Heart Healthy Eating

Eating a healthy diet is important for many reasons. Not only can it boost your energy and help you achieve and maintain a healthy body weight, it can contribute to lowering your LDL and Cholesterol Ratio. Beyond the basics outlined in Canada’s Food Guide, there are specific foods that can have an impact on your heart health.

If diet and lifestyle changes are not enough, go talk to your doctor about what else you can do to lower your LDL and Cholesterol Ratio.

Dietary Fats

You have likely heard a lot about the importance of reducing the fat in your diet. But, the reality is that your body needs fat in order to function. There are many types of fats in the foods we eat. Some, like polyunsaturated and monounsaturated fats, are good fats, which can lower the risk of heart disease by reducing your cholesterol level. Others, like trans fats and saturated fats, are unhealthy, and can raise your LDL, or “bad” cholesterol, increasing your risk of heart disease. The recommended daily limit for adults is less than 30% of calories from fat, and of this less than 10% should be from saturated and trans fat.

So, when choosing your fats, choose those that can do positive things for your heart!

Fat Type	Healthy/Unhealthy?	Food Sources
Monounsaturated	Healthy	olive, peanut and canola oils avocados nuts
Polyunsaturated	Healthy	vegetable oils, such as safflower, corn and sunflower
Omega-3 Fatty Acids (type of polyunsaturated fat)	Healthy	salmon, mackerel and herring flaxseeds, flax oil, walnuts
Saturated	Unhealthy	animal products, such as red meat, poultry, butter, whole milk coconut, palm or other tropical oils
Trans Fat	Unhealthy	baked goods, such as cookies, crackers and cakes fried foods, such as donuts and french fries
Dietary cholesterol	Unhealthy	meat, poultry seafood eggs dairy products lard butter

Dietary Fibre

Fibre, found mainly in fruits, vegetables, whole grains and legumes, offers a host of health benefits, including lowering your risk of diabetes and heart disease. Particularly important for maintaining a healthy cholesterol level is soluble fibre, the kind that you find in oat bran, psyllium, apples, carrots, peas, beans, nuts and many vegetables. This type of fibre can also lower blood cholesterol levels and slow sugar absorption, which for people with diabetes, can help improve blood sugar levels.

Another type of fibre, insoluble fibre, can particularly help if you are having trouble with constipation or irregular stools. Insoluble fibre can be found in foods such as whole wheat flour, wheat bran, corn bran, dried peas, beans and lentils, nuts and seeds.

High fibre foods have the added benefit of potentially being your weight loss ally. Fibre-rich foods tend to fill you up for a longer amount of time, and because they take more time to chew, can give your body time to recognize that it is no longer hungry.

Foods lower in fibre include white bread, pasta or fruit juice. These products have been refined or processed, which means lower fibre content. To boost your fibre intake, select whole-grain products, raw or cooked fruits and vegetables, and dried beans and peas.

Eating more fibre can help control your cholesterol level which will affect your Cholesterol Ratio and your LDL. It is recommended that adults include 14g of fibre for every 1000 calories consumed. This means:

Sex/Age	Fibre intake
Women, age 50 and under	25g per day
Women, 51 years and older	21g per day
Men, age 50 and under	38g per day
Men, 51 years and older	30g per day

Soy

The cholesterol-lowering effect of soy is currently being tested and debated by scientists around the world. Some studies are showing a significant cholesterol-lowering benefit when soy is included as part of a diet low in saturated fat and cholesterol. Other research is showing that soy protein actually has very little impact on reducing cholesterol levels.

But, even though soy may not lower your cholesterol, it does contain vitamins and minerals and is a good source of fibre. It's also a healthy low-fat alternative source of protein. Experiment with it. Use soy products to replace ground meat in family recipes or take a cooking class and learn from those who use soy as a mainstay of their vegetarian or Asian diets.

Omega-3

Omega-3 fatty acids are a type of polyunsaturated fat, and may be especially heart-friendly. Omega-3s appear to decrease the risk of coronary artery disease by making your blood less likely to clot. It may also protect against irregular heartbeats and help lower blood pressure levels.

Omega-3 fatty acids can be found in both plant and fish foods. For example, walnuts, soybeans, tofu, flaxseed, canola oil and soybean oil or margarines made with these oils. Fatty cold water fish are an excellent source of omega-3 fats. Fatty fish such as salmon, trout, herring and mackerel are all excellent sources of omega-3 fats. You should also buy eggs that are high in omega-3. These are the result of feeding hens flaxseed.

Alcohol

Like many people, you may enjoy a nice glass of wine with dinner or a cold beer on a hot summer’s day. There is nothing wrong with appreciating alcohol and enjoying an occasional drink. What’s key, however, is that alcohol should be enjoyed in moderation. Alcohol can actually increase your triglycerides, and can lead to high blood pressure and heart failure. Not to mention the fact that alcohol contains high amounts of calories, which has potential implications for your risk of obesity, and by extension, diabetes.

Many studies have taken place and others are underway that look at potential positive effects of moderate alcohol consumption, such as an increase in HDL cholesterol. To date, leading health authorities recommend against drinking alcohol to gain these potential benefits.

Moderate alcohol consumption is considered to be one to two drinks per day, up to nine standard drinks per week for women and 14 standard drinks per week for men. A standard drink is either one glass of wine (150mL/5oz), a bottle of beer (350mL/12oz) or shot of spirits (50mL/1½oz).