Build a Nutritional Garage for Your Heart

Food For Thought
Build a Nutritional Garage for Your Heart

by Leanne Ely, CNC

If one of your health goals is to keep your family as heart healthy as possible (good move, too – kind of critical in the staying-alive-scheme-of-things), then you need to know what a human heart needs in the form of nutrients to operate optimally.

There are foods that give the heart a nutritional advantage and provide nutritional protection in form of antioxidants.

Free radicals break down our health and naturally occur in the processing and digesting of food, however, there are certain foods that are rich in antioxidants and will promote health. To understand free radicals, think about what happens to a bike left out in the elements – it rusts. Putting your bike in the garage will help prevent that from occurring as much. Eating foods rich in antioxidants is like providing a nutritional garage for your heart.

Foods rich in vitamins A, C, & E (the antioxidants you need), with all their natural corresponding phytochemicals are front and center, the best choices for heart health.

Foods abundant in vitamin A include eggs, dark green leafy vegetables, broccoli and yellow and orange veggies (where you can see the beta-carotene; a precursor to vitamin A).

Vitamin C is associated with citrus fruits, but is also present in large amounts in bell peppers (especially red ones), broccoli, strawberries and kiwi.

Vitamin E is present in leafy greens also and whole grains, nuts and seeds.

You don’t need to print this list out and memorize it. These same nutrients will keep you healthy for other things that concern you health-wise, too.

So take heart! Keeping your heart healthy is something you can do by eating a wide variety of healthy foods – so eat up!

For some great Heart Healthy recipes, be sure to check out our Five for the Freezer Heart Healthy Volume 1 and Volume 2

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