NorthShore Hearts (#NSHearts) healthy eating and so should you. The importance of diet on the health of your heart can’t be overstated. A balanced diet contributes to one’s overall health and wellness, including maintaining weight, but certain foods can significantly improve your heart’s health while others can damage it. Know the difference and show your heart some love by eating heart healthy foods.

Jason Robin, MD, Cardiology at NorthShore, shares a few of the best and worst foods for your heart health:

You’re the Best!

• Go nuts. Tree nuts are best for heart health: almonds, cashews, pecans, pine nuts, walnuts. They are packed with protein and consist of unsaturated fats, which can help lower bad LDL cholesterol and boost your good HDL cholesterol. But, remember, unsaturated fat is still fat so consume tree nuts in moderation—no more than a handful, or about ¼ of a cup per day.
• Cool beans. Lentils and black, pinto and garbanzo beans are full of soluble fiber, which has been shown to lower blood pressure and bad cholesterol levels. They’re also rich in folate, a heart-healthy vitamin. Plus, they are the perfect substitute for animal proteins that are often high in saturated fats. 
• Opt for oats. Perfect for cold weather and heart-healthy to boot, oatmeal contains lots of omega-3 fatty acids, folate, potassium and fiber, which can all lower those bad LDL cholesterol levels and help prevent artery blockage. Choose your oats wisely—coarse/steel-cut oats are best. 
• Fish food. Fruit and vegetables should be the foundation of your healthy diet but adding a little heart-healthy fish can do wonders for the old ticker. Salmon is swimming in healthy omega-3s and antioxidants, which can keep blood pressure in check and potentially reduce one’s risk of dying from a heart attack. It also may decrease the risk of cardiac arrhythmias. If keeping wild salmon on hand is hard on your wallet, substitute mackerel, herring and sardines because they provide the same health benefits.
• Check your oil. It’s the monounsaturated fats that make olive oil a heart-healthy super food. Monounsaturated fats lower cholesterol levels and can reduce overall risk for developing heart disease. If you are watching your weight, it’s still important to use olive oil in moderation (2 tbsp per day) because it’s high in calories. 

You’re the Worst!

• Processed “meat”. Filled with sodium, preservatives, nitrates and nitrites, which have both been linked to heart problems, processed meat—bacon, sausage, hot dogs, even deli meats—are just about the worst animal-based protein you can include in your diet. In fact, even red meat is lower in saturated fats and higher in protein. 
• Seeing red. Red meat might be better than processed meat but it shouldn’t be the foundation of your diet. Moderation is key when it comes to red meat. You don’t have to go without but consider going lean (less than 10 grams of fat and 4.5 grams of saturated fat per serving), which reduces saturated fats considerably. 
• French fried. Artificial trans fats, or partially hydrogenated oils, are inexpensive to produce and have a long shelf life, which is why they are found frequently in processed foods and restaurants that specialize in the use of the deep fat fryer. Remember: Fried foods are often fried in shortening, which is a trans fat. Trans fats have been linked to an increased risk for heart disease and stroke. They lower good (HDL) cholesterol and raise bad (LDL) cholesterol levels. Fried foods are also very high in fat. Skip them altogether; however, if something must be fried, opt for a heart-healthy oil like olive oil. 
• Stop the pop. Fat, cholesterol, high blood pressure are all key words that come to mind when discussing heart health but what about sugar? That’s right, sugar! When it comes to sugar, your favorite pop/soda certainly contains a lot of it. One 20-ounce bottle of pop contains 65 grams of sugar or the equivalent of 16 sugar cubes. Drinking just one can of pop per day has been linked to a possible 20% increase in the risk of heart attack in men and women. 
• Feeling salty. Americans consume on average 3400 milligrams of sodium a day but the American Health Association recommends only 1500 mg per day. That’s a big difference. Diets high in sodium can increase blood pressure levels, leading to hypertension, which is a major risk factor for heart disease. So cut it out!  Set aside the salt shaker and start checking sodium levels in the foods you eat.

Find out what heart healthy tips and stories NorthShore hearts this American Heart Month by following #NSHearts on Facebook and Twitter.