CLEVELAND, Ohio (WOIO) – When it comes to eating right and heart healthy, better shopping is half the battle.
If it’s not in the house in the first place, you’re far less likely to eat things that aren’t good for you.
Heinen’s dietician, Melanie Jatsek, says a heart healthy diet is also an anti-inflammatory diet, so you’re doing your whole body better when you follow guidelines for a healthier heart.
“The great thing about a heart healthy diet is you’re not just eating to feed a healthy heart. You’re eating to feed a healthy brain, a healthy liver, healthy digestive system,” says Jatsek.
She says stay as close to plant-based as you can, limit added sugar and focus on fiber and healthy fats when you’re in those center aisles.
To cure a sweet tooth, she says indulge in walnut or almond butters, figs and dates.
“Natural sweetness. It’s Mother Nature’s candy,” Jatsek says.
In the cereal aisle, it’s sugar, not sodium that works against a healthy heart.
“The added sugar is what messes with cholesterol. You know, triglycerides on your blood panel, that’s the fat in your blood, which can raise due to too much sugar,” said Jatsek.
She recommends choices with three grams of fiber or more per serving.
One of the tricky places that you’ll find a lot of hidden sodium that’s no good for your heart, is condiments and sauces.
So pay attention to the labels. You’re going to want to find one that’s about 120 mg or less.
Jatsek suggests subbing in salsa in salads to add spice, and more vegetables, or even some creamy tahini as a versatile replacement for a condiment in a grain bowl.
“Tahini is great because, there’s no sodium in it. It’s good healthy fats from sesame seeds,” she said.
In the chip aisle, reach for black bean chips with sunflower oil, for more fiber, or corn tortilla chips made with avocado oil.
With convenience meals, seek out product lines like Blue Zones Kitchen that boost flavor by adding more herbs and less sodium.
For those watching their budget and their sodium intake, shopping can be even more difficult.
At the Hunger Network’s Midtown Market, the shelves are full of canned goods which can be high in preservatives.
Manage Elijah Knoll says they label them to help shoppers make healthier choices when they reach for things like boxes of macaroni and cheese.
“We would much rather, you choose something like our whole grain pasta or even just our bag of regular pasta, considering there’s no extra preservatives in these,” Knoll says.
Knoll says he stocks lower sodium options when he can, and provides shoppers with recipe guides incorporating fresh, maybe unfamiliar produce, so they can better feed a healthy heart.
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