Eat to Beat: A Guide to Heart-Healthy Foods for a Stronger Cardiovascular System


Properly maintaining the cardiovascular system, which includes your blood and heart vessels, is one of the good things you could do for the body. Good cardiovascular health would help to prevent a whole range of potential issues, like atherosclerosis, hypertension, heart failure and heart attack, while also benefiting the overall health. There are many lifestyle, diet, and exercise choices you are making to keep the cardiovascular system as healthier as possible to Heart-Healthy Foods.

Make fruits and vegetables the centerpiece of the diet. Eating a variety of vegetables and fruits every day is good for cardiovascular health. They’re rich in vitamins (especially antioxidant vitamins A, E, C, which clear the body’s toxic oxygen metabolites), fiber and minerals. They are too low in unhealthy fats.

• Focus on filling at least half the plate with fruits and vegetables at each meal, which equals about 4-5 servings of each per day as per Heart-Healthy Foods.

• Different colors indicate different nutrients, so eating a colorful variety of veggies and fruits each day.

Eat fish and poultry instead of red meat. Fish and Poultry have far less cholesterol-increasing saturated fat than red meats like pork and beef. Also, many kinds of fish, especially salmon, trout, and herring, contain Omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids that support strengthening the heart muscle.

• Remove the trim and skin excess fat away from your fish and poultry, and grill or bake them instead of fry them.

• Focus on about 2-3 servings of lean meats (each chunk  is about the size of a deck of cards) per day.

• If you don’t eat out meat, get the protein from sources such as beans, tofu, lentils, and peas.

Choose lower-fat dairy and add more nuts to the diet. These foods contain lower levels of trans fats and saturated fats, which increases cholesterol deposits in the blood vessels.

• If you eat up dairy, select options such as lower- yogurt and fat milk.

• Nuts are good sources of healthy fats. Select unsalted nuts to keep the sodium in check, though.

• Aiming for about 2-3 servings of lower-fat dairy and two servings of healthy fats per day.

Reduce or eliminate higher-calorie, higher-fat, lower-nutrient foods. Processed foods, sugary beverages, and fast food usually have tiny nutritional value, but they pack a wallop when it comes to added sugars, sodium, calories, and unhealthy fats. The fewer of these meals you eat, the better.

• Your percentage of calories coming from saturated fats must usually be no more than 5-6%, and the percentage from trans fats must be as close to zero as possible as per Heart-Healthy Foods. Talking to the doctor and nutritionist regards the particular goals.

• You might find it easy to eat healthy if you prepare the meals at home instead of eating out or grabbing meals on the go.

Managing your sodium intake to lessen your risk of higher blood pressure. Sodium makes the body retain water, which in turn raises the blood pressure. High blood pressure increases the risk of atherosclerosis (plaque building up in the arteries), which lessens the blood and oxygen supply to the heart.

• Following the doctor’s advice regards sodium intake. They might ask you to lessen the sodium intake to 1500 mg/day, or to at least lessen the regular consumption by 1000 mg/day.

• While you muste limited how much salt you add to the food, processed foods are the good source of sodium in most humans diets.

16 top foods for a healthy heart

Reduce your alcohol consumption or ignore it altogether. If you have more than 1-2 per day (as a man) and one alcoholic drink per day (as a woman), you’ll increase the risk of cardiovascular issues like high blood pressure, stroke, heart failure and arrhythmia. Excess alcohol intake could also lead to obesity, alcoholism, and other false healthy consequences.

Protein is what the body utilizes to repair and build muscles. To get lots of healthy, lean protein, eat things like lean beef, other poultry, lean pork, chicken and fish. Trying to limit the consumption of more fatty cuts of pork and beef.

• Protein is mainly found in meats, but you could also get it from nuts, eggs, tofu, beans, dairy.

• If you eat a lot of dairy, consider selecting low-fat alternatives to get all the protein and other nutrients with lesser fat.

Heart-Healthy Diet Tips - HelpGuide.org

Whole grains contain more protein and fiber than refined grains. Grains include oats, rice, wheat, quinoa, bulgur, millet, barley, cornmeal, and more. Grains could be found in foods like tortillas, breads, cereals, oatmeal, and pasta. When you buy different grain-based food stuff, try to purchase the whole grain variety whenever it’s possible.

• For example, select brown rice over the white rice. Brown rice has the whole grain kernel, so it contains much more nutrients than white rice, which has the germ and bran removed.

• When it comes to bread, loaves of multi-grain bread are a good choice as they contain a variety of healthier whole grains.