(Photo: Tim Marshall)
*Health Disclaimer: This post is for prevention purposes only. I am not a health professional. I have no certifications. Please consult your health professional if you are worried about your heart health. Please also consult your health professional before embarking on a new diet or exercise regimen. This post is based on my own ideas and knowledge along with looking at the recommendations given to the general public for looking after their heart health. The NZ recommendations say no coconut oil. However, I believe that if you are on a vegan diet that contains absolutely no saturated animal fat then a tablespoon or two of coconut oil a day is perfectly alright and can be a beneficial source of plant-based fats*
Heart disease or cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death globally and the sad part is that it is entirely preventable! We are slowly eating and sitting our way to a heart attack. Recent studies also show that certain markers for future heart disease risk can develop in children as young as three years old!
Prevention is not regularly going to your doctor and getting checked (although that can definitely be helpful!). Prevention really is EVERY day taking the necessary steps to make sure that your whole body is going to remain healthy and well into old age. Each and every day is a new opportunity to take care of your health so that down the road you are not having to track back and reverse the damage that has already been done. It is much easier to say make time to exercise for twenty minutes a day NOW than to try and lose weight that has accumulated over 10-20 years!
1. DAILY EXERCISE:
Eating a high-fat Western diet and then sitting around all day is a recipe for disaster! I know lots of people struggle with finding the time to exercise. Every day you are creating your future with the choices that you make right now. Too busy working? Work fewer hours, simplify your life! Live in a smaller house, or a cheaper area, or a cheaper city. Ditch your high-stress job for something that is going to allow you balance between all life areas. Or negotiate a four day work week so that you can spend one-day hiking, hitting the gym or being active.
What are you doing in your precious downtime? Think about doing a digital detox so that you have more time to exercise! (We ditched our t.v. around six years ago now and have never looked back!). There is so much unhealthy advertising on t.v. that you just don’t want to be exposed to! Over time it normalises food that is not real food! Plus exercise is a much better way to reduce stress. Schedule your exercise! Make a regular date each day with yourself to get that exercise in. Aim for 20-30 minutes if you can. You don’t need an expensive gym membership! You can do a ton of exercises with just a pair of weights and a yoga mat.
2. KEEP IT PLANT BASED!
There have been so many studies now that link a plant-based vegetarian or vegan diet with preventing or even in many cases helping to reverse heart disease (check out all of the links below). It is not complicated, it is really simple. I don’t know why we have made eating healthy so complicated! The majority of meals should really be veggies and fruit with plenty of raw or lightly steamed greens thrown in and the odd sprinkle of nuts and seeds. Anything that comes in a packet or a bottle should be a rarity and not a staple. Try and keep your diet as whole and least processed as possible. There is a wide variety of grains (many gluten-free) that are really high in protein and can also provide necessary fibre to our diet. Eating a fibre rich diet is really important for heart health!
If you feel that you must eat meat doctors recommend no more than twice a week and ideally, one of those meat meals will be of fish (which is the healthiest meat). Avoid red meat at all costs – not heart healthy! You can fit a huge amount of nutrition each day with a simple green smoothie! Start with your smoothie (add some powdered marine greens for DHA & EPA, aka brain food!), throw in a salad for lunch (make sure you add some good quality protein), snack on fruit and a handful of nuts throughout the day and try some steamed veggies with an excellent plant-based protein source for dinner like lentils, beans, legumes, tofu, tempeh or seitan. Add a sprinkle of seeds to most meals – in your smoothie, on top of your salad, and with your steamed veggies and kale at dinner for important omega 3 fatty acids. It is really that simple and easy!
3. DRINK LITTLE TO NO ALCOHOL:
Despite many reports to the contrary alcohol is just not really good for us. Alcohol first acts as a stimulant and then quickly turns into a depressant. It is also highly addictive. Anything that causes an imbalance of mood is going to affect how motivated you are to eat healthily and exercise the next day (it’s just never worth it for me to lose a whole day of workouts etc!). If you can’t completely give it up then one small glass of red wine with dinner should be perfectly alright. Red wine is better for our bodies than white because it contains antioxidants and flavonoids.
On the Mediterranean diet which is supposed to be really heart healthy they do also drink red wine with meals. I actually think it is the socialising that gives you better health. Often we will eat and drink alcohol when we socialise. Keeping social as you age is really important and people in the Mediterranean are really social, meals are often shared and there is lots of love and laughter. That’s going to have a really great protective benefit to your health. There have been numerous studies that show that social people are generally healthier! They eat better, sleep better, are more likely to take care of themselves and socialising also helps to decrease stress and increase our wellbeing. So stay social! Just try and ditch the alcohol or cut down at the very least!
4. KNOW YOUR GOOD FATS VS. BAD FATS:
Again lots of controversy around this topic! Plus many documentaries online. There has been some recent research saying that some fat is good. I personally would avoid saturated fat from animal-based sources. If you must eat dairy try only eating small amounts of raw/fermented dairy which is healthiest for our bodies. As adults we are no longer growing we are only maintaining our bodies. There is no reason for us to be consuming lots of high-fat food in our diet. Children, of course, are growing and pregnancy and breastfeeding might require eating more fat to keep up with the demands of a changing body. If you are eating a predominately plant-based diet I would say that there is absolutely nothing wrong with consuming a tablespoon or two of coconut oil a day for healthy fats. Coconut oil does contain saturated fat but because it is a plant-based source it is healthier for our bodies. Try not to cook the oil that you consume – it is best to eat it raw. It is the cooking of the oils that change the structure and make them harder for our bodies to deal with! So try adding a tablespoon of coconut oil to your steamed veggies at dinnertime or add a dash of olive oil or flaxseed oil to each salad.
If you are overweight and transitioning to a plant-based diet you can initially limit the oils and nuts that you eat until you are in a healthier weight range. If you are on a predominately whole foods plant-based diet then those nasty trans fats no longer become an issue! Because they are mostly only found in processed unhealthy foods. Find a healthy spread that is based on plant oils and then use it only sparingly or you can also sub this for coconut oil. If your meals consist mainly of smoothies, salads, veggie stir-fries and steamed vegetables there is simply no need to eat a lot of spread (unless you are doing some healthy baking!).
5. MANAGE STRESS IN A HEALTHY WAY:
Science is having a hard time linking stress with negative health incomes. However, we do know that stress has strong links with inflammation and inflammation has strong links with all of the diseases of ageing including heart disease. Stress is not necessarily a bad thing. Having no stress is not good for us either because we can become a bit apathetic and demotivated without regular goals and challenges to work towards. So stress in itself is not bad it really is how we respond to the increase in life stress. Quite often we respond badly! We down those cups of coffee until late at night, we don’t sleep well, we may increase how much alcohol we are drinking and we will often cut down on physical activity at the same time. We might also increase our ‘mindless’ time in front of t.v. and screens and be less social when we are under stress.
Getting into a regular exercise routine is going to do wonders for your stress levels! Aim to do a little bit each day and then increase your exercise on the weekend when you have a bit more time. Research from Harvard shows that weekend exercisers who perhaps work a 9-5 all week and then exercise lots on the weekend are still super healthy – so you have to get that exercise in whenever you can. Make it a priority! Along with exercise anything that increases your mindfulness and connection to your own body is great! When we are stressed we are often too busy to realise how our thoughts and feelings are negatively affecting our bodies. So get into that yoga, meditation, deep breathing and finding small pockets of time to ‘be present’ whenever you can!
There is a lot of new interesting research being done by the HeartMath institute that looks at how our emotions, thoughts and feelings affect our heart rate and our overall body health. Our heart and brain are vastly interconnected and our heart is actually pretty powerful at sending signals to our brain! When we are under stress our heart rhythm pattern becomes erratic and our higher cognitive functioning becomes impaired. The HeartMath Institute has also found that that varying heart rate patterns which encompass different emotional states have a huge impact on our emotional processing and perception of stress. With positive emotional states and heart patterns having a significant body wide effect. Yes, our thoughts are having a pretty powerful effect on our body!
IMPORTANT: Know the symptoms of a heart attack!
It is hard to always know when you are having heart trouble. Be aware of the symptoms so that you can recognise if you or if someone near to you is having a heart attack. People who look fit and healthy can have heart attacks too!
You may experience tightness, pressure or pain in your chest, shoulder, jaw, arm, neck or back. You might also experience rapid sweating, shortness of breath, nausea, dizziness and fatigue. Always tell someone how you are feeling if you are worried and call an ambulance immediately if you are experiencing any of these problems or if you see someone else and you think that they may be experiencing all of these symptoms.
Links:
Dr Esselstyn is a leading plant-based doctor who specialises in healing and reversing the symptoms of heart disease through consuming a plant-based diet. Here is a link to his book ‘Prevent and Reverse Heart Disease’.
‘The China Study’ by Dr Colin T Campbell discusses the high-fat Western diet in relation to low-fat Eastern diets and their levels of heart disease. This book is based on thirty years of research citing the benefits of a whole foods plant-based diet in reducing all major diseases.
Must Watch: Entertaining and informative talk from Dr. Michael Greger from Nutrition Facts on the leading causes of death and how a plant-based diet is beneficial to staying healthy. He also has a great book called ‘How Not To Die’ which outlines all of the best plant based foods to prevent and heal disease.
Plant-Based Foods and Prevention of Cardiovascular Disease research from The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.
‘Halt Heart Disease with a Plant-Based, Oil-Free Diet’ from Harvard Health.
‘Mending a Broken Heart. How a Vegan Diet Prevents and Cures Heart Disease’ from Viva Health.
Check out the brilliant infographic below from Study Medicine Europe and learn how to love your heart and find out what to do at every age to reduce your risk of heart disease!
