Can We Love Our Heart, Please?

 

Let’s Talk About Heart

In the United States, cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the leading cause of death. It encompasses a range of conditions, including coronary artery disease (CAD), stroke, hypertension, and heart failure. Millions of Americans are affected, with significant impacts on health, quality of life, and healthcare costs. 

• One person dies every 33 seconds from cardiovascular disease.1
• In 2022, 702,880 people died from heart disease. That's the equivalent of 1 in every 5 deaths.
• Heart disease cost about $252.2 billion from 2019 to 2020.2This includes the cost of health care services, medicines, and lost productivity due to death. (source: CDC)

Prevention and management of cardiovascular diseases is very important.

Among the heart healthy habits are;

• Eat a healthy diet 
• Maintain a healthy weight.
• Manage stress.
•  Get a good sleep.
• No smoking
• Exercise daily
• Drink plenty of water with lemon or lime for flavor.

A heart healthy diet contains.

• Extra Virgin Olive oil (in cooking and other foods like salad dressing). This is the absolute key ingredient in heart healthy cooking and Mediterranean diet. 
• Lots of vegetables without additives like added salt etc. (For this both fresh and frozen vegetables are better. Canned vegetables lot of times contain lots of unnecessary salt and other additives which are not good for the health). 
• Fresh or frozen fruits. (Canned fruits can be eaten as long there are no extra additives specially lot of times canned fruits have high fructose corn syrup which is not good for your health)
• Lots of beans and legumes like chickpeas, black beans, lentils, etc. (Beans and lentils are high in protein and fiber which is very good for health but lacks bad saturated fats and other unhealthy things found in meat.)
• Fatty fish (salmon, tuna, sardines, etc.)
• Lean Meat and poultry (chicken, egg)
• Cook with low or no extra salt (Lots of recipes and foods consumed daily contain very high amounts of salt and oil etc. which is not good for your health). 

Learn more about salt and sodium in this post:

Salt & Sodium

At the same time, it is difficult to eat the same tasteless salads and food every day 😒

Dealing with my own health challenges of high blood pressure and cholesterol I learned to cook food which is heart healthy but packed with flavors with the help and support from my daughter.

My key ingredients for flavorful foods are.

• Spices, onion and garlic.

o   Among the most basic spices are cumin, cayenne or chili powder, black pepper, and basil, and parsley.

o   Additional spices are coriander, Italian seasoning, oregano, and so on….

Let's start the journey of cooking and eating delicious flavorful heart healthy food.