5 Health Strategies To Promote Heart Health
Heart disease is a leading cause of death for Americans so it’s important to be proactive with heart healthy diet and lifestyle choices. These 5 health strategies can promote heart health, protect your long term health, and are tips and tricks that you can start incorporating today!
*This blog post is sponsored by the Egg Nutrition Center. As always, all opinions are my own, and I only partner with brands I believe in.
Every day, it seems like we are running. We run our errands, we run for exercise, and we run our kids around town, zooming from one practice to another. In the background of all our running around, our heart is running tirelessly to keep us alive and moving.
Our hearts work hard to keep our bodies running smoothly, so they deserve our best efforts to keep them healthy too. Today, we will review 5 health strategies that you can focus on to promote heart health.
By incorporating these heart-healthy activities and following an overall balanced dietary pattern that includes foods that support heart-health, you can help strengthen your heart, reduce your risk for heart-related diseases, and adopt a lifestyle that best supports you as you run through all of the tasks that life throws your way
5 Health Strategies to Promote Heart Health
1) Eat more fiber
Eating more fiber is probably a recommendation you have heard before… and for good reason! High-fiber diets are linked to a multitude of health benefits, including heart health. Despite the well-known health benefits of a high-fiber diet, only 1 in 10 Americans is currently hitting the fiber recommendation of 27 grams of fiber for women and 38 grams of fiber for men per day.
The easiest way to increase your fiber intake is to focus on incorporating more fiber containing foods like whole grains, fruits, and vegetables. Beyond their vitamin and mineral content, whole grains deliver fiber which can help lower your cholesterol levels and keep you feeling full longer.
Including more fruits and vegetables will also increase your fiber intake while also boosting your intake of disease-fighting antioxidants, vitamins, and minerals. Whether fresh, frozen, or canned, I like to encourage people to include fruits or vegetables at every meal and snack!
Another easy way to increase your fiber intake is to use food packaging and food labels to your advantage. Look for products that feature claims like “whole grain”, “excellent source of fiber,” (providing over 20% of the daily value) or “good source of fiber” (offering over 10% of the daily value) on their packaging. You can also look at the food label and prioritize buying products that contain at least 1 gram of dietary fiber for every 10 grams of total carbohydrates. These simple strategies will help you add more fiber to your diet and get closer to your daily goals.
Try this Roasted Vegetable Grain Bowl for a boost of fiber and filling eggs!
2) Prioritize healthy fats
Fat is one of the three macronutrients that occurs in all different shapes, sizes, and chain lengths. When it comes to heart health, dietary fat falls into two primary categories, we’ll call, “healthy fats” and “unhealthy fats.”
Unhealthy fats, or saturated fats, are often found in animal-based foods and tend to be solid at room temperature. While they can be included in moderation, saturated fat has been shown in research to have the biggest impact on blood cholesterol levels so it’s good to minimize saturated fat by choosing lean cuts of meat, buying low-fat dairy products, and swapping for unsaturated fats when you can.
Healthy fats, or unsaturated fats, should be a focus area when building up a heart-healthy plate and diet. The most common food sources of unsaturated fats come from plants like oils, avocados, nuts, and seeds.
Beyond the plant-based sources, there are also many animal foods that contain healthy fats like fatty fish and eggs which contain mostly the good for you, unsaturated fat.
3) Focus on minimizing saturated fat in your diet
This may come as a surprise to you, especially if you were raised in the era of reading food labels to ensure you were buying zero-cholesterol food.
Research has shown that cholesterol in food does not negatively impact your blood cholesterol the way that we once thought it did… and therefore we should focus on minimizing our total intake of saturated fat which has been shown to have more of an impact on your blood cholesterol levels.
So what does this mean? It means that many foods that you may have thought could not fit into a heart-healthy diet because of their cholesterol content can actually come back onto your plate… like eggs!
The majority of the fat content in eggs is actually unsaturated, good for your fat. Beyond that, eggs are also a versatile source of protein, vitamins, and minerals that pair well with other heart-healthy foods and enhance a healthy dietary eating pattern. Plus, according to the American Heart Association, eggs can be included as part of a heart-healthy diet for healthy adults.
4) Reduce added sugar and sodium
It’s good to focus on including specific foods and food groups when building up a heart-healthy diet, but it’s also important to be mindful of limiting other components of your diet like added sugar and sodium. Most people consume more added sugar and sodium than they realize.
Added sugar is sugar that has been added to food with the purpose of sweetening it. Added sugar can add a significant number of calories to your diet and make it difficult to manage weight… which can be stressful on the heart.
To limit your intake of added sugar, be aware of foods like soda and pastries that are high in added sugar, check the added sugar line on your food label, and consider other ways to add a touch of sweetness to recipes through additions like fresh, mashed, or frozen fruit.
Sodium, found in table salt, is another component of the diet that Americans consume far too much of. While sodium itself is an electrolyte and some sodium is good for our health, too much sodium in your diet can also cause a host of health-related issues like high blood pressure.
To minimize your sodium intake be sure to check the sodium line on your food label, try cooking more at home (over 70% of our sodium intake comes from packaged, prepared, and restaurant foods), and use non-salt seasonings to add flavor to food like herbs, spices, garlic, and more.
5) Include regular movement and exercise in your life
While there is a lot that you can do with your diet to promote heart health, regular movement and exercise is another incredibly effective health strategy that can protect your heart and keep it strong while also benefitting the rest of your body.
Try to get active every day for at least 30 minutes, which may feel impossible to do in a world that has us sitting at desks for majority of the day. While this may sound like a lot of time and effort, it’s important to find activity types that feel doable and enjoyable to you to help you stick with it.
Any activity is better than no activity so get outside and go for a walk, pick up Zumba, start using some resistance bands, and find new ways to incorporate activity into your every-day life to promote heart health.
How to implement these heart healthy strategies
Great, you made it through the list of strategies that you can implement to promote heart health… but now what? If you are feeling overwhelmed, remember that making heart healthy adjustments does not mean that you need to spend all of your time in the gym and only make boring and bland meals.
There are many resources online, like this Heart Health Handbook from the Egg Nutrition Center, that have heart healthy tips, tricks, and recipes to help make heart-healthy living feel more doable and enjoyable.
Want some recipe ideas? Check out this tasty heart-healthy recipe idea below!
Honey Sesame Chicken Vegetable Stir Fry
Conclusion:
There you have 5 health strategies that you can start focusing on today to promote heart health. By focusing on including heart healthy foods, minimizing nutrients and ingredients that can be detrimental to heart health, and prioritizing regular exercise, you can protect your heart from disease and support an overall healthy lifestyle.
Disclaimer: please note that I am a registered dietitian but I am not YOUR registered dietitian. This information is meant to be educational and should not be used as personalized medical or nutrition advice. This blog may contain affiliate links and any purchase made through my links gives me a small commission and supports Lauren Twigge Nutrition. 
Hey! I’m Lauren
I’m a registered dietitian and my goal is to give you tips and tricks to make healthy eating fun, easy, and even delicious!