Did you know that heart disease is the number one cause of death in the world? Yes, that’s right heart disease is the leading cause of death meaning that we should all take our heart health more seriously.
But, how can we protect our hearts apart from doing regular exercise and not smoking? The truth is, diet plays a huge role in heart health protection since inflammation, cholesterol levels, blood pressure, and other heart disease risk factors are all affected by what we eat. Hence, let’s have a look at the best diets for maintaining optimal heart health that is scientifically backed and easy to follow long term.
Best Diets for Heart Health Protection
- The Mediterranean Diet
Based on the traditional eating habits of those living in Southern Italy and Greece during the 1960s, the Mediterranean diet is packed with whole, minimally processed foods making it great for keeping good heart health. It is linked with reduced high cholesterol and triglyceride levels, type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, and obesity.
In brief, this diet includes whole grains, seeds, nuts, legumes, vegetables, fruits, fish, and extra virgin olive oil. It also includes decent amounts of low-fat dairy, eggs, poultry, and red wine, while eliminating the intake of sugar, processed meats and snacks, and refined carbs.
- The DASH Diet
The DASH (Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension) diet was created to aid in hypertension (high blood pressure) prevention and treatment, which in turn lowers the risk for heart disease. Namely, according to research, the DASH diet is also associated with reduced heart disease risk factors such as blood pressure, waist circumferences, cholesterol levels, insulin resistance, and obesity.
This diet focuses on whole grains, low-fat dairy, lean meats, fruits, and vegetables while limiting the intake of refined grains, added sugars, and red meat. In addition, it recommends limiting sodium intake to 1 teaspoon a day as it can significantly help in lowering blood pressure.
- Vegan and Vegetarian Diets
As you may already know, all vegan and vegetarian diets eliminate every type of meat, including red meat, poultry, and fish. Indeed, vegans avoid all animal-derived foods such as dairy, eggs, honey, and gelatin, while vegetarians still consume those.
Nevertheless, avoiding meat leads to a high proportion of plant foods like fruits, vegetables, lentils, beans, whole grains, nuts, seeds, soy products, etc., all of which are abundant in fiber, antioxidants, and anti-inflammatory compounds keeping your heart healthy. In other words, vegan and vegetarian diets help you reduce heart disease factors like high blood pressure and cholesterol levels, high blood sugar levels, and obesity.
- The TLC Diet
Last but not least, the TLC (Therapeutic Lifestyle Changes) diet was specifically designed by the NIH (National Institutes of Health) to aid lower the risk of heart disease and stroke. This diet helps in heart health protection mostly by reducing total and LDL (bad) cholesterol levels.
The TLC diet recommends getting 25-35% of your daily calories from fat and limiting saturated fat up to 7%. It also limits the intake of dietary cholesterol to up to 200 mg a day. In addition, it recommends eating 10-25 grams of soluble fiber and 2 grams of plant sterols or stanols a day. Finally, it advocates for eating enough calories a day, no more or less, to promote healthy weight as well as getting at least half an hour of moderate exercise daily.
The bottom line, research suggests that diets packed with fiber, healthy fats, and antioxidants, and low in added sugar and processed meats and foods are the best for supporting heart health