How to use food to improve heart health

Diet — not just short-term diets but also the food and beverages you consume — can have a significant impact on your risk of heart disease. Dietitians and doctors use evidence-based eating approaches to treat and prevent cardiovascular disease.

National Nutrition Month 2023, with the theme Unlocking the Potential of Food, is a great opportunity to learn about these approaches, and adopt heart-friendly behaviors.

The Canadian Cardiovascular Society’s (CCS) Clinical Practice Guidelines suggest three dietary patterns to reduce heart disease risk. These are the Mediterranean Diet (Mediterranean Diet), Dietary approaches to stop hypertension (DASH) (Dietary Approaches To Stop Hypertension) (Portfolio Diet)

Mediterranean Diet contains a variety of colourful fruits and vegetables, as well as whole grains, beans, nuts, olive oils, and seafood. This diet has been shown to reduce the risk of a stroke or heart attack, even if you have heart disease. It also provides many other health benefits. Dietitians of Canada created a resource that summarizes this eating approach.

The DASH Diet emphasizes eating lots of vegetables, fruits, low-fat milk, whole grains, and nuts while limiting processed meats, food with added sugar, sodium, and red and processed meats. This diet was originally developed to treat high cholesterol. It can also reduce low-density cholesterol (LDL) and provide other health benefits. Heart & Stroke offers several resources that can help you learn more about this way of eating.

Portfolio Diet is a diet that was developed originally in Canada for the treatment of high cholesterol. The diet emphasizes plant protein (for instance, soy and other legumes), nuts, viscous fibres such as oats and barley, plant sterols, and healthy oils, like avocado, olive oil, and canola oil. Several research studies show that this diet lowers LDL-C and has other health benefits. Research has shown that adding even small amounts of heart-healthy Portfolio Diet foods to your diet can have a positive impact. The more of these foods you consume, the better the reduction in LDL cholesterol and risk of heart disease. The Canadian Cardiovascular Society offers an infographic that explains how to follow a Portfolio Diet.

These three eating styles have one thing in common: they’re all plant-based. Small changes can help reduce your risk of heart disease. To reap the benefits of “plant-based” diets, you don’t have to be a vegetarian or vegan. Plant-based diets range from diets that are entirely vegan to those that contain small amounts or moderate amounts of animal product.

Food’s power is not only revealed by knowledge, but also by behaviour. Here are three ways to harness the power of food in promoting heart health. By combining nutrition with psychology, they show you how to increase your chances of achieving long-term change.

It’s not necessary to go it alone. You can request a referral to work with registered dietitians and/or psychologists (behaviourists) in order to co-create ways to unlock the power of food.

Three ways to unlock food’s power

A registered dietitian (or psychologist) can help create a plan that is tailored to your needs. Referrals from doctors can be helpful in getting insurance to cover the appointment. (Shutterstock)

90% goal: master it and achieve it

Choose a goal that you are 90 percent sure you will achieve, and create a plan for achieving larger goals in the future. This will give you confidence in your abilities and valuable information on what works and doesn’t work for you.

According to research, setting 90 percent goals increases the likelihood of meeting future goals. One 90 percent goal would be to swap out animal protein with plant protein, such as beans or tofu, at Monday lunch ( Meatless Mondays). Use a meal-delivery service that offers plant-based recipes and measured ingredients on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays to get new ideas for incorporating more plants into your meals.

Why restrict and eliminate when you can substitute?

Choose a “do-instead” goal, or work with a dietitian to replace your current food and drink choices. Avoid plans that could cause you to focus MORE on foods you are trying to avoid.

The substitution method can be used to reduce the starch portion of meals by half. Canada’s Food Guide, Diabetes Canada, and Heart & Stroke all recommend half of your plate to be vegetables.

Value-based goals

Connect your goal with something you care about. Research shows that while long-term outcomes, such as heart disease, may motivate change, things that are important to us now are what we most care about. Finding personal and meaningful reasons to change can help you make lasting changes.

You can, for example, cook a meal with a friend or a family member to share the experience. This example could be rooted in values such as kindness, cultural values and values of relational relationships.