In addition to regular exercise and not smoking, diet is one of the best ways to protect your heart. That’s because inflammation, blood pressure, cholesterol, and other heart disease risk factors can be impacted by what you eat.
In particular, diets high in fiber, healthy fats, and antioxidants have been shown to help support heart health — whereas high intakes of added sugar and processed meats are associated with an increased risk of heart disease.
While many diets claim to support heart health, it’s important to choose one that’s backed by scientific evidence and easy to maintain long term.
Here are the 5 best diets for heart health.
The Mediterranean diet is based on the traditional eating patterns of people living in Greece and Southern Italy during the 1960s.
In general, the diet emphasizes whole, minimally processed foods, including whole grains, nuts, seeds, fruits, vegetables, legumes, fish, and extra virgin olive oil. It also includes moderate amounts of poultry, eggs, low fat dairy, and red wine.
Additionally, it limits or eliminates added sugars, refined carbs, highly processed snacks, and red and processed meats.
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For example, extra virgin olive oil is rich in monounsaturated fats and compounds with potent antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties.
Other factors like engaging in exercise and consuming fewer added sugars may also contribute to the diet’s beneficial effects.
DASH stands for Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension and was designed to help prevent and treat hypertension, or high blood pressure. In turn, it reduces your risk of heart disease.
Like the Mediterranean diet, the DASH diet doesn’t mandate a strict food list.
Instead, it recommends specific amounts of food groups based on your calorie needs, focusing on whole grains, fruits, vegetables, low fat dairy, and lean meats while limiting red meat, refined grains, and added sugars.
Moreover, it recommends that you limit your sodium intake to 1 teaspoon (2,300 mg) per day — and a lower salt version encourages no more than 3/4 teaspoon (1,500 mg) per day.
For individuals with high blood pressure,
However, research suggests that this effect is less significant among people with normal blood pressure levels.
The diet’s emphasis on high fiber foods, such as whole grains and vegetables, and elimination of added sugars and saturated fats may also contribute to its heart-health effects.
Vegan and vegetarian diets are eating patterns that eliminate all meat, including poultry, red meat, and fish.
While some vegetarians include other sources of animal products, such as eggs and dairy, vegans strictly avoid all animal-derived ingredients, including dairy, eggs, bee pollen, honey, and gelatin.
Instead, these diets emphasize fruits, vegetables, beans, lentils, soy products, whole grains, nuts, seeds, and plant-based oils and fats.
This high proportion of plant foods gives vegan and vegetarian diets several health benefits. For example, these diets are often high in fiber, antioxidants, and anti-inflammatory compounds, all of which aid heart health.
Of course, diet quality remains important. Vegan or vegetarian diets that are high in added sugars, refined grains, and heavily processed foods don’t offer the same heart health benefits as those high in whole, minimally processed plant foods.
Created by dietitian Dawn Jackson Blatner, the Flexitarian Diet is an eating pattern that focuses on plant foods but allows moderate amounts of meat, fish, dairy, and other animal products. It encourages you to get most of your protein from plant foods.
There’s no set rule on how much or how often you should eat animal products, so it depends on your preferences.
You’re encouraged to eat mostly whole, minimally processed foods and limit or avoid added sugars, refined grains, processed meats, and other highly processed foods.
While the variation allowed on this diet makes it hard to study, observational studies link a higher adherence to plant-based diets to a lower risk of heart disease.
Plus, fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and legumes — which the diet encourages — have been tied to improvements in heart disease risk factors.
Compared with a strict vegan or vegetarian diet, the Flexitarian Diet may be a more realistic option for those who want the heart benefits of a plant-based diet without having to give up meat and other animal products.
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It includes dietary and lifestyle recommendations to promote optimal cholesterol levels and a healthy weight, such as:
- less than 7% of your daily calories from saturated fat
- less than 200 milligrams (mg) a day of cholesterol
- less than 2,300 mg of
sodium daily - 25–35% of daily calories from total fat (includes saturated fat calories)
- 2 grams (g) per day of plant stanols or sterols
- 10–25 g per day of soluble fiber
- only enough calories to reach or maintain a moderate weight
The diet is thought to work by upping your intake of soluble fiber, which is found in foods like oat bran, nuts, seeds, beans, lentils, and several fruits and vegetables.
The TLC diet also recommends a daily intake of plant stanols or sterols, which are naturally occurring compounds in foods like fruits, vegetables, whole grains, legumes, nuts, and seeds.
A final strength of the TLC diet is its recommendation to get at least 30 minutes of moderate exercise per day.
Several diets have been shown to boost heart health.
Despite their differences, these eating patterns all emphasize whole, minimally processed foods and restrict processed ones, especially those high in added sugar and saturated fat.
Of course, diet is just one piece of the equation.
To support your heart health, it’s also important to exercise regularly, refrain from smoking, and find ways to reduce your stress levels.