The Best Diets for Heart Health

In addition to regular exercise and not smoking, diet is one of the best ways to protect your heart. Here are the best diets for heart health .

The best diet for heart health

• Mediterranean Diet
• DASH Diet
• Vegetarian and vegan diets
• Flexitarian Diet
• TLC Diet

Mediterranean Diet

The Mediterranean diet is based on the traditional diet of people living in Greece and Southern Italy in the 1960s. In general, the diet emphasizes whole, minimally processed foods, including whole grains, nuts, seeds, fruits, vegetables, beans, fish, and extra virgin olive oil. The diet also includes moderate amounts of poultry, eggs, low-fat dairy, and red wine.

Additionally, the Mediterranean diet limits or eliminates added sugars, refined carbohydrates, highly processed snacks, red meat, and processed meats.

It is thought that the heart-healthy benefits of this diet are largely due to its emphasis on whole, minimally processed plant foods and healthy fats. For example, extra virgin olive oil is rich in monounsaturated fats and compounds with powerful antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties.

Other factors such as exercise and consuming less added sugar may also contribute to the heart-healthy effects of the Mediterranean diet.

DASH Diet

DASH stands for Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension and is designed to help prevent and treat hypertension, or high blood pressure. This in turn reduces your risk of heart disease.

Like the Mediterranean diet, the DASH diet doesn't require a strict food list. Instead, it recommends specific food group intakes based on your calorie needs, focusing on whole grains, fruits, vegetables, low-fat dairy, and lean meats while limiting red meat, refined grains, and added sugars.

Furthermore, it recommends that you limit your sodium intake to 1 teaspoon (2,300 mg) per day — and the reduced-salt version recommends no more than 3/4 teaspoon (1,500 mg) per day.

For people with high blood pressure, reducing sodium intake has been shown to significantly lower blood pressure, especially when combined with the DASH diet.

However, studies show that this effect is less significant in people with normal blood pressure levels.

The DASH diet's emphasis on high-fiber foods, such as whole grains and vegetables, and elimination of added sugars and saturated fats may also contribute to its effects on heart health.

Vegetarian and vegan diets

Vegetarian and vegan diets are diets that eliminate all meat, including poultry, red meat, and fish. While some vegetarians include other sources of animal products, such as eggs and dairy, vegans completely avoid all ingredients derived from animals, including milk, eggs, pollen, honey, and gelatin.

Instead, these diets emphasize fruits, vegetables, beans, lentils, soy products, whole grains, nuts, seeds, and plant-based oils and fats.

This high proportion of plant foods gives vegetarian and vegan diets a number of health benefits. For example, these diets are often rich in fiber, antioxidants, and anti-inflammatory compounds, all of which are beneficial for heart health.

Of course, diet quality is still important. A vegetarian or vegan diet high in added sugars, refined grains, and processed foods does not provide the same heart health benefits as a diet rich in whole, minimally processed plant foods.

Flexitarian Diet

Created by nutritionist Dawn Jackson Blatner, the Flexitarian diet focuses on plant foods, but allows moderate amounts of meat, fish, dairy, and other animal products. It encourages you to get most of your protein from plants.

There are no hard and fast rules about how much or how often you should eat animal products, so it depends on your preferences.

You are encouraged to eat mostly whole, minimally processed foods and to limit or avoid added sugar, refined grains, processed meats, and other highly processed foods.

Although the diet has many variations that make it difficult to study, observational studies link higher adherence to a plant-based diet to a lower risk of heart disease. Additionally, fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and legumes—the foods this diet encourages—are associated with improved heart disease risk factors.

Compared to a vegan or strict vegetarian diet, the Flexitarian diet may be a more realistic option for people who want the heart-healthy benefits of a plant-based diet without giving up meat and other animal products.

TLC Diet

The Therapeutic Lifestyle Changes (TLC) diet was developed by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to help reduce the risk of heart disease and stroke.

This diet includes dietary and lifestyle recommendations to promote optimal cholesterol levels and a healthy weight, such as:

• less than 7% of your daily calories from saturated fat
• less than 200 milligrams (mg) of cholesterol per day
• less than 2,300 mg sodium daily
• 25–35% of daily calories from total fat (including calories from saturated fat)
• 2 grams (g) of plant stanols or sterols per day
• 10–25 g of soluble fiber per day
• just enough calories to achieve or maintain a moderate weight

It is thought that this diet works by increasing the intake of soluble fiber, found in foods such as oat bran, nuts, seeds, beans, lentils, and some fruits and vegetables.

The TLC diet also recommends a daily supplement of plant stanols or sterols, which are natural compounds found in foods such as fruits, vegetables, whole grains, beans, nuts, and seeds.

The final strength of the TLC diet is the recommendation to get at least 30 minutes of moderate exercise every day.

These are the diets that have been proven to be the best for heart health. Hopefully this article will help you make the right choice and always maintain the best health.