By Kim McClintic, MS, RD, LDN, OSF St. Joseph Medical Center
Heart disease is the leading cause of death in the United States. Each year, one in every four deaths are the result of heart disease, which translates into 610,000 people.
Also called coronary artery disease, heart disease involves damage to the heart arteries due to a buildup of plaque. Things like smoking or high cholesterol levels can damage the arteries.
While you cannot control some risk factors of heart disease, such as age and family history, there are many things you can control to reduce your risk, and one of the most controllable is changing the way you eat. A healthy diet is one of the best weapons you can equip yourself with in battling heart disease. It is all about the food you eat — and the amount of right foods — that can then impact some of those other risks, such as high cholesterol and high blood pressure. Diets high in saturated fats and trans fat have been linked to heart disease. Also, too much sodium in the diet can raise blood pressure levels.
Making the right choices
The American Heart Association advises choosing nutrient-rich foods — which have vitamins, minerals, fiber, and other disease-fighting nutrients — over nutrient-poor foods. Your diet should emphasize the following:
- Vegetables and fruits
- Whole grains
- Low-fat dairy products
- Fish and poultry
- Beans and legumes
- Heart-healthy, mono-unsaturated oils, such as olive oil, canola, or peanut
- Nuts and seeds
- Limited sweets, sugar-sweetened beverages, and foods with added sugar
- Less-processed foods and foods containing trans fat
Fattier fish, such as tuna, salmon, mackerel, herring, sardines, and lake trout are rich in omega-3 fats, which helps in preventing the stickiness of LDL (low-density lipoprotein, or “the bad” cholesterol) from building up as plaque in the arteries. Other omega-3 rich foods include flax, chia seeds, and walnuts. Because it’s such a fabulous fat, we are also seeing many manufacturers fortifying products with omega-3 fats, such as margarine, and putting ground flax seed in certain cereals and pastas.
Beans and legumes are a great plant-based protein source and do not contain fat. They are rich in heart-healthy soluble fiber. They really are nature’s almost perfect food, and are very economical. If using canned beans, look for no-salt added or rinse and drain them, which reduces the sodium by almost half. Beans are also easy to use in or add to recipes. You can also make dips, such as hummus, which is pureed chickpeas.
It is also recommended to make the switch to more whole grains and limit the white stuff — the refined carbohydrates. If you are looking at a food label for bread, crackers, cereal, pasta, rice etc., the number for dietary fiber should be greater than or equal to three grams per serving to ensure you are getting the whole grain: the bran, the germ, and the endosperm.
Of course, fiber also plays a key role in heart-healthy eating. You want to pick foods that are rich in soluble fiber, which can be found in oats, oatmeal, rye, barley, beans, and legumes. Soluble fiber helps to bind fat in the gut so it does not go out into the blood as sticky LDL cholesterol or triglycerides.
See your doctor and get moving
Most importantly, people should go for their annual exams. Build that relationship with your doctor and make them aware of your family history.
The American Heart Association states that 70 percent of Americans are overweight or battling obesity. Wherever your weight is at, if you were to drop 10 percent, it would be considered medically significant, meaning it would show up by reducing your cholesterol and blood pressure. This can be achieved by tweaking your plate a bit — have a second helping of vegetables instead of meat or add fruit to your snack.
Increase activity. It is recommended you engage in 150 minutes of moderately intense exercise per week or 75 minutes of vigorous activity.
Get your heart pumping by walking, swimming, jogging, biking, dancing, or doing a cardio-based DVD at home.
Here is a recipe to help add more beans or legumes into your heart-healthy diet:
Roasted Red Pepper Hummus
2 cans (15 oz) garbanzo beans or chickpeas, rinsed and drained
1 jar (12 oz) roasted red peppers, lightly drained
2 Tbsp olive oil
1 Tbsp minced garlic
2 tsp ground cumin
¼ tsp cayenne pepper
Place all ingredients in a food processor; process until smooth. Chill or serve immediately.
Yield: 8 servings.
Nutrient Analysis (approximately ¼ cup): calories 83, fat 3 grams, carbohydrate 11 grams, fiber 3 grams, protein 4 grams, cholesterol 0 milligrams, sodium 182 milligrams.
Kim McClintic, MS, RD, LDN is a registered dietitian with the Center for Healthy Lifestyles at OSF Saint Joseph’s Medical Center in Bloomington. To sign up and learn more about the programs and classes they offer, call 309-661-5151. Visit osfhealthcare.org for more information on heart disease and controlling the risks. To take a heart disease risk assessment, visit www.osfhealthcare.org/flags/.