Heart Healthy Foods

1. Leafy Greens
   Easily found within your local grocery store’s produce section, Kale, Spinach, and Collard Greens are 3 great examples of leafy greens. If you aren’t big on greens, you can easily add these into your smoothies, salads, or cook on a stovetop and mix in with your meal to help incorporate these greens into your daily meals.
2. Whole Grains
   Often found broadcasted in bold letters on packaging, whole-grain is not available just for speciality grocery stores. You can easily find whole grains by looking for items like brown rice, popcorn, whole-wheat bread, and whole-wheat pasta.
3. Beans
   Chickpeas, Kidney Beans, Black Beans, and Pinto Beans. All listed and then some are great for your heart. Instead of cooking mashed potatoes or macaroni and cheese as your next side dish, we encourage adding in a side of beans.
4. Nuts
   Stock up on dry-roasted peanuts, almonds, macadamia nuts, and pistachios during your next run at the grocery store. Nuts offer unsaturated fats, Omega-3 Fatty Acids, Fiber, Vitamin E, Plant Sterols, and L-arginine. Next time you are in the mood for a small snack, grab a handful of nuts. Be mindful that nuts are heavy in calories, so these should only be enjoyed in moderation.
5. Dark Chocolate
   If you’re a chocoholic, the news out of England is tantalizing: middle-aged and older adults who eat up to 3.5 ounces of chocolate a day (that’s more than two standard Hershey bars) seem to have lower rates of heart disease than those who spurn chocolate.
   
   
6. Olive Oil
   Packed with antioxidants and fatty acids, Olive oil should be a staple in your kitchen. Ditch your traditional cooking oil and improve your heart health with olive oil.
   Those with a higher olive oil intake have shown a 46% lower risk of dying from heart disease.
7. Fatty Fish/Fish Oil
   Eating fish 2 times a week or taking fish oil supplements are a great way to incorporate fish into your diet. Here’s a great salmon recipe we recommend!
8. Avocados
   Packed full of powerful antioxidants, a broad spectrum of vitamins such as vitamin C, vitamin E, Vitamin K and B vitamins like B5, B6 and folic acid, anti-inflammatory and cholesterol reducing phytosterols, valuable minerals like manganese, copper, magnesium and potassium, and beneficial levels of dietary fibre — we think it’s pretty self explanatory how awesome avocados are for our bodies.
9. Garlic
   Instead of adding salt to your next meal as a seasoning, chop up some fresh garlic. It is a great seasoning, is very pleasant to smell, and is worth the change! We promise it’s worth it. At least, your heart will think so!
10. Tomatoes
    Tomatoes are filled with a powerful, natural pigment with antioxidant properties called lycopene.

We have mentioned antioxidants several times throughout this article. Antioxidants help neutralize harmful free radicals, preventing oxidative damage and inflammation, both of which can contribute to heart disease.

Studies have been shown that those who eat foods that contain high amounts of lycopene have had a significant reduce in their risk for heart disease.