October 2024

What you eat impacts your heart health. The wrong diet can increase your risk of heart disease. A study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association found that bad diets are linked to 45% of deaths from cardiometabolic diseases, like heart disease, stroke, and type 2 diabetes.

Unfortunately, many Americans aren’t making choices that align with the American Heart Association’s (AHA) dietary guidelines for hearthealthy eating. These tips can help you make heart-healthy choices.

Focus on nutrient-dense foods.

Nutrient-dense foods are packed with the nutrients you need to maintain a healthy heart: lean protein, complex carbohydrates, and essential vitamins and minerals.

Nutrient-dense foods include fish, skinless poultry, lean meats, whole grains, fruits, vegetables, legumes, beans, nuts, and seeds. To choose nutrient-dense packaged foods, read the nutrition label. Nutrient-dense whole foods that you recognize — and can pronounce — should be listed first, indicating that they constitute the largest portion of the ingredients.

Ingredients like “white flour” or “wheat flour” (instead of “whole wheat flour”) are not whole foods. Nor are any kinds of added sweeteners, like sugar, honey, maple syrup, or high-fructose corn syrup.

Another easy way to check is to look for foods with the American Heart Association’s Heart Check certification.

Choose healthy fats.

Monounsaturated and polyunsaturated are healthy fats. They help lower your “bad” (LDL) cholesterol while increasing your “good” (HDL) cholesterol. Monounsaturated fats include olive, canola, peanut, safflower, and sesame oils. They’re also found in avocados and nut butter. Polyunsaturated fats are found in corn and sunflower oils, nuts, seeds, and cold-water fish, such as salmon.

Opt for lean proteins.

Saturated fat increases your body’s “bad” cholesterol. Saturated fats are found naturally in meat and dairy products. That’s why meat eaters should focus on lean proteins, including fish, low-fat or fat-free dairy products, skinless white meat poultry, and pork. Vegan options include beans, lentils, tofu, and other soy products. If you need a red meat fix, opt for leaner cuts, like eye of round roast and steak, sirloin tip side steak, top or bottom round roast and steak, and top sirloin steak.

Eat the rainbow of fresh produce.

Some produce packs a bigger heart-healthy punch. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) calls these “powerhouse fruits and vegetables.” For vegetables, choose chard, spinach, leaf lettuce, parsley, greens, kale, broccoli, cauliflower, brussels sprouts, carrots, red peppers, tomatoes, rutabaga, turnips, winter squash, and sweet potatoes. For fruit, choose strawberries, blackberries, oranges, and grapefruit.

Order out wisely.

Heart-healthy eating shouldn’t stop at home. For fast food chains, read the nutritional label on the menu or online. When dining out:

• Limit portion sizes (ask for half your meal packaged to go in advance or split a meal with a companion).
• Skip the bread basket and free soda refills.
• Request healthier alternatives (salad instead of fries).
• Skip deep-fried foods and opt for those that are baked, broiled, grilled, or sauteed instead.
• If you can’t skip dessert, order one to share.

Limit sugar, salt, and saturated fats.

What you don’t eat is as important as what you do eat. While we can eat these ingredients in moderation, many Americans exceed these recommendations from the AHA:

• Sugar. Added sugars should be strictly limited to no more than 6% of your daily caloric intake. For most women, this means no more than 100 calories (about 25 grams or six teaspoons) daily. For most men, this means no more than 150 calories (about 36 grams or nine teaspoons) daily.
• Sodium. Adults should aim for no more than 1,500 milligrams (mg) of sodium per day. In fact, the AHA recommends that cutting back to no more than 1,000 mg can help improve heart health and high blood pressure.
• Saturated fats. Limit saturated fat to less than 6% of total daily calories. That’s about 11 to 13 grams if you eat 2,000 calories a day.