Oatmeal
Start your day with a steaming bowl of oats, which are full of omega-3 fatty acids, folate, and potassium. This fiber-rich superfood can lower levels of LDL (or bad) cholesterol and help keep arteries clear.
Oatmeal
Opt for coarse or steel-cut oats over instant varieties—which contain more fiber—and top your bowl off with a banana for another 4 grams of fiber.
Salmon
Super-rich in omega-3 fatty acids, salmon can effectively reduce blood pressure and keep clotting at bay. Aim for two servings per week, which may reduce your risk of dying of a heart attack by up to one-third.
“Salmon contains the carotenoid astaxanthin, which is a very powerful antioxidant,” says cardiologist Stephen T. Sinatra, MD, the author of Lower Your Blood Pressure In Eight Weeks. But be sure to choose wild salmon over farm-raised fish, which can be packed with insecticides, pesticides, and heavy metals.
Salmon
Not a fan of salmon? Other oily fish like mackerel, tuna, herring, and sardines will give your heart the same boost.
Avocado
Add a bit of avocado to a sandwich or spinach salad to up the amount of heart-healthy fats in your diet. Packed with monounsaturated fat, avocados can help lower LDL levels while raising the amount of HDL cholesterol in your body.
Avocados
“Avocados are awesome,” says Dr. Sinatra. “They allow for the absorption of other carotenoids—especially beta-carotene and lycopene—which are essential for heart health.”
Olive oil
Full of monounsaturated fats, olive oil lowers bad LDL cholesterol and reduces your risk of developing heart disease.
Olive oil
Results from the Seven Countries Study, which looked at cardiovascular disease incidences across the globe, showed that while men in Crete had a predisposition for high cholesterol levels, relatively few died of heart disease because their diet focused on heart-healthy fats found in olive oil. Look for extra-virgin or virgin varieties—they’re the least processed—and use them instead of butter when cooking.
Nuts
Walnuts are full of omega-3 fatty acids and, along with almonds and macadamia nuts, are loaded with mono- and polyunsaturated fat. Plus, nuts increase fiber in the diet, says Dr. Sinatra. “And like olive oil, they are a great source of healthy fat.”
Nuts
Berries
Blueberries, raspberries, strawberries—whatever berry you like best—are full of anti-inflammatories, which reduce your risk of heart disease and cancer.
Berries
“Blackberries and blueberries are especially great,” says Sinatra. “But all berries are great for your vascular health.”
Legumes
Fill up on fiber with lentils, chickpeas, and black and kidney beans. They’re packed with omega-3 fatty acids, calcium, and soluble fiber.
Legumes
Spinach
Spinach can help keep your ticker in top shape thanks to its stores of lutein, folate, potassium, and fiber.
Spinach
But upping your servings of any veggies is sure to give your heart a boost. The Physicians’ Health Study examined more than 15,000 men without heart disease for a period of 12 years. Those who ate at least two-and-a-half servings of vegetables each day cut their risk of heart disease by about 25%, compared with those who didn’t eat the veggies. Each additional serving reduced risk by another 17%.
Flaxseed
Full of fiber and omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids, a little sprinkling of flaxseed can go a long way for your heart.
Flaxseed
Top a bowl of oatmeal or whole-grain cereal with a smidgen of ground flaxseed for the ultimate heart-healthy breakfast.
Soy
Soy may lower cholesterol, and since it is low in saturated fat, it’s still a great source of lean protein in a heart-healthy diet.
Soy
Look for natural sources of soy, like edamame, tempeh, or organic silken tofu. And soy milk is a great addition to a bowl of oatmeal or whole-grain cereal. But watch the amount of salt in your soy: some processed varieties like soy dogs can contain added sodium, which boosts blood pressure.
It sounds like the recipe for a heart attack. But a fry-up followed by a plate of doughnuts could actually be good for the heart.
Research suggests that the odd greasy treat somehow boosts the heart muscle, reducing the amount of damage done when a heart attack occurs.
Those with a taste for junk food will be glad to know that it is thought that fried foods, like chips, bacon and doughnuts, provide the best protection.
Unfortunately, doctors stress that the research is still preliminary – and it is far too early to swap muesli topped with blueberries for a traditional English breakfast.
The U.S. researchers fed mice on a lard-based or normal diets for periods of 24 hours to six weeks and then looked at how they fared when they had a heart attack.
Given the link between fatty food and heart disease, you might expect the lard-fed mice to have done the worst.
Instead, those fed the fatty food for up to two weeks actually had the mildest heart attacks.
Most strikingly, those who were on the lard diet for just a day suffered heart attacks that were 70 per cent smaller than those in the animals given normal food, the annual Experimental Biology conference heard.
University of Cincinnati researcher Lauren Haar said: ‘This shows that acute, or short-term, high-fat feeding in animal models does preserve cardiac function.’
It is unclear how short bursts of fat help the heart but it may be through boosting the amount of energy available to the heart muscle, aiding the healing process.
Miss Haar said: ‘This could mean great things for patient care if we can find the mechanisms that come into play to cause this cardioprotection.
‘This may also show that, while it is important to eat right, not all bad foods should be avoided all of the time.
‘This could change the way we view nutrition and dietary recommendations.’
Possibilities include people who have had heart attacks being given the green light to eat the occasional fatty treat.
Co-researcher Jack Rubinstein, a heart disease expert, said: ‘Right now, after you have had a heart attack, they say to have a low-fat diet but we think that may be a little too draconian.’
However, he warned that fatty foods’ reputation for clogging arteries and causing heart attacks in the first place mean it is too early for people to start indulging.
Dr Rubinstein said: ‘We still don’t know how it plays out in a balance between bad effects on the arteries that give blood to the heart versus the beneficial effects that we think happen on the heart muscle itself.
‘People should continue to follow their doctors’ advice.’