Eat For Your Heart
Club Nutritionist Sarah Guilbert takes over the blog to talk about dietary changes you can make right now to improve not only your heart health, but also your overall quality of life as well. Today is Go Red for Women day to promote women’s heart health. I have the pleasure of working in the Cardiac Care Unit at the University of Rochester Medical Center, where I speak with patients about heart-healthy diet strategies after they have had a heart attack or other cardiac event. Here are the dietary strategies I share with them. Please use them to make healthy food choices to protect your heart on Go Red for Women Day and every day.
Foods That Promote Heart Health
Fruits and Vegetables: Produce has dietary fiber, which is important for lowering cholesterol levels. Those whose diets are rich in fruits and vegetables often have lower blood pressure. Try adding a cup of berries to your regular breakfast, or enjoy some raw veggies with hummus as a mid-afternoon snack. Nuts: Studies have shown that nut consumption correlates with decreased risk of cardiovascular disease. Eat walnuts, which are high in omega-3 fatty acids (more on these next), pistachios, or almonds to keep your heart strong and healthy.
Salmon and Tuna: These two fish have high levels of omega-3 fatty acids. Omega-3s are a type of essential fatty acid that have a number of health benefits, including reducing your risk of death from coronary artery disease, reducing inflammation, and potentially lowering your risk for chronic disease. Fish intake also correlates with lower risk for cardiovascular disease in general.
Diet Components to Limit for Heart Health
Total Fat: Keep your daily total fat intake within a moderate range, or within 25-35% of your daily calories. For a 1,500- calorie diet, this is approximately 40-to-60 grams of fat per day. For a 2,000-calorie diet, this is approximately 55-to-75 grams of fat per day. Bad Fats: Keep saturated fat to <7% of your daily calories. Limiting fried foods, fatty cuts of meat, and added butter will help you reach this goal. Trans fats, also called partially hydrogenated vegetable oils, should be limited to <1% of your calories, and ideally, you should consume foods with trans fats at all. Try to avoid margarine, commercial baked goods (like pies and cakes), and fried foods in order to limit your trans fats consumption. Dietary Cholesterol: Limit the amount of cholesterol you eat because high levels of cholesterol consumption correlates with higher levels of LDL cholesterol in plasma. Stick to less than 200-to-300 milligrams per day. Limit consumption of egg yolks to four per week, avoid fatty meat products, and limit shellfish consumption to better manage your cholesterol intake. Sodium: Too much dietary sodium can raise blood pressure and cause the heart to work harder. Limit your intake to <2,000 milligrams per day. 1,500 milligrams per day or less is ideal. Also, avoid these high sodium foods: canned items (especially soups and sauces), prepared foods/restaurant food, frozen dinners, snack items (chips, crackers, popcorn), condiments and sauces, deli meat (especially ham), and cheese.
Eat for Your Heart at Bon Marche
When you're at the club and looking for something heart-healthy to enjoy, try Bon Marche’s Salmon Wrap, which is made on a 100-calorie flaxseed wrap (with omega-3s!) and is filled with delicious veggies to help increase your fiber intake. The salmon wrap has a total of 337 calories, 11g fat, 27g protein, and 11g of fiber. It is also one of the lower-sodium Café options (with only 304mg sodium). Heart disease takes the lives of 1 in 3 women each year. According to the American Heart Association, studies show that healthy choices have resulted in 330 fewer women dying from heart disease per day. Make these changes to your diet, exercise regularly, and you'll place yourself on the right track to a long and healthy life. For even more ways you can protect your heart, check out these tips.
References Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics. Nutrition therapy to reduce sodium and cholesterol (n.d.). Retrieved January 25, 2013, from http://nutritioncaremanual.org/vault/editor/Docs/NutritionTherapytoReduceCholesterolSodium2.pdf
Elrich, S. University of Maryland Medical Center. Omega 3 fatty acids. (2011, May 10). Retrieved January 27, 2013, from http://www.umm.edu/altmed/articles/omega-3-000316.htm
Lichtenstein A, Appel L, Brands, M, Carnethon M, Daniels S, Franch HA, et al. Diet and lifestyle recommendations revision 2006: a scientific statement from the American Heart Association Nutrition Committee. Circulation. (2006, June). Retrieved January 27, 2013, from http://circ.ahajournals.org/content/114/1/82.full.pdf.
Want to talk about further strategies to change your diet and improve your health? Contact Sarah Guilbert at sarah.guilbert@midtown.com or 585-461-2300, ext. 295.