Simple Nutrition Insights
Welcome to Simple Nutrition Insights, your practical guide to understanding nutrition in less than 30 minutes. Join us as we break down the science of healthy eating into digestible insights and actionable tips. Whether you're a busy parent or just short on time, our goal is to provide you with straightforward advice to enhance your well-being. Tune in for expert interviews, evidence-based advice, and quick, easy-to-implement strategies for nourishing your body and living your best life.
Simple Nutrition Insights
Heart Disease Prevention Starts with Your Daily Choices
Unlock the secrets to safeguarding your heart and reducing your risk of heart disease with practical lifestyle changes! By tuning in, you'll discover how up to 80% of cardiovascular diseases are preventable through everyday actions. Join me, Leonila Campos, a registered dietitian, as we confront the grim fact that heart disease remains the leading cause of death worldwide. We explore how habits like diet, exercise, and smoking influence heart health and highlight the significant dangers of plaque buildup in the arteries. With Heart Health Month as our backdrop, we break down key risk factors and offer actionable steps you can take to prioritize your heart's wellbeing.
Prepare to be enlightened on the profound impact of dietary choices on cardiovascular health. We'll uncover the hidden hazards of refined carbs and trans fats lurking in your pantry, subtly sabotaging your health goals. Learn about the innovative 3-2-1 nutrition method, which emphasizes a balanced intake of lean proteins, vegetables, and whole grains, seamlessly aligning with the Mediterranean diet's heart-healthy principles. We'll also spotlight powerhouse foods like fatty fish, leafy greens, and berries, detailing their roles in fortifying your heart. From managing portions of calorie-dense nuts to integrating omega-3-rich options into your meals, this episode is packed with insights and practical advice to empower your journey towards a healthier heart.
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Hey, welcome back to another episode of the Simple Nutrition Insights Podcast. I am your host, leonila Campos, registered dietitian, and I am really excited to start February, so this episode is actually airing on February 3rd. I am recording it and releasing it. It has been a pretty busy few weeks and so I'm a little bit behind with my post podcast recording, but anyway, we're making it happen here, my people.
Speaker 1:So today's episode is in regards to heart health. So February is actually heart health month, and so I wanted to really focus on today's episode on heart health. How can we take care of our hearts and just to give you a little bit of statistics to you as to why is it so important to take care of our heart. So it's the perfect time to talk about that how nutrition plays a role in keeping our hearts strong and preventing heart disease. Here's why Heart disease is the leading cause of death worldwide. So, according to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, in the US alone, a person dies every 30 seconds from cardiovascular disease. That's heart disease. That's more than 695,000 deaths each year, accounting for one in every five deaths. Globally. The World Health Organization reports that heart disease claims about 17.9 million lives annually. That's a significant number. But here's the good news Up to 80% of cardiovascular diseases can be prevented with the right lifestyle choices, including a heart healthy diet. So today we'll break down the best foods for heart health, which foods to limit and simple ways to improve your heart health through nutrition. So stay tuned and let's get started.
Speaker 1:Before we get into food, let's talk about what causes heart disease. Heart disease develops when plaque builds up in your arteries, making it harder for blood flow. This increases the risk of heart attacks, strokes and high blood pressure. Some key risk factors include poor diet, high in saturated fats, trans fats and processed foods, lack of physical activity, smoking and excessive alcohol consumption, high cholesterol and high blood pressure, diabetes and obesity. While genetics play a role, your daily choices are the biggest determining factor, and these are things that we can change right, these are modifiable, these are preventative. Well, these are things that we have control over. Now let's get into the foods that can help lower our risk for heart disease and improve our cardiovascular health Fatty fish so fatty fish, like salmon, mackerel, sardines, tuna.
Speaker 1:They are rich in omega-3 fatty acids, which help reduce inflammation and lower triglycerides. Studies show that eating fish twice a week can lower heart disease risk by 30%. Now fish twice a week can lower heart disease risk by 30%. Now, if we are vegan, plant-based, or we just don't eat fish, we still can get our omega-3 fatty acids from plant sources like walnuts and chia seed, ground, flax seeds, or we can also do an omega-3 supplement containing DHA and EPA. Of course, you always want to consult with your healthcare provider, your dietician, to make sure that you choose the right one right in, to make sure that if you do need it, you add that accordingly.
Speaker 1:Leafy greens, spinach, kale, switch chard they are high in nitrates, so it's different from nitrites right, which are often recommended to avoid or limit because they have been shown to contribute to cancer. So these are naturally compounds right found in these leafy greens which actually help lower blood pressure. So nitrates you also find nitrates in beads, now oftentimes it's more so nitric oxide that helps the blood flow to or the vessels to be more flexible and for blood flow to circulate better. So leafy greens, spinach, kale, swiss chard beets are amazing sources for that. They also contain antioxidants like vitamin K that prevent artery hardening. Now there is some considerations here to keep in mind that if you are on certain medications right, vitamin K oftentimes is not recommended to increase significantly. So if you are already eating some of these foods and you're used to eating some of these foods, that usually is not a concern. Oftentimes it's a concern if you are taking some of these medications and your doctor will tell you and you start adding a ton of these foods. Right, it's not that if you're taking a medication to you know to thin your blood, right, for example, or to prevent clotting, it would have too much vitamin K, right, which is essentially the opposite and that could be a problem, right? But because you are on that specific medication. But if you're not, adding some of these leafy greens can help, as it does provide some of these high antioxidant components that helps with inflammation, and then also the vitamin K that helps with preventing the hardening of the arteries.
Speaker 1:Blueberries, strawberries, raspberries, boysenberries there's all kinds of berries. They are packed with polyphenols and flavonoids which reduce inflammation and improve blood flow vessel function. A study in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition found that people who ate or who eat three servings of berries per week have a 30% lower risk of heart attack. So berries are your friends. Add berries whenever you want with your breakfast, with your snacks, with your lunch whenever you want to add them. They also provide a good amount of fiber and those antioxidants, too, that also help your cells at a cellular level and help with inflammation and oxidation. So berries have so many amazing components Nuts and seeds like almonds, walnuts, flax seeds, chia seeds they are rich in healthy fats, fiber and magnesium, which support heart health.
Speaker 1:Studies show that eating a handful of nuts daily can reduce heart disease risk by 20%. So let's be a bit more specific here, right? Sometimes I do see people eating handfuls throughout the day. You still have to keep in mind that, even though they are packed with healthy fats, fiber, magnesium, selenium and other minerals, we cannot just be mindlessly eating them throughout the day, right, because they are higher in our healthy fats, which are going to be higher in calories. So if that is also a concern that you have, keep those things in mind and you only need an ounce, right, which is one serving an ounce or a quarter cup of these healthy fats or these nuts and seeds right, to get most of the nutrients, you can add two, you know, two servings, if you like, for variety, but it's a good idea to add them also, being mindful of those things too. So we cannot just add them mindlessly.
Speaker 1:Whole grains like oats, quinoa, brown rice, whole wheat. They are high in fiber, which lowers LDL, which is the bad cholesterol. Research shows that people who eat at least three servings of whole grains daily have a 22% lower risk of heart disease. And I'm going to talk about fiber a little bit more in a moment, but I want you to keep fiber in mind Legumes, lentils, chickpeas, black beans. They are rich in plant-based protein and fiber, which help control blood sugars and cholesterol. Eating legumes four times a week can cut heart disease risk by 14%. You're going to like this one. I hope this is bringing you a little bit of joy. Dark chocolate at least 70% cocoa contains flavonoids that improve circulation and lower blood pressure, and actually a Harvard study found that people who eat dark chocolate five times per week that's, you know, once daily almost have a lower risk of heart disease. So let's talk a little bit about fiber here Now.
Speaker 1:Oftentimes, when I have clients come to me either for cholesterol management or they have high cholesterol or high triglycerides, or if they have high LDL, which is the bad cholesterol, and low HDL, which is your good cholesterol the first thing that I do is that I ask lots of questions. I always ask lots of questions because I want to understand the whole. You right, I want to be able to really dig deep and understand the root cause as to why we're having these issues. So oftentimes we think, well, we're eating enough veggies, right, or we're eating. I should be eating enough fiber because I'm eating all kinds of salads. The reality here is that most of the times, salads like if we just are adding romaine lettuce or iceberg lettuce or whatever, and we have a big bowl and that is all we add. That's not a lot of fiber. It usually has like maybe one gram of fiber and we need about 30 grams of fiber. So it doesn't mean that we have to eliminate those foods, right, but we have to add more nutrition to those salads, right? Let's add some cucumbers, let's add some berries. Let's add some chickpeas right for that extra fiber and plant protein sources. Let's add some chopped walnuts right from some of those omega-3s. So when you add more nutrition to that salad, right, then you are definitely adding more fiber, more nutrition, which is going to help you to feel more satiated. At the same time, it's going to help you lower your cholesterol.
Speaker 1:Fiber plays a huge role in so many areas of our lives, specifically in cholesterol management. Because, again, fiber acts as like a sponge right, when we eat high-fiber foods, that high fiber is going to be going into the digestive tract, right, and that acts as a sponge and absorbs all of that cholesterol at the same time. Clean our intestines, right, and we get rid of that extra cholesterol, extra blood sugar, through the stool. And so fiber again plays a huge role. We have to be able to be aware of how much fiber we're having and where the fiber is coming from. Right, again, we can absolutely have lots of salads if we want to, but we have to be strategic, as while we're adding to that salad, to make sure that we're having enough fiber. Otherwise, we can have these salads right Volume-wise, we feel satiated, but we're not getting enough fiber.
Speaker 1:The other thing, too right and that's going to come next is that we have to be aware of where our cholesterol is coming from. Now, our bodies make cholesterol already. So if we were to just eliminate all the cholesterol-containing foods, we'll be okay. Right, because our body makes it, but we also get it from everything that comes from an animal. It's going to have cholesterol as well as saturated fat. Essentially, that's what we need to be more cautious of. Now there's one plant source actually two plant sources that also provide saturated fat, and that's coconut and palm palm tree either oil or the actual fruit. So if we have high cholesterol, right, and we've been diligent about changing our nutrition, but we have high intake of coconut, right, that could also contribute to our saturated fats. Even the plant source you know containing saturated fat can also affect our LDL levels.
Speaker 1:Okay, so let's go into foods to limit right, or to be cautious about when we have high cholesterol or when we have heart disease or cardiovascular disease. The first one is processed and red meat. Now, this is more so because they're high in saturated fat and sodium, which can raise blood pressure. But there's also studies that link frequent consumption to these processed and red meats to a 42% increased risk of heart disease. So when you think of your deli meats, your bacon, your hot dogs, hot dog links, spam those types of processed red meats. The second one is sugary drinks, sodas, coffee, energy drinks. More so because they are linked to obesity because of the high intake or the high amount of sugar and calories that can also contribute to diabetes and high triglycerides. So consuming one sugary drink per day raises heart disease risk by 20%. Now, if you have two sugary drinks, that's 40% increase. Right, oftentimes, as we are really being aware of where our calories are coming from, where is the saturated fat is coming from or the other possible reasons as to why we're having cardiovascular disease maybe because our triglycerides are high. Oftentimes, if that is coming from a sugary drink, decreasing that amount right, the frequency or the type is really going to decrease our risk for heart disease. Right, as we are seeing here, that one sugary drink per day raises heart disease by 20%. Right. Now, your body, our bodies, are so amazing that you're not going to see that right away. Right, heart disease it's a chronic condition, just like diabetes, just like obesity, and so you're not going to see that right away, but you will see in a matter of years, right, and so as we continue to do that, we're continuing to increase our risk. So making those smaller changes can make a huge impact in our overall health.
Speaker 1:Number three refined carbohydrates. Right, like when we think about white flours, lots of pastries or baked goods. Right, Because they cause blood sugar spikes and insulin resistance, which can harm the heart as well. Not only to mention right that if we're having these sugar spikes, right, the sugar roller coasters, and we have that response of the insulin and we're not utilizing that blood sugar right, or we're not utilizing that sugar for energy because we're not exercising or because, you know, we're sedentary, that insulin is not. The role of the insulin is not only to lower your blood sugar, but it's also to create fat cells. Right, because there's our liver cells, our muscle cells, our brain cells are already saturated with sugar or glycogen, which is a store form of sugar that your body's like. Well, they're saturated. Where do we put this sugar? Right, we have to create fat cells to be able to store it there. So insulin has that role right, and so it would keep having these sugar spikes. That's what insulin is doing.
Speaker 1:Trans fats Trans fats you're going to find them in fried foods, margarine, processed baked goods and trans fats.
Speaker 1:There are some trans fats naturally occurring in animal foods, but these are trans fats that have been chemically created by the food industry to be able to mass produce food but also to make food more shelf-stable. And so when you look at your nutritional facts label, you're going to see all these nutrients right, you're going to see total fat, saturated fat, trans fat, carbohydrates, et cetera. On the trans fat, you're always going to see it as zero, right? But that's because if FDA, as the food industry, to minimize the amount of trans fats used in foods and to not go over 0.5 grams per serving, because they have seen how impactful it is in cardiovascular health, but that doesn't mean that it doesn't have trans fat. It just means that it has less than 0.5 grams and so they don't have to put it on the food label.
Speaker 1:However, we as consumers have to do our due diligence and look at the ingredients list and see if there's something called partially or fully hydrogenated oils, that is a trans fat. So anytime that you see partially or fully hydrogenated oils, whatever the oil is, that is a trans fat. Now again, excuse me, it doesn't mean that it has more than 0.5 grams, but if it's a product that we're going to be eating day after day, that is going to be accumulated to more than 0.5 grams, which is going to contribute to heart disease. So and here's why because these trans fats increase LDL cholesterol while lowering your HDL cholesterol, and that because if you don't have enough HDL cholesterol, which is what helps to lower the bad cholesterol, right, and we have this imbalance and the more that we have them right, the higher the LDL cholesterol is going to be. So it's important that we keep those things in mind and we do our due diligence when we're buying products. I would suggest probably reading that reading not only the nutrition facts label, but the ingredients list as well when you're buying products, to make sure that it doesn't have any trans fats. So, essentially, these, in a nutshell, are some of the foods that we have to be cautious about, right, when we're trying to prevent cardiovascular disease, when we're trying to lower LDL or total cholesterol, and just overall, to protect our hearts, our vessels right, which go everywhere.
Speaker 1:Okay, let's put some of these tips into practice, right, and how to make the best out of this episode. So I did an episode and I'm going to bring it back just as a reminder, but I did a podcast episode on my 3-2-1 nutrition method, right, which I use essentially with every single client that I get, because it's pretty simple to follow, right. Obviously, we can add more nutrition to those meals, but this is like a starting guide, right? So the idea is to add three ounces of protein, right Lean sources of protein in each meal. So if you're adding animal sources, right, try to stay with the leaner sources as much as you can.
Speaker 1:You know, if you want chicken breast, if you want turkey, if you want lean beef, as well as adding some plant sources, right, you want to be able to add plant proteins at least twice a week because those plant sources are not going to add any cholesterol, any saturated fat. So if you're choosing your tofu, your tempeh, your seitan, your aromama beans, legumes right, they're not adding any saturated fat. So if you're choosing your tofu, your tempeh, your seitan, your aromama beans, legumes right, they're not adding any saturated fat, no cholesterol or trans fats right, because they don't have those. Those only from most of your plant sources, I'm sorry, most of your animal sources, with the exception again of coconut that will have higher amounts of saturated fat. So try to have at least three ounces of protein, right.
Speaker 1:Lean sources, your two cups of vegetables, you know. Try to add some spinach, some kale, different colors, right, keeping in mind that we want to make sure we're adding those throughout the day to increase our fiber. Your fiber only comes from plant sources, so you want to be able to add them at every single meal, if possible, and then you want your one serving of carbohydrates, preferably whole grain like quinoa, brown rice. If you want to add sweet potato or regular potato, right, those are some options to you and then you have a balanced meal. If you want to refresh it on the five food groups right, don't hesitate to go back to that episode from last year, and that's where I talk about the five food groups and adding some of these other food groups into this method to have more of a complementary type of meal. Now I want to say that last week, I did an episode on the different diets right in 2025 in the US report, and the Mediterranean diet usually comes pretty strong year after year, and that's because the Mediterranean diet right.
Speaker 1:It serves as a guide for cardiovascular health, but also because it basically adds all the foods that I mentioned right, that help with our heart health. They follow that right. So lots of vegetables, healthy fats or lean proteins or whole grains, and so if you want something more structured to follow, try doing the Mediterranean diet right and fitting in some of the foods that you enjoy to make it more personable. There's research that shows that this Mediterranean diet reduces heart disease risk by up to 30%, right? So if you're wanting something more visual, right. There's so many resources out there that show you what the Mediterranean diet is, so you can absolutely start there as a guide.
Speaker 1:The other factor that we have to keep in mind is limiting salt and added sugar. We want to aim for less than 2,300 milligrams of sodium per day, which is about one teaspoon of salt a day. Now, if you already have high blood pressure, the recommendation is less than 1,500 milligrams of sodium a day, and that's because, if we add more sodium right, that makes your heart work harder because the kidneys are retaining more water and that increases blood pressure, which affects your heart. And so, if we already have high blood pressure, the recommendation for sodium is 1,500 milligrams or less. If there are no issues, the general recommendation is less than 2,300 milligrams of sodium per day. It's so dependent. If you're really active, if you live in a really humid place or if you're sweating all the time, there might be some changes there, but this is, for the general population, general guidelines here.
Speaker 1:Oftentimes and I do hear this often with clients is that, oh, I don't add a lot of salt in my food or I don't cook with a lot of salt, but maybe we're using more concentrated forms of salt, right? Either we buy lots of soups, right? Canned soups or lots of processed foods, or we eat out a lot, or we use the flavoring right Seasoning that has salt in it, like the chicken bouillon or something along those lines. It's highly concentrated in salt and we're not going to sense it as much, right, but that doesn't mean that it doesn't have a lot of sodium. So keeping those things in mind too, and so knowing where your sodium is coming from, can also help. And if you have high blood pressure, even more so, right, you have to know where your salt and sodium are coming from to be able to manage it better.
Speaker 1:Using avocado oil, right, or olive oil, to like, for dressings or drizzling. I don't recommend cooking with olive oil if you're going to have the high heat, right, if you're going to use high heat, because the smoking point is low and so your olive oil is going to burn faster. So choose avocado oil, which has a higher smoking point. Plan ahead, right. Oftentimes that might be a great solution, right? If we find it.
Speaker 1:We're so busy, if we have so many things on our plate, and the reasons why we're eating now so often or so much is because we're not planning ahead. And so planning your meals ahead is going to make a huge difference and it's going to save you time, it's going to help your health, it's going to save you money, but you also are not going to have to think about okay, why do I cook, what do I make, what am I going to eat today? Because when we are so hungry, that's the last thing that we want to think about. It's really difficult to make an informed choice when we are already think about. It's really difficult to, you know, make an informed choice when we are already hungry, right. Our bodies are like dude who cares, just feed me. So it's better to plan ahead, right? And then, if you have the means, buy ingredients that are already pre-cut or pre-chopped for you, or pre-cooked if you want, and it's easier to put them together, right. Yes, you might be paying more, but you have to have the trade-off, right? Do I spend more time doing that or can I spend a little bit more money? But I know that it's going to reduce some more of that prep time. So think about those things. I know we went over quite a lot. Definitely, go back to the show notes. Go back to the episode, right, if you want to write some things down, but just to recap, right, really quick here.
Speaker 1:Heart disease, right, cardiovascular disease is a chronic condition that we can prevent, right, we have. Oftentimes, our food choices are going to be the main contributors to these conditions. So we have the power to make healthier choices. We have the power to choose more balanced meals, right, we are able to read the food label and the ingredients list to make sure that we're avoiding those trans fats decreasing our saturated fat, which all contribute to heart disease. And the only other thing that I didn't talk about is movement, right, fats decreasing our saturated fat, which all contribute to heart disease. And the other thing that I didn't talk about is movement. Right, our bodies are meant for movement, and I say this time after time it helps with blood circulation, right, but movement is another thing that helps HDL to go up, right, not a lot of things can make HDL go up Our omega-3s, our fiber and movement. Those things will help our HDL, our good cholesterol, to go up. So if we're doing these other two things, where we're optimizing our healthy fats, our omega-3s, and we're adding at least 30 grams of fiber, and we're not seeing a lot of change in our HDL.
Speaker 1:We have to add that exercise right, and so it doesn't have to be go to the gym if you don't want to, right or like start running. Just move your body a little bit more, right? If you're sitting all day, okay, I'm going to get up every hour, right, and just go from here to get some water, right, or just walk in place Whatever feels right, but you have to move your body. This is not negotiable, right? This is something that you have to do to help your body. Anyway, you have to remember that your heart works hard for you every single day, so let's give it the nutrition that it deserves.
Speaker 1:Small changes can lead to major improvements in heart health. If you need more support, if you need more guidance, please don't hesitate to reach out to me. You can send me a text through Apple Podcast. You can call me or send me a text at 559-512-0404. I know there could be conflicting information out and again be conflicting information out when you are doing some research. So work with a registered dietitian right, again, we are the food and nutrition experts. Work with a dietitian to do a personalized plan to make sure that if you do have heart disease or if you're getting into high cholesterol or those borderline levels, that you do something about it versus like well, now we have to have a stent or we have a heart attack because we didn't change anything. So you have the power. Now you have to act on it. All right, my friend? Stay safe, stay strong. Don't forget to subscribe to Simple Nutrition Insights. Share this podcast with anyone that might find it beneficial. I will talk to you and see you in another episode. Bye-bye for now.