Lisa Nelson, RD

How to Stock a Heart Healthy Kitchen

If you keep heart healthy foods on hand and easily accessible you will be much more likely to see success in your efforts to lower cholesterol and blood pressure. If you keep unhealthy foods within reach you will make it much harder to achieve your heart health goals. Don’t rely on will power! Stock you kitchen for success. Here are some essentials to keep on hand:

Whole grains

Whole grains, such as barley, oats, rice, buckwheat, and quinoa, are rich in fiber, antioxidants, vitamins, and minerals. These nutrient dense grains promote a healthy heart.

Olive oil
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Lower Blood Pressure by Trimming Your Waistline

Waist circumference has a direct relationship to high blood pressure and lipid (cholesterol) levels.

A study published in the Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine found the greater the Waist-to-Height Ratio the worse the lipid profile and hypertension in adolescents.

This particular study evaluated 4,104 ninth-grade students between the ages of 14 and 15 years-old during the 2009 – 2012 school year. Body mass index was used to classify waist measurements.

The greater the waist-to-height ratio, the greater the risk for poor lipid profiles and high blood pressure compared to those with normal body mass indexes and waist-to-height ratios.
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Heart Health: Are you selecting whole grains?

By selecting whole grains you consume more nutrient dense foods that provide higher fiber content . . . all of which equals a heart healthy choice. Whole grain products contain all layers of the whole grain – the bran, the germ, and the endosperm. When it comes to selecting whole grains, you have many more options than just being sure to grab 100% whole wheat bread when grocery shopping. There are many whole grain varieties available to you.

Oats

Oats almost never having the bran or germ removed during processing. This means when you read a food label and see oats or oat flour listed as an ingredient, it’s safe to know this is a whole grain ingredient. Oatmeal has been linked to lower cholesterol levels.
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Better than Takeout: Frugal Asian Feasts for Vegans to Cook

This is a guest post provided by Elizabeth Baker. Elizabeth is on FrugalDad team, providing insights on frugality and savings. Her area of focus and interest deals with the intersection of food and frugality. She’s always asking the question, “how do I make healthy eating decisions without spending an arm and a leg?”

In this particular article Elizabeth discusses Asian foods and recipes. A word of caution if you deal with high blood pressure. . . Asian dishes can be high in sodium. For example, soy sauce contains 1006 mg of sodium per Tbsp. You may have to do some recipe modifications.

The following is the article provided by Elizabeth.


It’s always tough finding new meals to try as a vegan. Even worse, if you’re looking for food to cook that is both ethnic and vegan-friendly, you may just think you’re out of luck. Before you head to the nearest restaurant, however, remember that there are plenty of meals you can cook in the comfort of your own house for a fraction of the price. If you plan ahead, and look ahead for some online grocery discounts, you can enjoy some of these cheap and delicious Asian feasts to try making yourself.

Vegetable Fried Rice

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5 Steps to Achieve a Healthy Heart

You don’t have to begin a drastic diet in order to achieve your heart health goals. Big results can be achieved by improving your daily habits one step at a time.

Here are 5 steps you can implement now for a healthy heart:

Step 1 – Add fruits and vegetables to your daily diet

That’s right, I’m not telling you to eliminate a food, but to add foods. Fruits and vegetables are essential. Add fruit and/or vegetable to every meal or snack to boost your intake of this necessary food group. It’s estimated that our intake of vegetables is usually only 59% of what it should be and fruit only 42%.

Step 2 – Switch processed grains for whole grains
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Healthy, Wealthy & Wise Gifts 2 Giveaway Offers 400+ FREE Health and Wellness Related Products, Services & Memberships


I wanted to let you know today about a Health and Wellness site that will allow you to download 100’s of self help gifts. And the best part is that it is absolutely FREE!

If you’ve had enough of plodding along year after year and you want to improve yourself and your health to make this your BEST ever year, then you need to go here: http://healthywealthywisegifts2.com/go/467

The 2nd annual Healthy, Wealthy & Wise Gifts will be open only for a VERY LIMITED TIME from June 14th to July 5th, 2012. When you go there you’ll find a multitude of products – all FREE – provided by Health, Fitness, Wellness and Prosperity experts from all over the world. Here is just a small sample of what you will find:

  • Ultimate Life 21 Day Challenge – Ginny Dye
  • Extreme Health Resolution Secrets – Vint Atkinson
  • Your Income And Your Health – Tom Corson-Knowles
  • Quantum Soul Clearing Small Book of Quotes – Michelle Manning-Kogler
  • The Self Confidence Report – Drifa Ulfarsdottir
  • Vision Board Master Class – Pamela Moss
  • Starved, Stressed and STILL not losing weight? 7 Steps to Eliminate Dieting from Your Life FOREVER – Lianda Ludwig
  • Use Your Breath to Free Your Life – Maggie Ostara
  • Affirmations For a Wealthy Mindset Audio – Elaine Lockard
  • Allow Abundance Gratitude Meditation – Wendy Betterini
  • 20 Mistakes to Avoid in the Gym – Earl Netwal
  • And TONS (OVER 400+) MORE!

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