The heart is like a finely tuned machine in the human body and one you must fuel it with the right kind of cardiac-healthy foods to keep it functioning in its best form. Heart disease is a silent killer and the leading cause of fatalities globally. To optimize heart health, you need to adopt a disciplined lifestyle, like being involved in regular exercise and not smoking, but of all these, a healthier diet is one of the best ways to safeguard this vital muscular organ. Inflammation, uncontrolled blood pressure, high cholesterol, and other risk factors of heart disease are often triggered by what you eat. A diet packed with fibre, healthy fats, and antioxidants has proven to uplift the cardiac function. In contrast, a high intake of sugary foods, processed meats, and junk foods is linked with an increased risk for cardiovascular diseases.
Several diets claim to support the wellbeing of the heart; however, it’s essential to choose one that is backed by science and easy to sustain. Read through this article to learn about the best diet plans for better heart functioning and health.
The Mediterranean Diet
The Mediterranean diet emphasizes whole foods, including whole grains, nuts, seeds, fruits, vegetables, legumes, fish, and virgin olive oil. It allows the addition of moderate quantities of poultry, eggs, low-fat dairy, and red wine. It refrains from adding sugar, refined carbs, highly processed foods and snacks, and red and processed meats. The diet is based on the traditional eating habits of people in Greece and Italy.
Several studies claim that the Mediterranean diet is associated with a lower risk of heart disease and risk factors like dyslipidemia, obesity, type 2 diabetes, and high blood pressure. It also reduced cardiovascular disease and mortality risk by 40%. The benefits of this diet are primarily due to its importance of having whole grains, minimally processed plant foods, and healthy fats. These foods are credited with possessing potent antioxidant and anti-inflammatory traits that reduce inflammation, combat oxidative stress, and boost heart health.
Also Read: Why The Mediterranean Diet Is Perfect For Indians Too
The DASH Diet
The DASH diet means Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension, which was formulated to help prevent and treat high blood pressure, reducing the risk of heart disease. This diet suggests including food groups based on calorie needs and pays attention to whole grains, fruits, vegetables, low-fat dairy, and lean meats. At the same time, it restricts red meat, refined grains, and added sugars. Furthermore, the DASH diet limits sodium intake to 2300mg (1 teaspoon) daily and a lower salt pattern limit to 1500 mg (3.4 teaspoons) daily. Reducing sodium intake has significantly controlled blood pressure when combined with the DASH diet for people with hypertension. As the diet emphasizes eating fibre-rich foods and avoiding sugars and saturated fat, it may positively impact heart health.
Also Read: DASH Diet To Control Hypertension
Vegan and Vegetarian Diets
Vegan and vegetarian diets are eating patterns that eliminate all meat, including poultry, red meat, and fish. However, a few vegetarians have animal products like eggs, dairy, and dairy products. However, vegans completely avoid animal-derived products such as dairy, eggs, bee pollen, honey, and gelatin. The diet mainly focuses on adding fruits, vegetables, beans, lentils, soy products, whole grains, nuts, seeds, plant-based oils, and healthy fats.
Plant-based diets have numerous health-benefiting properties and potent antioxidant and anti-inflammatory effects, which remarkably reduce high cholesterol and blood pressure levels, manage weight and diabetes, and optimise cardiac wellness.
Also Read: World Vegetarian Day 2020: 5 Fantastic Health Benefits Of Following A Plant-based Diet
The Flexitarian Diet
The Flexitarian Diet is an eating pattern that focuses on plant foods and permits moderate amounts of lean meat, fish, dairy, and other animal products. It usually promotes getting most of the protein from plant sources. There is no set rule on how much or how often one should have animal products; it mostly depends on preferences. Compared with a strict vegan diet, the Flexitarian Diet may be more practical for people who want the health benefits of a plant-based diet without limiting meat and other animal products.
Low Carb Diets
Low-carb diets limit carb intake and are high in protein and healthy fats. This diet avoids bread, grains, pasta, potatoes, sugary snacks, and beverages. About 10-40% of calories are allowed from carbs per day. Research reveals that a low-carb diet may augment heart health by lowering heart disease risk factors, including overweight, high triglycerides, and blood pressure levels, while increasing good cholesterol (HDL).
The quality of a low-carb diet should be maintained, and it should contain enough dietary fibre from plant foods like vegetables and stresses on adding healthy fats like avocados, nuts, seeds, minimally processed plant oils and fish rich in omega 3 fatty acids. Some studies disclose that a low-carb diet is not heart-healthy.
Conclusion
Several diet patterns are beneficial in enhancing heart health. However, all these dietary patterns emphasized adding whole, minimally processed foods and limiting processed refined, sugary, and saturated fat intake. Together with a healthy diet, it is also essential to exercise regularly, refrain from smoking, and manage stress to optimize cardiac health.
