Heart disease is a nutrition-based disease. A holistic healthy heart diet is a great way to eat. We tend to consume more processed meats, sugar sweetened beverages and sweets than whole grains, fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds and legume.
Some of the processed foods are microwavable dinners, fast foods, chips and other forms of junk food. You know what I’m talking about 🙂
For many people, simple lifestyle changes, rather than drugs or surgery, comprise the best route to achieve cardiac fitness. ~ Dr. Andrew Weil
Dr. Andrew Weil is one of America’s most respected doctors. He recommends an anti-inflammatory diet as one of the best ways to eat. Some of his recommendations are:
To Lower Cholesterol
- Eat a low fat diet. You might try a low carb diet. Watch your carbohydrate intake. Carbohydrates (starches and sugars) raise blood sugar levels and trigger the release of insulin.
- Avoid Refined carbohydrates, those that are high on the glycemic index
- Focus on healthy fats
- Eat generous amounts (five or more servings) of non-starchy vegetables and one to two servings of low-glycemic index fruit every day.
- Eat fish several times a week, emphasizing wild, cold-water fish high in omega-3 fatty acids, such as salmon and sardines. Or take omega-3 supplements.
- Eat generous amounts of non-starchy vegetables, like cucumbers, bell peppers, dark leafy greens, zucchini, eggplant, squash, asparagus, broccoli, cabbage, Brussels sprouts, beans, radishes and spinach.
- Eat magnesium-rich foods every day. This includes spinach, tofu, almonds, broccoli and lentils. Pumpkin seeds and sunflower seeds are also good sources of magnesium.
Nutrition and Supplements
Healthy Heart Diet basics include eating whole foods, including fruits and vegetables. But we all fall short in some nutritional areas. That’s why it’s ok to include supplements in our diet. Some key supplements to consider for your own diet include the following:
- Fish oil. The omega-3 fatty acids in fish and fish oil supplements have been shown to be an effective preventive strategy against heart disease.
- Coenzyme Q10 (CoQ10). This antioxidant is thought to be one of the most important antioxidant supplements for protection against many forms of cardiovascular disease.
One of the best supplement suggestions I can give you is to use Dr. Andrew Weil’s Vitamin Advisor Online. You fill out a short questionnaire about your habits and you receive a computer-generated, Doctor approved supplement recommendation.
Dr. Andrew Weil is a world leader in holistic healing and health and his understanding of supplements is fantastic. It’s easy to try this or that supplement since we can just buy them anytime. But supplements need to be taken consciously and with an understanding of how they interact with other medications or supplements in the body. I trust Dr. Weil completely for his advice.
Another suggestion I have is to trust Dr. Deepak Chopra and check out the Herbal Supplements and Ayurvedic Wisdom he recommends for women and men. You might want to start this process out by first taking the Dosha Quiz to find out what your particular body type is. This will help you understand what your body needs when looking for the right supplements later.
Stop Emotional Eating
A healthy heart diet includes managing stress. It is estimated that emotional eating is one of the main causes of overeating and other poor eating habits. We get stressed and then we eat to comfort ourselves.
This websites promotes the use of breathing techniques, heart meditation, and other healthy heart practices. One of the results of these practices is learning to be more comfortable in our emotional body. When we can be mindful of our emotions and learn not to react to them we start eating more responsibly.
My best recommendations for improving your emotional health:
- Learn to breathe consciously.
- Practice simple heart meditation.
- Get an emWave2 from HeartMath and learn to create heart coherence.
- Get the Heartmath Stop Emotional Eating Program to go with your new emWave2.
- Learn meditation and breathing techniques from Doctors Deepak Chopra, Andrew Weil and Dean Ornish on the computer with Journey to Wild Divine.
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