A Guide: Eating Your Way to a Healthy Heart

Exercise isn’t the only thing that keeps your heart healthy, you know. Studies have shown that your diet also plays a major role in the task of keeping your ticker going throughout the duration of your life. You should, then, resolve to eat your way to a far healthier heart at all costs — doing so could just save your life one day!

Here are some of the foods and drinks you should be both embracing and avoiding when it comes to this all-important venture:

Balance out your omega-3s and omega-6s

If the balance of omega-3 and omega-6 acids is off in your blood, your risk of heart disease will increase. You must, then, find a way to balance out these two fatty acids if you’re serious about eating your way to a healthy heart.

In this instance, you’re more than likely going to want to embrace foods that are proven to increase omega-3 fats and decrease omega-6 fats, as that is the way this balance most commonly swings. By incorporating foods that work in this way into your diet, you will also be likely to lower what are known as triglycerides, meaning your arteries will be less clogged with fat going forward.

What foods should you be opting for when it comes to finding this perfect balance between your two omega acids? Salmon is always a good place to start, especially if it’s still particularly fresh — consuming two servings of this fishy dish per week could increase your omega-3 by 8-9% as well as decrease the other in turn. When it comes to finding the richest, firmest, most flavorsome, and healthiest salmon on the market, make sure to turn to Marithyme Seafood Co. — if you want the very best Wild Alaskan Sockeye Salmon, make sure to check it out!

Take more care when it comes to meal prep in order to avoid salt

The more care you take when it comes to prepping your meals, the better care you will take of your heart. This is because you will avoid all of the salt that is found in processed and ready-made meals — if there’s one thing your heart hates, its salt. This is due to the fact that sodium, salt’s major compound, forces the body to hold onto fluid and because of the speed at which it increases blood pressure.

When it comes to preparing a high calorie meal prep recipe that is both tasty and healthy, you would be remised to miss out on whipping up a cajun-spiced chicken burger. If you want to serve up some Southern hospitality at dinner time, you’re going to have to:

1.Make sure the oven is preheated to 425°F

2. Wash and dry all of your produce

3. Slice the center of each breast of chicken

4. Press each breast with 1 tsp of Cajun seasoning

5. Cover the chicken breasts with flour, baking powder, and the remaining Cajun

6. Drizzle chicken with 1 tsp of oil before baking it in the middle of the oven until it is cooked through (18-20 min)

7. As the chicken cooks away in the oven, get started on chopping up 1 1/2 tsp dill and 1 1/2 tsp parsley

8. Combine the dill and parsley with pepper and mayo (some recipes will advise salt at this point, but not this one)

9. Chop up a tomato

10. Toast your buns until they turn golden

11. Place the chicken, herbed mayo and tomato slices between the buns

Get a real taste of America’s south, and enjoy a healthy meal while you’re at it!

Get to grips with nutrition labels

If you want to get serious about cleaning up your diet in a bid to better your heart health, you’re going to need to get to grips with nutrition labels. These signs (the likes of which can be found on all food packages in some form or another) will help you to both avoid foods that are not good for your heart and pick out ones that are beneficial to you.

To decode nutrition labels and get everything you need to get out of them, you need to:

*Consider the amount that you eat alongside the recommended serving size listed
*Compare the nutrient contents of a range of different foods (5% DV is too little, 15% is too much)
*Look out from fiber, vitamin A, vitamin C, calcium, and iron above all else

Introduce nuts into your diet

If you’re not allergic to them, nuts will prove incredibly beneficial to you as you seek to better your heart health — walnuts, almonds, peanuts, no matter which particular nut takes your fancy, they’ll all help. This is because this type of foodstuff is full of ‘good’ fats, these beings ones that are wholly unsaturated and proven to lower cholesterol. When you come to packing your lunch for work, then, make sure to put that bag of chips down and get yourself some nuts instead.

Consume more whole grain

At breakfast time, especially, you’re going to want to consume more whole grain. Filling your bowl with bran flakes or oatmeal and having a slice of whole-wheat bread on the side will see you enjoy a healthy dose of dietary fiber, something you need to improve your blood cholesterol level. As a result, your chances of heart disease will diminish thanks mainly to the fact that you will be able to fend off weight gain far easier.

When it comes to having a healthy heart, healthy eating is just as important as exercising regularly. You must take the above advice, then, and get started right away on the task of cleaning up your diet. You must balance out your fatty acids, avoid salt by taking care when it comes to meal prep, garner a better understanding of nutrition labels and what it is you are eating, eat more nuts, and consume more whole grain. Do all of this, and you will find yourself well on your way to eating your way to a healthy heart.