Cardio and heart health is obviously a very important aspect of wellness. Without your heart beating and pumping blood around your body, nothing else happens – there is no life. It stands to reason, then, that the wellbeing of your heart should be of utmost importance.
One of the main ways that you can look after your heart is in feeding your body a ‘heart healthy diet. There are several kinds of heart healthy diets that you can try, but the general theme is to eat healthy, fresh food that you prepare from scratch.
The DASH diet is the most popular heart-health diet and has been proved to be nutritionally sound. It cuts back on high calorie foods and limits salt whilst at the same time increasing the amount of fruit, vegetables, lean proteins and whole grains in the diet.
DASH stands for Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension, and was specifically designed to help lower blood pressure.
The TLC diet is also a highly rated heart-health diet. It is recommended by the American Heart Association and it aims to reduce bad LDL forms of cholesterol by reducing the amount of saturated fat in the diet, as well as limiting cholesterol intake in the diet and introducing more fibre into the diet.
The Ornish diet is a little more restrictive, but is specifically used for helping to prevent and even reverse heart disease. Side effects of the diet can include weight loss, lowering of blood pressure, decreased levels of cholesterol and protection against certain types of cancer such as breast and prostate.
In order to follow this diet, dieters must take no more than 10 percent of their daily calorie allowance from natural dietary fat, and no added fats. In addition to this, they must consume less than 10 milligrams of cholesterol. Toughest of all, dieters must avoid all animals products, including fish, meat, cheese and eggs – although they are allowed two servings of fat-free dairy products per day and egg whites.
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