Five Heart Healthy Foods to Start American Heart Month
Fruits, veggies, nuts, and seeds are all great heart healthy food options. Photo via iStock/Udra
Five Heart Healthy Foods to Start American Heart Month
Joan Salge Blake, BU nutrition professor and dietitian, offers tips and recipes
February is American Heart Month, as recognized by the American Heart Association. And with so many new and revised recommendations on the food pyramid emanating from Washington, D.C., BU Today asked Boston University leading dietitian Joan Salge Blake (Sargent’84, Wheelock’16), a Sargent College of Health & Rehabilitation Sciences clinical associate professor of nutrition and health sciences, to share some advice, and simple recipes, to help keep your ticker ticking strong.
“Lowering blood cholesterol levels can help lower your risk for heart disease,” says Salge Blake, who hosts the nutrition and health podcast Spot On! “There are specific foods that can help do this.”
She says foods that contain viscous, soluble fiber, found in foods such as oats, beans and specific fruits and vegetables, can help lower blood cholesterol levels. The way this works is that the fiber interferes with the reabsorption of bile acids in the intestines.
That’s important because bile acids are high in cholesterol and are released into your intestine by your gallbladder to help with the digestion of fat. The bile acids are grabbed by the fiber before they can be reabsorbed by the body. They then end up being excreted along with the fiber in your waste products.
“Your body replaces these lost bile acids by removing cholesterol from the blood to generate new bile acids in the liver,” she says. “Blood cholesterol levels are lowered as a result.”
Got that? Good! Now here are Blake’s top-five sources of soluble fiber-rich foods, along with some easy recipes to get you going:
- Beans: You should already know this, but here’s a reminder: beans are soluble fiber superstars. One cup of black beans has 4.8 grams of soluble fiber, while Navy beans have 4.4 grams and light-red kidney beans have 4 grams. Another great thing about beans is their versatility. They’re wonderful in soups, salads, and casseroles.
- Oat cereals: Start the day with oatmeal or an oat-based ready-to-eat cereal to lower your cholesterol. A bowl of oatmeal made from 3/4 cup of dry oats contains 3 grams of soluble fiber. A serving of cooked oat bran cereal (3/4 cup) has 2.2 grams, and one cup of oat flakes has around 1.5 grams.
- Veg out: Vegetables are good sources of soluble fiber. At the top of the vegetable list? Brussels sprouts, with 2 grams per 1/2 cup. The flesh of sweet potatoes is another ringer, with 1.8 grams, followed by asparagus, with 1.7 grams. If you’re still looking for a New Year’s resolution to keep, eating more veggies is a good one.
- No bad apples here: Fruits are a sweet way to get soluble fiber, and oranges are the top pick, with 1.8 grams of soluble fiber in one small orange. Apples and pears are other grab-and-go fiber-rich favorites.
- Flaxseeds: This might be the easiest way to help your heart. Flaxseeds have an impressive 1.1 grams of soluble fiber per tablespoon. Just sprinkle these seeds on your yogurt or cereal, or in your smoothie, for a high-fiber afternoon snack that will be kind to your heart. (Just remember: if you get ground flaxseed, keep it refrigerated and tightly wrapped.)
Now that you have some tips, here are some of Joan Salge Blake’s favorite and easy heart-healthy recipes: