Eat Your Way to a Healthy Heart

A healthy heart needs a healthy microbiome. The following measures will nurture your microbiome:

• Eat plenty of plant-based foods full of natural fibre and protective antioxidants. Because all fibre is not the same, it’s a good idea to eat a wide variety. Set yourself a challenge to eat at least 30 different plant foods every week.
• Avoid sugar. This is enemy number one of your friendly bacteria because it encourages unhealthy bugs. These then out-compete the beneficial ones.
• Feast on fermented foods, because they encourage your friendly bacteria to thrive.

Other heart-healthy choices include:

• Eat fat! Many people worry about eating fat in the mistaken belief it encourages heart disease. It makes sense to avoid processed and altered fats like those in margarine, fast food and cooking oils. But your body needs certain fats – like omega 3 oils – to control inflammation and keep blood flowing freely around your blood vessels. Omega 3 fats are scarce in modern diets, so many people are deficient. Find them in oily fish, flax seeds, chia seeds, pumpkin seeds and walnuts.
• Eat to beat inflammation: avoid processed foods and too much red meat, while enjoying fruit, vegetables, fresh nuts, seeds, lentils and beans.
• Your heart needs certain nutrients to function well, especially vitamin C, magnesium and co-enzyme Q10. It’s worth remembering you cannot store vitamin C in your body, so you need a constant supply. Meanwhile, at least half of all Americans are deficient in magnesium, and the figure is likely to be similar in the UK. As for co-enzyme Q10, your body makes less of this essential nutrient as you age. Supplements of these nutrients may therefore be recommended.