Heart-Healthy Diet: Foods to Include and Avoid

India’s traditional diet is often heavy on carbohydrates, high-fat dairy products, and saturated fats like butter, ghee, and coconut oil. These dietary choices, combined with habits such as consuming sweets after meals, excessive salt intake, and the common practice of reusing cooking oil, have significantly contributed to the rising prevalence of cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) in the country. The incidence of CVDs has alarmingly doubled, making it the leading cause of death in India, with an increasing number of young adults (ages 20-40) affected. The risk of a heart attack has become a pressing concern, especially among the younger population. Adopting a heart-healthy diet is crucial to reversing this trend. This blog offers a detailed guide to optimizing your diet for heart health, highlighting the foods you should include and those you should avoid.

The Cornerstones of a Heart-Healthy Diet: Foods to Include

1. Fruits and Vegetables

Benefits: Fruits and vegetables are rich in vitamins, minerals, and dietary fiber, offering heart-protective antioxidants essential for maintaining heart health.

Include: Incorporate a variety of seasonal fresh fruits like oranges, apples, pomegranates, and guavas.
Vegetables such as leafy greens (spinach, moringa, kale, and cabbage), gourd vegetables (bottle gourds, bitter gourd, ridge gourd, and ash gourd), root vegetables like carrots, beetroot should be preferred over tubers like potato, yam, colocasia and cassava.
If you have heart disease and diabetes, avoid high-calorie fruits like bananas and mangoes.

Tips: Prefer raw whole fruits over canned fruits and juices, consume salads before main meals, and include a daily serving of fresh, cold-pressed vegetable juice.

2. Whole Grains

Benefits: Whole grains are excellent sources of fiber, which helps regulate blood pressure and cholesterol levels, reducing the risk of heart disease.

Include Choose whole grains like whole-wheat flour, brown rice, millet, broken wheat, and rolled oats. Avoid refined carbohydrates like those found in maida-based products (e.g., naan, kulcha, pizza).

Tips: Boost fiber content by adding powdered wheat bran or oats to batters or to roti and paratha dough.

3. Healthy Fats

Benefits: Unsaturated fats, especially omega-3 fatty acids, play a crucial role in reducing inflammation and improving cholesterol levels, thereby protecting heart health.

Include: Use a combination of cooking oils, such as olive oil, mustard oil, groundnut oil, and sesame oil, and change the oil type monthly. Include fatty fish and moderate amounts of cow’s ghee in your diet.

Tips: Limit oil consumption to half a liter per month. You can substitute some of it with ghee within the same limit.

4. Low-Fat Protein

Benefits: Lean proteins support heart health by providing essential nutrients without the excess saturated fat and cholesterol.

Include: Opt for lean meats, poultry, fatty fish (such as salmon, mackerel, herring, and sardines), and plant-based proteins like dals, beans nuts seeds, and low-fat dairy products.

Tips: Prefer egg whites or whole eggs in moderation (not exceeding six per week) and prepare food with minimal oil. Incorporate nuts and seeds in moderation.

5. Herbs and Spices Instead of Salt

Benefits: Reducing sodium intake is critical for managing blood pressure and decreasing the risk of heart disease

Recommendation: Limit sodium intake to less than 2300 mg per day. Be aware of hidden sodium in processed foods and seasonings.

Tips: Enhance the flavour of your food with herbs and spices like mint, cinnamon, turmeric, fenugreek, ginger, and garlic instead of salt. Read food labels to monitor sodium content in packaged foods.

Foods to Avoid for a Healthy Heart

To maintain heart health, it is essential to avoid foods that are high in unhealthy fats, added sugars, and salt. These include:

Packaged and Processed Foods Avoid cookies, pastries, chocolates, biscuits, and sugary drinks, as they are high in sugar and refined carbs.
Fatty Foods: Limit full-cream milk and dairy products, vanaspati oil, butter, and coconut oil. Minimize the consumption of deep-fried items like pakoras, pooris, French fries, and papads.
Red and Processed Meats:Avoid red meats, organ meats, crabs, prawns, and processed meats like shawarma, nuggets, and sausages.
High-Sodium Foods: Avoid instant soups, salty chips, farsan, condiments like ketchup and mayonnaise, and packaged dressings.
Alcohol: Avoid alcohol consumption, as it can increase blood pressure and lead to heart-related complications.

Adopting a heart-healthy diet is not just a temporary change but a long-term commitment to better health. By focusing on nutrient-rich foods like fruits, vegetables, whole grains, healthy fats, and lean proteins, and avoiding unhealthy options like processed foods, fatty meats, and high-sodium products, you can significantly reduce your risk of cardiovascular disease.

Reference: 1. Longvah, T., et al. (2017). Indian Food Composition Tables. National Institute of Nutrition, Hyderabad.
2. Dalal, J., Hiremath, M. S., Das, M. K., et al. (2016).Vascular Disease in Young Indians (20-40 years): Role of Ischemic Heart Disease.J Clin Diagn Res, 10(9), OE08-OE12. doi: 10.7860/JCDR/2016/20206.8517.
3. National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute. (March 24, 2022). Heart-Healthy Living: Choose Heart-Healthy Foods. Accessed August 22, 2024. Available at https://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/heart-healthy-living/healthy-foods.
4. Heart Foundation. (February 5, 2024). Healthy Eating to Protect Your Heart. Accessed August 22, 2024. Available at https://www.heartfoundation.org.au/healthy-living/healthy-eating/healthy-eating-to-protect-your-heart.
5. ICMR-NIN Expert Committee. Dietary Guidelines for Indians - 2024. Accessed August 22, 2024. Available at https://www.nin.res.in/dietaryguidelines2024.html.