Think about your heart is like a motor: You sustain it the wrong fuel, and in the long run it will turn on you. A heart-sound eating regimen is the right fuel for cardiovascular wellbeing.
Your heart needs, and deserves, special treatment — and that means eating a heart-healthy diet.
In fact, nutrition plays such a huge role in cardiovascular health that people who are at risk for heart disease should “try diet changes first, before medications,” says Lisa R. Young, PhD, RD, a dietitian and adjunct professor in the department of nutrition, food studies, and public health at New York University.
Heart-Healthy Diet: The Link to Cardiovascular Health
It’s actually quite simple. What you eat affects your heart. When your body digests what you eat, it takes what it needs, and tries to get rid of what it doesn’t. If you eat too much of what your body doesn’t need, it stays in your body, travels through the blood, and starts clogging up blood vessels.
What clogs your blood vessels is called plaque, a gooey substance that will stick to your artery walls. As this plaque — made up of cholesterol and other wastes — sticks to the artery walls, it makes the artery smaller, slowing the flow of blood, which carries oxygen, into the heart, brain, and other vital organs.
Arteries that are clogged by plaque tend to develop blood clots. A clot in an artery leading to your heart can cause a heart attack; if the clot blocks an artery leading to your brain, it can cause a stroke. So, to avoid this situation, you need to eat a heart-healthy diet of foods that are low in the type of cholesterol that contributes to this plaque formation in your body.
Heart-Healthy Diet: Types of Cholesterol
LDL cholesterol is also known as the "bad" cholesterol and is one of the main cholesterol culprits in plaque formation. Besides LDL cholesterol, there is also HDL cholesterol. The polar opposite of LDL, HDL cholesterol helps eliminate the plaque and allows the blood to flow. “HDL cholesterol seems to clear out the arteries,” Young says.
The heart-healthy diet goal: Construct a diet that contributes to lower LDL cholesterol and higher HDL cholesterol by minimizing saturated and trans fats while including the healthy unsaturated kinds of fat. The Mediterranean diet does all of this.
Heart-Healthy Diet: Go Mediterranean
A heart-healthy diet like the Mediterranean diet improves your cardiovascular health in many ways, from helping keep you trim, thereby reducing strain on your heart and arteries, to keeping cholesterol down and preventing it from blocking those arteries.
“The Mediterranean diet is good for your lipid profile,” says Young. Your lipid profile, determined with a blood test at your doctor’s office, compares your total cholesterol with the levels of HDL and LDL cholesterol and triglycerides, another type of fat.
The Mediterranean diet focuses on “quality” fats, like olive oil, fatty fish, and nuts. Foods high in saturated fat, like red meat, on the other hand, are rarely consumed. “Focus on lean animal proteins, and heavy plant-based proteins like beans and legumes,” Young says.
Heart-Healthy Diet: Weight Loss and Heart Disease
The quality of your diet also affects weight gain or loss, and your weight in turn affects your risk for heart disease in several ways:
People who are overweight tend to have higher levels of LDL cholesterol and triglycerides.
Being overweight is associated with elevated blood pressure. High blood pressure puts strain on the heart and increases your risk for chest pains, heart attack, and congestive heart failure.
Two out of three people with type 2 diabetes die of either heart disease or stroke, and weight gain puts you at higher risk for type 2 diabetes.
The bottom line: Eat a heart-healthy diet and keep your heart going strong.
Your heart needs, and deserves, special treatment — and that means eating a heart-healthy diet.
In fact, nutrition plays such a huge role in cardiovascular health that people who are at risk for heart disease should “try diet changes first, before medications,” says Lisa R. Young, PhD, RD, a dietitian and adjunct professor in the department of nutrition, food studies, and public health at New York University.
Heart-Healthy Diet: The Link to Cardiovascular Health
It’s actually quite simple. What you eat affects your heart. When your body digests what you eat, it takes what it needs, and tries to get rid of what it doesn’t. If you eat too much of what your body doesn’t need, it stays in your body, travels through the blood, and starts clogging up blood vessels.
What clogs your blood vessels is called plaque, a gooey substance that will stick to your artery walls. As this plaque — made up of cholesterol and other wastes — sticks to the artery walls, it makes the artery smaller, slowing the flow of blood, which carries oxygen, into the heart, brain, and other vital organs.
Arteries that are clogged by plaque tend to develop blood clots. A clot in an artery leading to your heart can cause a heart attack; if the clot blocks an artery leading to your brain, it can cause a stroke. So, to avoid this situation, you need to eat a heart-healthy diet of foods that are low in the type of cholesterol that contributes to this plaque formation in your body.
Heart-Healthy Diet: Types of Cholesterol
LDL cholesterol is also known as the "bad" cholesterol and is one of the main cholesterol culprits in plaque formation. Besides LDL cholesterol, there is also HDL cholesterol. The polar opposite of LDL, HDL cholesterol helps eliminate the plaque and allows the blood to flow. “HDL cholesterol seems to clear out the arteries,” Young says.
The heart-healthy diet goal: Construct a diet that contributes to lower LDL cholesterol and higher HDL cholesterol by minimizing saturated and trans fats while including the healthy unsaturated kinds of fat. The Mediterranean diet does all of this.
Heart-Healthy Diet: Go Mediterranean
A heart-healthy diet like the Mediterranean diet improves your cardiovascular health in many ways, from helping keep you trim, thereby reducing strain on your heart and arteries, to keeping cholesterol down and preventing it from blocking those arteries.
“The Mediterranean diet is good for your lipid profile,” says Young. Your lipid profile, determined with a blood test at your doctor’s office, compares your total cholesterol with the levels of HDL and LDL cholesterol and triglycerides, another type of fat.
The Mediterranean diet focuses on “quality” fats, like olive oil, fatty fish, and nuts. Foods high in saturated fat, like red meat, on the other hand, are rarely consumed. “Focus on lean animal proteins, and heavy plant-based proteins like beans and legumes,” Young says.
Heart-Healthy Diet: Weight Loss and Heart Disease
The quality of your diet also affects weight gain or loss, and your weight in turn affects your risk for heart disease in several ways:
People who are overweight tend to have higher levels of LDL cholesterol and triglycerides.
Being overweight is associated with elevated blood pressure. High blood pressure puts strain on the heart and increases your risk for chest pains, heart attack, and congestive heart failure.
Two out of three people with type 2 diabetes die of either heart disease or stroke, and weight gain puts you at higher risk for type 2 diabetes.
The bottom line: Eat a heart-healthy diet and keep your heart going strong.
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