Heart Health 4 – Nutrition

By: Katie Cook

Hello again. I hope you are all doing well as you are reading this. This week’s topic is nutrition.

I have a love/hate relationship with cooking. I love to cook, but I hate cleaning up after myself. In our go-go lifestyle, sometimes it is easy to fall back on fast food, restaurants, or quick meals that lack nutrition.

Meals eaten at a restaurant are also typically larger than what we need to feel full and we may over-eat or not pay attention to our portions. According to Time magazine, a recent study states that one meal at a restaurant can average about 1,200 calories or more, which is over half, if not more than half of our recommended daily caloric intake. And this is just a meal. What if we order appetizers too?

Food in restaurant meals often contain high amounts of fat as most things are cooked in butter or grease. Foods high in fats can cause a buildup of plaque in our blood vessels, leading to narrowing and eventually, heart disease.

Restaurant and fast foods are usually heavily seasoned with salt. Salt causes our bodies to hold on to excess water, leading to more fluid the heart needs to pump around the body. The heart must then work harder and this leads to higher blood pressure. That is the skinny version. Again, I won’t bore you with more details.

So, the more often we eat at fast food and sit down restaurants, weight gain, high blood pressure, and plaque buildup can result. I am not telling you not to eat the cake, so to speak, just make sure you are conscious of how often.

Here are some quick tips to make eating at home easier and more sustainable.

Buy ingredients that can make a quick meal. This includes whole wheat breads, eggs, canned fruits and veggies. Things like Greek yogurt also make a good breakfast base (be sure to be aware of the sugar some of the flavors have snuck in their ingredients).

Prepare your meals ahead of time. You can make things like muffins, egg bites, and casseroles ahead of time. Or make a double batch of your meal and freeze half for another night you know you won’t have time to cook.

If you need healthy meal and snack ideas, the American Heart Association is a great resource. They have options for snacks, meals, and how to make changes to benefit your overall health.