Healthy Diet Plan For Healthy Heart

We all know that the heart is one of the most important organs in the body. It is up to us to ensure that we keep our heart as healthy as possible to live a longer and more fulfilling life. Luckily, taking care of your heart does not have to be hard. Dr. Varuna Rao is a wellness coach with a Ph.D. in Food Science and Nutrition. Here, she has provided a heart-healthy diet plan with important nutrition tips, that you can download and follow daily.

Apart from this wholesome diet plan, a few simple lifestyle modifications will ensure that your heart is safe from disease and functioning well.

What You Should Know:

• The Importance of Heart Fitness
• Foods for the Heart
• Heart Disease Signs You Mustn’t Ignore

The Importance of Heart Fitness

The heart is a muscle and as you know, muscles need exercise. The heart’s main function is pumping oxygenated blood throughout the body and pumping deoxygenated blood into the lungs. The stronger the heart the more effectively it pumps blood for better circulation. Any form of physical exercise whether cardio or weight training also helps to exercise the heart. As the muscles are worked out, they demand greater oxygen and nutrition supply, the heart has to pump harder to meet this demand. Regular exercise is a must for a healthy heart as it helps to strengthen the heart muscles.

Foods for the Heart

The connection between food and heart health has been known for a long time. Certain foods have been termed junk food because of the negative effect they have on the heart. Foods that are high in trans fats, sodium, and sugar are all bad for the heart. Fast foods and processed foods when consumed in large quantities can cause cholesterol plaques in the arteries. This leads to thickening of the walls of blood vessels, high blood pressure, obesity, and pre-diabetes. All these conditions weaken the heart muscles and increase the risk of heart attacks.

For a healthy heart, it is important to eat the right food at regular timings. Maintaining a routine for your meals goes a long way in helping to keep your heart in good condition. The downloadable file above has some great meal ideas for you and can be used as a guide on what to eat on a daily basis.

While planning your daily, don’t forget to include all the ingredients you will need in your weekly shopping list. At the start of the week, make a plan about which fruits and vegetables you would buy for each day to include in your meals. Make sure that you include sources of protein, complex carbohydrates (fibre), and good fats in your shopping list as well. You can shop for your ingredients daily or stock up once a week and keep them in the fridge or freezer. Planning your meals in advance is one of the best ways to ensure that you stick to eating healthy every day.

Heart Disease Signs You Mustn’t Ignore

While you do everything right to keep your heart healthy, there could be some underlying conditions that could still put you at risk of heart disease. These could include congenital problems or hereditary conditions. For this reason, it is important to never ignore any signs that you might be having a heart attack or some other form of heart disease.

Here’s what you need to look out for:

• Chest pain, tightness in the chest, or feeling pressure on the chest.
• Discomfort in the chest.
• Difficulty breathing and shortness of breath.
• Recurring numbness or weakness in your legs or arms.
• Pain in the neck, throat, jaw, back, or upper abdomen.
• Racing heartbeat.
• Slow heartbeat.
• Excessive sweating not accompanied by physical activity.
• Dizziness or light-headedness.
• Fainting or feeling like fainting.

Any of these signs could indicate either a heart attack or some other issue involving the cardiovascular system (heart valves, blood vessels, etc.). Don’t ignore these signs and get to a hospital immediately.

For more information on how to keep your heart in good health visit Activ Living and check out the Fitness and Lifestyle sections. And don’t forget to download your guide to heart-healthy meal plans right here.