Think You Know the Best Foods for Heart Health? These Facts May Surprise You!

Our aging care professionals understand that it’s not always easy to know which are the best foods for heart health when recommendations appear to constantly be changing. We had been told that saturated fats from options including butter, red meat and fried foods were detrimental and could influence a person’s possibilities of developing heart complications, but later studies indicated there isn’t enough proof that those who gave up these foods improved their heart health – and so, we went back to our previous ways due to the go-ahead to select butter over margarine.

However, as revealed in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology, analysts clarify that the lack of evidence in limiting fatty foods is likely related to equally poor dietary choices selected instead of those fats – including refined carbs. In the study, it was shared that those who replaced fatty foods in their diet with healthier choices, including olive oil (a polyunsaturated fat) and whole grains, did lower their heart disease risk up to 25%.

According to Adela Hruby, one of many scientists in this study, “We know that people don’t just drop 10% of their calories…and not replace them with other things. What they’re adding in to replace what they’re not eating is really important.”

The research, led by Dr. Frank Hu of the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, was incredibly in-depth, monitoring the results of just under 130,000 participants of both genders over 30 years. Keeping track of dietary choices and any heart-related conditions, it was determined that both men and women who ate carbohydrates in place of fatty foods were attaining an almost equal risk of cardiovascular disease – a statistic missed in older studies that had determined there was no advantage to reducing the level of saturated fat in a meal plan.

So what might be the takeaway from this research? Better heart health may be gained by not just decreasing the total amount of saturated fat in a meal plan, but also by choosing healthier items instead of foods with lots of sugar or processed flour-based foods.

Harmony Home Health & Hospice, the leaders in home health care in Orem, UT and nearby areas, is here to help older individuals decrease their risk for heart attacks and disease through a wide range of in-home health care services, according to each person’s specific needs.

Contact us at 1-877-I-NEED-CARE (1-877-463-3322) to learn more about how our home health care services can help the seniors you love enjoy the highest quality of life where it’s most comfortable: at home.