Love Your Heart

Valentine’s Day is all about expressing love for others, so why not express love for ourselves during this holiday? There are many ways we can show love for ourselves just by consuming a healthy diet daily. More specifically, a healthy heart leads to a happy, healthy life. A heart-healthy diet lowers the risk of developing cardiovascular disease. By acting and following these three easy steps, you will be heading towards a heart-healthy life!

The first step is incorporating more fruits and vegetables into our daily diet. Fruits and vegetables are highly nutritious, low in calories, and are great sources of vitamins and minerals. An easy way to start adding fruits and vegetables to our diet is by making stir fry, salad, pureeing vegetables into your pasta sauce, etc. Ways to incorporate more fruit in our diet include eating fruit as a snack, making smoothies, or adding a banana or berries to cereal or yogurt. The second step is limiting the consumption of saturated and trans fat to lower blood cholesterol. If our blood cholesterol is high, it can lead to plaque buildup in our arteries, which can lead to a heart attack, stroke, or even death. That is why saturated fat and trans fat are also known as contributors to “bad cholesterol.” Cooking with healthy fats such as vegetable oil, olive oil, and avocado oil and limiting cooking with butter is a great way to reduce blood cholesterol levels. Purchasing lean meats and trimming the fat off meats will lower the consumption of saturated fat as well. The third step is to limit the amount of sodium in our diet. High sodium can contribute to high blood pressure, which is a risk factor for developing cardiovascular disease. A key tip for reducing sodium intake is reading and understanding food labels. Soups and processed foods typically contain high levels of sodium. The American Heart Association recommends adults consume no more than 2,300mg of sodium per day. Choose products that are labeled “low sodium,” “reduced sodium,” or “no salt added” to reduce your daily intake of sodium. By reading food labels and limiting the consumption of processed foods, our sodium intake will likely be reduced. Following a heart-healthy diet is important to everyone, and by making it a priority, we will be on our way to a healthier life!

There are many different ways you can “Love Your Heart.” Remind yourself each day that you deserve to be healthy and put your health as your first priority. By introducing healthy habits to your lifestyle, you will be able to accomplish a happy, healthy heart! Make this February the month when you start to consume more fruits and vegetables, incorporate healthy fats, and limit your intake of sodium to improve your overall health. It is time to focus on improving your heart health to show that you love your heart.

Jacquelyn Duplessis is a senior at Michigan State University, majoring in dietetics with a minor in health promotion. When she isn’t studying for school, she’s most likely on a walk with her husky, Loki, or traveling.