Heart disease is scary, especially when you have a heart attack.  What do you do when you are discharged from the hospital?  Eating out becomes extremely challenging and cooking becomes even more of a necessity.  Nutrition guidelines can be overwhelming, and translating them into cooking can be confusing. Hopefully we can help! Below are To Taste’s Top 10 heart healthy cooking tips:

1. Cooking with whole natural foods is a must; stay away from highly processed prepared foods. The more from scratch, the better.

2. Focus on the type of fat, not reducing or eliminating it. Look to heart healthy European nations, and start cooking with extra virgin olive oil.  Add nuts, seeds, and avocados to recipes as well. Limit cooking with saturated and trans fats like butter, shortening, and margarine.

3. Limit red meat (beef and pork) and mostly prepare white meat, like chicken, and turkey. If you cook red meat, buy grass fed for it’s healthier fat profile. Cooking vegetarian meals is also a great strategy for helping your heart! Beans are a great vegetarian heart healthy protein choice.

4. Try to cook fish 2x/week. This is a recommendation from the American Heart Association.  Fatty fishes, like salmon, trout, and tuna, rich in omega 3s (healthy fat) are especially good for your heart. Try different cooking methods to vary flavor; grilling, poaching, and baking are all healthy choices.

5. Cook and eat mostly vegetables, focusing on preparing a variety of different kinds and colors! Dark greens and rich oranges and reds, and beans are a must, but incorporate all colors. Eat different kinds daily for the best nutrition. Roast, sauté, and steam fresh veggies or simply eat raw. Consider starting every meal with a salad to easily up your veggie intake.

6. Swap your white refined grains for whole grains. Starting cooking oatmeal, brown rice, and whole grain pasta, bake with whole wheat flour, and use whole grain breads. The recommendation for the general population is to make half your grains whole grain, but the more whole grains you can consume/cook, the better.

7. Prepare meals that resemble Harvard’s Healthy Eating Plate.  Make half your meal fruit and vegetables, mostly vegetables, and then the remainder protein and whole grains.

8. Cook with lots of herbs, spices, vinegars, and citrus juices before reaching for the salt shaker. Depending on how high your blood pressure is, you don’t have to entirely cut the salt (in fact, please don’t!), but be aware of how much you are consuming.  Salt used during cooking is not the main contributor of sodium in the American diet-it’s all the processed prepared foods we eat!

9.  If you cook with dairy, use low-fat or skim milk and use small amounts of strong flavored cheeses.  Remember that cheese can be very high in sodium!

10. Cut back on adding sugar to recipes and make your desserts fruit based, relying on their natural sugar.  Even better, just eat a fresh piece of fruit for dessert!

To YOUR Taste!

Chef V