February is National Heart Month, and you may have heard that your diet can help your heart health. With so many diets out there, it can be hard to know which ones are heart healthy. Let’s break it down!
The American Heart Association recommends a heart-healthy diet that includes the following components:
- Lots of fruits and vegetables
- Whole grains
- Lean proteins, including plant-based proteins (such as beans or nuts) and fish.
- Fats from liquid oils (such as olive oil or fish oils) instead of solid fats (such as butter or coconut oil).
Now, we’ll compare these recommendations to 4 popular diets: The Mediterranean Diet, vegetarian diets, low-fat diets, and low-carb diets.
The Mediterranean Diet
The Mediterranean Diet matches the American Heart Association’s guidelines very closely. It focuses on eating fruits, vegetables, whole grains, beans, fish, and other lean protein sources, and plant oils—particularly olive oil.
Vegetarian diets
Vegetarian diets can be a great heart-healthy option. They tend to have high intakes of fruits, vegetables, plant-based proteins, and plant oils. If you follow a vegetarian diet, you can make it even more heart-healthy by adding more whole grains and considering eating fish occasionally.
Low-fat diets
Low-fat diets are considered less heart healthy by the American Heart Association. While they may have a high intake of fruits, vegetables, and whole grains, the primary concern is that they limit all types of fat. Our bodies need fat as a part of our diet, but we want to choose healthier types of fat, such as liquid oils.
Low-carb diets
Low-carb diets are also considered less heart healthy than other options. The primary concern is that they have a low intake of fruits, vegetables, and whole grains. They can also have a higher intake of solid fats than the American Heart Association recommends in their dietary guidelines.
You can have a heart healthy diet without choosing one of the specific diets we discussed in this article. Choose one of the American Heart Association guidelines (such as eating more fruits and vegetables or choosing lean proteins) and start there! As you make small changes to your eating habits over time, they’ll make a big difference to heart health in the long-term. Check out the Utah Department of Health and Human Services website to learn more about heart health.
