards, sardines, salmon, trout and fresh tuna. These fish provide the richest source of a particular type of polyunsaturated fat known as omega 3 fats that can help to protect against heart disease. If you don’t like oily fish, you can get omega 3 fats from vegetable sources such as flaxseed oil and rapeseed oil, and from some nuts and seeds such as walnuts and flax seeds. However, we don’t yet know for certain if the omega 3 fats in these foods bring exactly the same benefits as the omega 3 fats from oily fish.

Eat foods that are high in “soluble fibre” - E.g porridge, beans, pulses, lentils, nuts, fruits and vegetables. These foods can help lower cholesterol and and helps to keep you feeling full, making you less likely to snack on fattening snacks.

Mono unsaturated fatty acids – E.g olive oil, avocados, peanuts, olives and nuts. These fats lower your bad cholesterol (LDL) and leave your good cholesterol (HDL) untouched.

Top Foods To Avoid To Keep Your Heart Healthy

Avoid Saturated Fats - E.g butter, hard cheeses, fatty meat, ghee, suet, cream, coconut oil and palm oil. Saturated fats can increase cholesterol and particularly the bad type of cholesterol known as LDL. This LDL cholesterol increases the risk of fatty deposits developing in your arteries.

Avoid Trans Fatty Acids - E.g pastries, cakes, biscuits, crackers, hard margarines. Trans fatty acids increase total cholesterol levels and the bad type of LDL cholesterol just the same as saturated fats do. They also lower something called the HDL which is a bad thing as it is good to have high HDL levels to protect the heart. These trans fats interfere with the good healthy omega 3 fatty acids which are important for a healthy heart.

Avoid Foods High In Salt - E.g canned soups, takeaways, ready prepared meals, bacon and smoked meats, cheese, pickles, salami, salted nuts, smoked fish, soy sauce, gravy granules, sausages, savoury snacks such as crisps, pasta sauces, pizza. Too much salt can cause high blood pressure which increases the risk of developing heart problems. A staggering 75% of a person’s dietary salt intake comes from processed foods alone. 1.25g of salt per 100g or 0.5g of sodium or more is a lot. 0.25g of salt per 100g or 0.1g of sodium is a little.

Avoid Binge Drinking - Whereas a moderate amount of alcohol can have potential benefits for your heart, (i.e 2 drinks per night), a large amount of alcohol consumed in a relatively small time frame on a fairly consistent pattern can have possible bad effects on your good and bad cholesterol levels and also lead to raised blood pressure.

13 Ways To Make Food Choices Heart Healthy

Choose a vegetable based or tomato based sauce for your pasta, rather than a rich cream sauce or a cheese sauce.

Try not to add margarine or butter to mashed potato.

Try low fat oven grilled chips instead of greasy deep fat fried chips.

Experiment with different breads which are so tasty they don’t need any spread.

Choose steamed or boiled rice rather than fried.

Choose low calorie or fat free salad dressings instead of oil rich dressings.

Use fromage frais instead of cream in cooking.

Use small amounts of strong mature cheese in sandwiches and cooking to make a little go a long way.

Bake, grill or steam, poach or microwave chicken or fish instead of frying or basting in crumbs with butter.

Use vegetable to bulk out the dish when using read meat.

Use cornflour to thicken cooking sauces or gravies for meat or fish instead of having to use fat.