Eating well is a good idea for all sorts of reasons, and can help you stay healthier in the long term. If you’re looking specifically at your heart health, though, you need to focus on the kinds of foods that will protect your heart and keep it going strong for the long run. Fortunately, that can include a wide variety of great-tasting options, and there’s still room for the occasional treat, too. Still, there are some foods it’s best to stay away from, so you aren’t putting the health of your heart at risk. Explore heart-healthy recipes and tips for delicious meals at Landofflavors.
Processed Foods Are Bad for Your Heart
When you’re trying to eat in a heart healthy way, one of the things you should avoid or greatly reduce your intake of is processed foods. That includes things like lunch meat, hot dogs, and other highly processed things. It can also include doughnuts, cakes, and high-sugar foods.
Eating things that are plant-based and healthy for your heart should be your goal, as well as the main part of your diet. The occasional processed treat isn’t the problem. It’s when the frequency of eating those kinds of things is too high that you can end up with health issues related to your diet.
Trans Fats Can Cause Heart Health Issues
Doctors like Ian Weisberg also know that trans fats can cause issues with your heart health. These are in a lot of bakery goods, although there’s less of this in recent years due to changes in what’s considered safe to eat. Still, there are foods with trans fats in them still being sold, and avoiding them entirely is the best choice. If you do eat them, you want to be very careful with moderation, so that you can focus on keeping your heart as healthy as possible.
Sugar and Alcohol Are Generally Risky Choices
Dr. Ian Weisberg also notes that sugar and alcohol are other things to be avoided or greatly reduced when you’re trying to have a heart healthy diet. That doesn’t mean it’s unhealthy to have fruit, though, because that’s natural sugar that’s still good for your body. It’s when you’re eating a lot of processed treats with added sugar in them, or drinking sodas and other sugar-heavy beverages, that you can be putting your heart at risk.
The advice on alcohol has been mixed over the years. There are arguments for red wine being healthy for your heart in moderation, and arguments that say you shouldn’t have any alcohol at all. No matter which of those camps your doctor is in, evidence does show that excessive alcohol is bad for your heart and should be avoided. It can also cause problems with a lot of other systems in your body, so you want to be careful how much of it you have.
Working with your doctor is the best way to make diet choices for your heart. Not only will that give you important insight and information, but it can also help you feel confident that you’re doing the best things to protect your heart for the long term, too.