The Heart Healthy Diet

The best heart healthy diet is a whole foods diet, with attention to quality fats, quality proteins and soluble fiber. Your heart needs a high quality lifestyle of good fresh food.

Here are some guidelines to help you choose the quality food you heart needs.

Guidelines to a Heart Healthy Diet

--Choose olive oil and garlic. These yummy foods from the Mediterranean help the heart. Olive oil has vitamin E and monounsaturated fat that your heart needs. Garlic helps with circulation.

--Avoid processed meats The processing combines with oxygen and heat, and it creates oxidized cholesterol which are not good for the heart and damages arteries.

--Choose grass fed meats which has more heart healthy Omega 3 fats and less saturated fats. eat smaller portions of meat.

--Reduce saturated fat. For some people this is a key to healing. Saturated fats are in full fat dairy, butter and conventional meats.

--Avoid sugar and refined carbs. These cause inflammation in the body which is a marker for heart disease. Choose whole grains with soluble fiber.

--Get your Omega 3 fats. These fats clean our the arteries. They are found in flax seeds, oily fish and chia seeds in abundance. They are also in walnuts, pumpkin seeds, dark leafy greens and soy.

--Choose dairy less often. Commercial dairy is homogenized and pasteurized, so its enzymes are gone. This makes it hard to digest. Some healers believe that the calcium from this dairy ends up as hard deposits in the arteries! Choose raw milk and raw cheeses if you can. Dairy is also high in saturated fat. Be cautious with it.

--Lower your refined salt intake. Refined salt is high in processed foods and restaurant sauces. Too much refined salt can raise blood pressure. Use unrefined sea salt in home cooking; it has a balance of minerals not just sodium.

Below is a list of foods that heart researchers recommend to heal and support your heart. You can enjoy these fresh, colorful and yummy foods whenever you desire!

the top 25 foods
for a heart healthy diet :

2. Ground Flaxseeds

3. Oatmeal

4. Black or Kidney Beans

5. Almonds

6. Walnuts

7. Red Wine or Red Grapes

8. Tuna

9. Brown Rice

10. Soy Milk

11. Blueberries

12. Carrots

13. Spinach

14. Broccoli

15. Sweet Potato

16. Red Bell Pepper

17. Asparagus

18. Oranges

19. Tomatoes

20. Tofu

21. Acorn Squash

22. Cantaloupe

23. Papaya

24. Garlic

25. Green Tea

These whole foods help the heart because they contain vitamin E, healthy fats, vitamin C, and soluble fiber. They also reduce inflammation in the body.

Soluble Fiber for a
Heart Healthy Diet

Soluble fiber is in: barley, brown rice, currants, dried beans, figs, fresh peas, oatmeal, whole wheat pasta, prunes, psyllium hulls, raisins, apples, bananas, black berries, peaches, plums, black beans, lentils, peas, brussel sprouts, carrots and chia seeds.

What About Eggs for a Heart Healthy Diet?

New research is showing that fresh eggs don't always raise blood cholesterol. You may want to try some of the new Omega-3 eggs. Omega-3 eggs come from hens that were fed flaxseed and purslane in their diet, so their eggs are high in Omega-3 fats. Free range healthy hens lay healthy eggs that contain lecithin that emulsifies fat, including cholesterol. So look for free range eggs and omega-3 eggs.

The Heart is Holistic

It's easy to focus on diet and forget that the heart is holistic. We need to listen to, commune with and follow our hearts! Keep a journal and ask your heart what it needs to open, feel safe and heal. What is your soul food?

Dr. Dean Ornish has a heart healthy program that is proven to reverse heart disease. His plan includes a low fat diet, stress reduction and support groups where people share their lives and feel safe. Remember, we need your heart in this world!

As the poets tell us, The heart holds our love, our passion, our magic.

"It is only with the heart that one sees rightly, what is essential is invisible to the eye" ---Antoine de Saint-Expery

Return from heart healthy diet to healthy-eating-guidelines

Return to Home Page

Learn about the mediterranean diet here.