A dietitian’s guide to eating your way to a healthy heart

In recent years, a lot of attention has been paid to headlines mentioning “keto,” “fasting,” and “paleo,” while interest in “eating for a healthy heart” has dwindled.

However, the stark reality is that heart disease remains one of Australia’s most prevalent illnesses, and cricketer Shane Warne’s untimely death at age 52 due to a reported heart attack has been a powerful reminder to many of the importance of heart health.

For many of us, it’s a reminder that we can take action and make some easy but important adjustments to our diet, and reduce our risk of heart disease, now.

Mediterranean is where it is

Of all the available dietary evidence, when it comes to living a long and healthy life and, more importantly, with a healthy heart, it is the Mediterranean diet which is consistently presented as the most protective diet against heart disease. Unfortunately, eating Mediterranean is not a matter of adding extra virgin olive oil to everything we eat, nor of including a glass of two red wines with each meal.

Rather, this style of eating has a heavy focus on fresh foods, encouraging all seven to 10 daily servings of fresh fruits and vegetables along with very little processed food. This means no fast food or takeout, no processed snacks, cookies, bars or cakes. Rather, your daily vegetable intake can be supplemented with small servings of legumes, dairy and lean proteins all cooked with quality extra virgin olive oil.

Focus on fresh foods, including seven to 10 daily servings of fresh fruits and vegetables, along with very few processed foods.

Get your fat balance right

When we talk about heart health, good fats and omega-3 fats in particular are often mentioned. What is less often discussed is the importance of getting the right mix of dietary fats – the balance of fats that naturally work to reduce inflammation in the body.

Diets that have a high proportion of processed foods also have a high proportion of fats that are pro-inflammatory, largely resulting from dietary vegetable oil. On the other hand, a Mediterranean diet, in which the main sources of fat come from natural whole foods such as walnut seeds and extra virgin olive oil together with a high contribution of omega-3 fats from oily fish It helps protect the heart from damage and reduces the risk of developing heart disease.

Getting the right balance of fats is as simple as including oily fish as Atlantic salmon and sardines in your diet at least three or four times a week; using only extra virgin olive oil as added fat, chopping a handful of walnuts every day and avoid processed vegetables and palm oil in processed foods as much as possible.

Check the fiber box

We often hear about the importance of dietary fiber for digestive health, but dietary fiber and soluble fiber, in particular, play an especially important role in helping regulate blood cholesterol levels. Soluble fiber can be found in legumes, oats, vegetables and fruitsTy helps reduce the absorption of cholesterol into the blood vapor, which helps lower LDL or “bad” cholesterol levels in the body.

Less than half of all Australians get the recommended daily intake of 30 grams of dietary fiber, which will help achieve the 5-10 grams of soluble fiber that improve LDL levels. Alternatively, focus on a daily serving of oatmeal, legumes, and fruit such as apples and pears will help you reach those daily soluble fiber goals.

control your weight

As an independent risk factor for heart disease, if you are overweight or obese, even losing just 5-10 percent of your body weight, or as little as 5-10 kilograms, will help reduce inflammation and heart disease risk But the key is to lose weight safely and sustainably.

Liquid diets and extremely low-calorie, restrictive fasting regimens can lead to relatively quick results on the scale, but are also likely to result in a significant amount of muscle loss. Since the heart is a muscle, wasting body tissue through starvation is not an ideal way to lose weight. Rather, more moderate regimens that reduce total kilojoules and specifically refined carbohydrates and result in losses of one-half to one kilogram per week are a much safer weight-loss option.

In general, once you add seven to 10 servings of vegetables to your daily diet, with two or three cups of vegetables or salad At both lunch and dinner, you’ll also notice safe and sustainable weight loss simply because you’ll consume fewer calories overall. Or, if you’re looking for faster results, consult a dietitian to guide you through a formulated meal replacement program where you can lose weight at a faster rate, but without compromising your muscle mass to do so.

Foods to eat more

– Fresh fruits and vegetables, especially those rich in fiber such as apples and pears.

– Legumes (such as chickpeas, lentils and soybeans)

– Oily fish such as sardines and Atlantic salmon

– Extra virgin olive oil of good quality.

– Oatmeal

– Nuts (limit to a handful per day)

Foods to eat less

– Processed foods

– Cookies

– Cakes

– Foods containing palm oil

Susie Burrell is a registered dietitian and nutritionist with a master’s degree in coaching psychology.

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