Heart Health Nutrition & Cardiovascular Disease
Please talk to your GP before starting a new nutritional diet or exercise regime.
Some suggestions on how to get started:
- Increase your daily intake of fruit and vegetables to 7 or more portions per day. Include a range of different colours from green (kiwi, spinach, broccoli), red (red pepper, tomatoes, plums), yellow (squash, banana, sweetcorn), orange (sweet potatoes, oranges, orange peppers)
- Get more fiber everyday – you can do this by including wholegrain foods such as brown rice, wholewheat pasta, brown bread, quinoa, legumes and beans.
- Reduce your intake of processed meat to 1 portion a week, limit your intake of packaged food items such as biscuits, cakes and those “healthy” looking health bars.
- Drink alcohol within the recommended guidelines and have two free alcohol days per week. For cardioprotective benefits, swap a small glass of white wine for red wine.
- Avoid sitting for longer than 30 to 60 minutes at one time, just getting up for a few minutes’ walk will help to reduce your risk of a number of chronic health conditions. In addition, aim for 30 minutes of moderate* aerobic intensity exercise 5 times per week or a minimum of 20 minutes per week of vigorous** intensity exercise 3 or more times a week.
*Moderate intensity exercise is body movement that will raise your heart and make you breath faster. A good indication that you are exercising at this intensity is that you can still talk but not sing.
**Vigorous intensity exercise makes you breath hard and fast and you are unable to say more than a few words.
The Key Points
- Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death in the western countries and accounts for almost 30% of all deaths worldwide1.
- Dietary patterns that include high intakes of processed food that contain high sodium, saturated fat and added sugars along-side a diet low in fruit and vegetables, whole grains, fibre, legumes, fish and nuts are associated with developing cardiovascular disease.
- Eating more plant foods that have a high nutritional value may lower heart disease risk according to two recent scientific papers published. A diet that is plant-centered and few animal products were 52% less likely to develop cardiovascular disease2,3. This diet doesn’t necessarily mean you need to be vegan or vegetarian, it’s just that the main focus of the diet is around plant foods that are not highly processed. You can include animal products from time to time such as chicken, fish, eggs and low-fat dairy.
- There is a large amount of evidence to show that through nutrition4 you can manage key risk factors of cardiovascular disease, such as excess weight, high blood pressure, diabetes or high cholesterol.
- Chronic inflammation and oxidative stress both contribute to cardiovascular disease and mortality from cardiovascular disease, due to playing a key role in the plaque and rupture within the artery walls5.
- Add key anti-inflammatory foods that help to reduce inflammation:
- Tomatoes
- Green Leafy Vegetables (spinach, kale, and collards)
- Berries (blueberries, strawberries, cherries)
- Nuts (almonds, walnuts)
References:
- Benjamin, E.J., Blaha, M.J., Chiuve, S.E., Cushman, M., Das, S.R., et al. (2017). “Heart Disease and Stroke Statistics-2017 Update: A Report from the American Heart Association.” Circulation. 35:e146-e603.
- Glenn, A.J., Lo, K., Jenkins, D.J.A., Boucher, B.A., Hanley, A.J., Kendall, C.W.C., Manson, J.E., Vitolins, M.Z., Snetselaar, L.G., Liu, S., Sievenpiper, J.L. “Relationship Between a Plant-Based Dietary Portfolio and Risk of Cardiovascular Disease: Findings from the Women’s Health Initiative Prospective Cohort Study.” Journal of the American Heart Association. 10(16):e021515.
- Choi, Y., Larson, N., Steffen, L.M., Schreiner, P.J., Gallaher, D.D., Duprez, D.A., Shikany, J.M., Rana, J.S., and Jacobs Jr, D.R. “Plant-Centered Diet and Risk of Incident Cardiovascular Disease During Young to Middle Adulthood.” Journal of the American Heart Association. 10(16):e020718.
- Lacroix, S., Cantin, J., and Nigam, A. (2017). “Contemporary issues regarding nutrition in cardiovascular rehabilitation.” Annals of Physical and Rehabilitation Medicine. 60(1):36-42.
- Jolliffe, I.T., and Cadima, J. (2016). “Principal component analysis: a review and recent developments.” Philosophical Transactions Series A, Mathematical, Physical, and Engineering Sciences. 374:2015020.