It’s no coincidence that February is the month that symbolizes the heart. In fact, the origin of St. Valentine’s Day dates back as far as the 14th century in Britain, where it began as a festival celebrating lovers. The St. Valentine’s Day tradition started since it was widely thought that birds chose their mate on (or around) February 14th!
Today, when we think of Heart health, we think of our heart as a muscle, whose job it is to circulate blood throughout our whole body. The heart pumps into arteries which transport oxygenated blood to every part of our body. An interesting fact: The more flexible our arteries, the less friction or resistance to blood flow, and this makes it easier for your heart to pump blood.
To minimize this resistance, we need to prevent as much as possible the build-up of fatty deposits on the walls of our arteries, reducing the risk of atherosclerosis and other heart health problems. Depending on what we eat over many years, these fatty deposits have the potential to form in our arteries, making them stiffer and less flexible, and as a result causing our heart to work harder.
To visualize how our arteries work, imagine a long hose filled with water used to water flowers in summer. If the water flows freely through the hose, the flowers will be watered and maximize their growth. If the hose gets pinched or kinked, it will create a resistance in the hose, and the flowers will receive less water and their blooming performance will be reduced.
The same idea applies to our arteries, which need to have as little restriction as possible for the blood to circulate better, and as a result allows our body to receive all of the nutrients it needs to keep our heart and other organs (e.g. brain, lungs, liver, eyes, stomach) healthy.
Some of the risk factors for heart disease that can be prevented or managed through healthy eating include:
– Diabetes
– High blood pressure
– Blood cholesterol levels
– Waist circumference
– Alcohol consumption
There are several strategies to protect our heart, but today we’re going to focus on the following one:
Improve fat quality by prioritizing monounsaturated fats.
Monounsaturated fats have the advantage of helping keep our arteries supple by preventing the build-up of fat on the walls of our arteries.
The best sources of monounsaturated fats are:
- Extra-virgin olive, canola or hazelnut oil
- Almonds, hazelnuts, pistachios, peanuts, cashew, macadamia or Brazil nuts
- Natural peanut or almond butter
- Avocado
- Salmon
- Mackerel
- Trout
- Sardines
A little bit of nuts in our cereal in the morning, a sliver of olive oil when stir-frying vegetables for lunch and fish at dinner once in a while, is a step towards gradually increasing our intake of heart-healthy fats!
I am delighted to continue working with you as a team to help keep your heart healthy!
Happy Valentine’s Day!
Your nutritionist,
Johanne Vézina
