Heart Healthy Diet

Many people today are concerned with eating a heart healthy diet. This is certainly understandable. The media is full of warnings about the typical American diet and how it can harm our hearts and our health.

A heart healthy diet is one that helps you maintain the “numbers” studies have shown decrease a risk of heart attack. Here are the important numbers you need to know for heart health.

Total cholesterol is made up of both HDL (high-density lipoproteins) and LDL (low density lipoproteins). You may have heard that there are two types of cholesterol. Good cholesterol and bad cholesterol. Your total cholesterol number is made up of these two types of cholesterol.

• The “good” cholesterol – HDL – should be a number above 35. Anything below 35 for an HDL number is considered a risk factor for heart disease.
• Ideally, LDL should be less than 130. Higher numbers are considered to increase the risk for heart disease.
• Total cholesterol should be lower than 200.

Cholesterol is not all bad. Your brain needs cholesterol to function, as do many of your other body functions. The goal of a heart healthy diet isn’t to completely eliminate cholesterol, it is to manage the numbers appropriately. Diet plays a role in this, as do genetics.

Your body mass index is a way to tell whether or not you carry too much body fat. High amounts of body fat place a strain on the heart, and can increase the risk of heart disease, congestive heart failure and heart attack. A diet that is healthy for your heart allows you to manage your BMI so that it stays in a healthy range of 18.6 to 24.9.

This is another number that plays an important role in heart health. High blood pressure indicates that your heart is working too hard. A normal blood pressure is 120/80 or less. Your diet plays a role in maintaining this important number by keeping your weight in control and limiting sodium in your diet.

Triglycerides are often overlooked in heart health, but they play an important role. Triglycerides are the chemical form in which fat exists in the body. Triglycerides make up a sticky form of fat that sticks to artery walls and can cause hardening and narrowing. A healthy triglyceride number for your body is 150 mg/dL or lower. A diet that manages triglycerides is one that is low in sugar and simple carbohydrates.

With all of those numbers to remember and manage, it may seem as if eating a diet that sustains your heart health would be a difficult thing to do; and given today’s fast, fat, processed food environment, it certainly can be. Eating a diet that is truly healthy for your heart means stepping aside from all of these convenience foods and returning to our roots.

Human beings evolved as hunter-gatherers. It was only later in our evolution that we became agrarian societies that grew around the cultivation of grains. Salt and spices were not yet in use. Before we began milling flours, processing sugars, preserving our foods with salt and more, we ate the little bit of meat we could hunt and catch, and supplemented that with what we could gather – vegetables, fruits and, to some extent, nuts, eggs and dairy.

There is a great deal of evidence to suggest that the way we ate as hunter-gatherers is the healthiest way to eat today. What does that look like? A diet containing mostly fruits and vegetables with some whole, unprocessed grains tossed in and a little bit of lean meat or seafood here and there. Low fat dairy can also be part of a diet that is healthy for your heart, along with small amounts of unsalted nuts and seeds.

Does this mean you can never eat cake, bread or pizza again? These foods can be a part of a diet that is healthy for your heart, as long as they are consumed occasionally and in moderation. The trick to keeping your heart healthy is to eat a balanced diet of the foods that sustain your weight and numbers, while allowing just enough of the unhealthy foods you love to not make you fall off the wagon completely and into a sugary, fatty hole of despair.

There is a lot of great information that gives specifics on eating a healthy and balanced diet. Here are just a few resources:

• Healthy Eating Guidelines
• Healthy Eating Tips
• Healthy Meal Plans
• Diet Guidelines for a Healthy Lifestyle

• What Can I Eat On a Detox Diet
• Top Ten Worst Foods
• Fruits and Vegetables that Lower Blood Pressure
• Fast Food Statistics
• Healthy Food Myths Quiz

• The Lemonade Diet
• Weight Watchers Points Calculators
• 1200 Calorie Menus
• Weight Watchers Points
• Weight Watchers Restaurant Points

• American Heart Association Diet
• Eating a Healthy Diet: Protein
• Free American Heart Association Diet
• Heart Patient Diet
• Diet for Overweight Heart Patients