February is National Heart Health month! In this blog post series, Alex Cisneros, current Southern Flow Yoga Instructor and dietetic student at University of Houston, will cover the different ways nutrition correlates to your heart health! Understanding how nutrition contributes to your heart health means understanding your heart’s functions and some simple anatomy. The cardiovascular system does a phenomenal job at keeping your heart beating and blood flowing through your body. It consists of the heart itself and the closed system of the arteries, veins and capillaries. The following are the variety of functions the cardiovascular system performs:
– Muscle that supplies blood.
-Supplies oxygen and nutrients to the tissues
-Removes Carbon Dioxide and other waste.
-Transport of nutrients, oxygen, and hormones to cells throughout the body.
When there is abnormal activity in the cardiovascular system such as build up plaque in your arteries (arteriosclerosis), increased blood pressure inside the arterial walls (hypertension) or high risk of myocardial infarction (heart attack) from excessive plaque in the arteries that supply direct blood flow to the heart (coronary heart disease), lifestyle regimens are put in place from health care providers, including nutrition recommendations. This blog post covers specifically nutrition for heart disease prevention. As always, please speak to your health care provider for any advice and questions you have regarding a medical condition.
Whole Grains
Whole grains are a heart healthy group of food to include in your lifestyle. Example of whole grains are the following:
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Oats
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Whole grain or 100% wheat bread
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Brown rice
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Quinoa
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Wild rice
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Buckwheat
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Whole wheat flour
The difference between a whole grain and a white grain is that whole grains includes the bran, endosperm and germ from the grain that has fiber and vitamin B nutrients. Moreover, including whole grains in your eating lifestyle increases your fiber intake which helps lower LDL cholesterol levels. LDL cholesterol is known as the type of cholesterol that produces negative effects when there is excess in the cardiovascular system, such as atherosclerosis (built up plaque inside the arterial walls).
Antioxidants
Antioxidants are molecules that are supportive for heart disease prevention because they fight another molecule called free radicals that are harmful when excess in the body and help lower LDL cholesterol by decreasing the chemical reaction of LDL to produce further damage. These free radicals can be caused by air pollution, high blood sugar levels, cigarette smoke, toxins and alcohol intake.
Studies have shown eating foods high in antioxidants have lowered the risk of developing heart disease versus taking supplements of antioxidant rich vitamins such as Vitamin E and C. Foods that are high in antioxidants can be considered the following:
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Leafy green vegetables
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Carrots
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Bell peppers
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Berries
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Grapes
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Nuts
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Legumes
How can I incorporate these two food groups into my eating lifestyle?
Lastly, an important aspect of heart health is figuring out a way to include preventive regimens into an individuals lifestyle. Nutrition is not one size fits all, everyone will have their individualistic way of eating catered towards external aspects of their lifestyle such as work schedule, financials, health condition and loved ones. Below are three examples of how a person can include whole grains and antioxidants into their eating lifestyle.
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Try switching to whole grain or whole wheat for breads. By looking at the back of the products and reading the ingredients, one can ensure that the product has whole wheat flour as the first ingredient.
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Eating antioxidant rich foods for snacks throughout the day! Rather you are pairing some berries with yogurt, dipping some baby bell peppers in a dip or snacking on some grapes, there are plenty of ways to include antioxidant rich foods into some tasty snacks.
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Planning a heart healthy meal. Based on the information stated above, a general way to create a heart healthy meal could be by using a whole grain choice and antioxidant rich food as a side. Moreover, legumes could also be a protein source used in soups or any other dishes.
We will continue nutrition and heart disease prevention in part two of this blog post series. We will discuss protein choices that support heart health and external lifestyle factors that contribute to heart disease prevention. Stay healthy!
Resources:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4315737/
Nutrition Therapy and Pathophysiology; Nelms, Sucher & Long
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