6 Heart Healthy Food Groups: Gentle Nutrition and Intuitive Eating for Heart Health
Sadly, heart disease is consistently the leading cause of death in the United States. Of course, diet and lifestyle play a role in the development or management of heart disease. Often, though, the conversation around heart health heads straight towards weight loss or weight management.
But what if you’re trying to move away from dieting or disordered eating? Can you learn to eat intuitively, not focus on weight, and still manage chronic diseases such as heart disease?
The answer is a resounding yes! I want to illustrate for you how we do this by explaining a new study that offers great insights on six food groups (including suggested serving sizes) linked with better heart and overall health.
It’s also a great jumping off point to discuss how you can incorporate gentle nutrition and other non-diet guidance to help prevent or address heart and other chronic diseases.
Heart-Healthy Food Groups
This study published in July 2023 in the European Heart Journal looked at over 245,000 people (with and without prior heart disease) across 80 countries over the course of up to twenty years, combining results from six individual studies. I point this out because I want you to know that researchers looked at a large pool of people spread across the globe and across all income levels for a lengthy time period — a hallmark of widely applicable research.
They assigned folks a healthy eating score of zero (least healthy) to six (most healthy) depending on whether and how much of their self-reported diet consisted of five specific food groups known to be linked with lower mortality risk, plus a sixth, full-fat dairy. As you’ll see in a moment, new data is emerging regarding dairy, and the researchers wanted to study this further. Be sure to read through to the section explaining this bit!
Here’s what they found. The more closely participants’ diets aligned with the following foods and serving sizes, the lower their risk of fatal and non-fatal heart attacks, stroke, heart failure, and overall mortality:
Fruit: 2-3 servings daily (a serving size is equal to one medium apple, pear, or banana)
Vegetables: 2-3 servings daily (a serving equals one cup of leafy greens or ½ cup of other veg)
Legumes: 3-4 servings weekly (equivalent to 1/2 cup of beans or lentils)
Nuts: 7 servings weekly (1 ounce serving size)
Fish: 2-3 servings weekly (3 ounce serving size or about the size of a deck of cards)
Whole Fat Dairy: 14 servings weekly (ie, 1 cup of milk or yogurt or 1-1/2 ounces of cheese)
The healthy eating score also included moderate amounts of whole grains and unprocessed meats.
Analyzing the Data: What Does This Mean for Your Overall Nutrition and Heart-Healthy Eating Goals?
Let’s let’s explore why these foods are so beneficial, and then I can’t wait to show you some key observations about this study that may be helpful in terms of how you think about healthy eating overall!
The fiber, vitamins, minerals, antioxidants and other plant compounds found in fruits, veggies, and legumes are beneficial for heart and overall health. Soluble fiber, for example, binds to LDL (ie, the “bad”) cholesterol in your intestines, which you then end up excreting out of your body. This is why it’s often one element of nutrition therapy recommended for treating high cholesterol.
Nuts provide beneficial fiber and heart-healthy fats; seafood is a great source of brain- and heart-healthy omega 3s.
Likely, those facts aren’t news to you. But the inclusion of dairy, specifically whole fat dairy, in this study may come as a surprise. Previously, whole fat dairy was believed to contribute to increased risk of heart disease due to its saturated fat and cholesterol content. However, a growing body of research suggests this not only isn’t the case, but that whole fat dairy may actually be protective for cardiovascular health.
While the US dietary guidelines do not yet reflect this emerging science, it’s an interesting area of the research I’m continuing to follow. As always, if you’re wondering how this might apply to you, I encourage you to reach out for individualized nutrition guidance that’s tailored to your body and your needs.
Researchers in this study went out of their way to point out two more interesting things that I can’t help but highlight as a non-diet Intuitive Eating dietitian!
According to the authors, their findings suggest that one key to a health-promoting diet is that it includes a variety of diverse natural foods in moderation as opposed to restricting to just a few food groups. If you’ve been following along with me for a while, I hope this sounds familiar!
Second, the authors suggest that in terms of nutrition policy, it may be more helpful focus on encouraging people to increase their intake of protective foods, rather than over-emphasizing foods to limit and avoid.
What Toxic Diet Culture Gets Wrong About Healthy Eating
Their suggestions are in line with much of my approach to nutrition:
We should aim to make our diets as inclusive as possible because dietary variety is the key to getting our nutrient needs met
All foods can generally fit in a health-promoting diet (without guilt)
Our overall eating patterns matter far more than any individual meal or day
It’s more helpful to focus on foods (and behaviors) to ADD to your diet rather than those to take away
I can’t help but draw your attention to one more thing that struck me in this study. Notice how many of the foods they included are ones that toxic diet culture loves to demonize, such as fruit, nuts, or dairy? I’ve said it before and I’ll no doubt say it often in the future — dieting behaviors are not necessarily based in sound nutrition science or health promoting!
This is, of course, just one (albeit large) study; yet other similar research also points to the protective effects of a healthy eating pattern similar to the one identified in this study (minus, perhaps, the full-fat dairy).
How We Balance Heart Health or Manage Chronic Diseases with Intuitive Eating
Let’s circle back to the question I posed at the beginning, “how do you manage chronic diseases or promote your nutrition and health without focusing on weight?”
The answer is simple. By focusing on your health behaviors. Weight is not a behavior; you can’t “do” weight.
You CAN evaluate your overall eating patterns for clues on which shifts to your food and nutrition might be most helpful.
As an example, one might focus on:
Adding more fruits and vegetables to certain meals
Incorporating more omega-3s
Adding in legumes
Eating heart-healthy nuts
Getting high-quality protein, such as from dairy and lean meats
Swapping in whole grains
Cooking more at home
Eating without added guilt or stress (which can diminish overall health)
I could go on, and of course, your answer is going to be individualized to your unique body and lifestyle and current eating patterns, but hopefully you get the point. There are a lot of ways to improve your nutrition and health, without focusing on weight loss.
Indeed, Intuitive Eating has been linked with improvements in lab markers including blood pressure, cholesterol, blood sugar, and triglycerides, along with other measures of health including nutrient intake, body image, less disordered eating, improved psychological wellbeing, overall life satisfaction, and more.
Other “Whole Health” Ways to Promote Heart and Overall Health Beyond Nutrition
According to the CDC, nearly half of all Americans have at least one of the 3 biggest risk factors for heart disease — high blood pressure, high cholesterol, or smoking.
I share this because it provides clues for other ways we can lower our risk for heart disease through a weight-neutral lens, including:
Enjoyable Movement
Regular physical activity can lower your risk for heart disease, high blood pressure, stroke, diabetes, osteoporosis, and certain types of cancer. Plus, it can reduce stress, boost your moods, and improve your mental health.
If you’re not moving your body consistently and regularly, this is an excellent health habit to build. It’s common for our relationship with movement to suffer in diet culture along with our relationship with food and our bodies.
If you’re struggling to enjoy movement or be consistent with exercise, reach out and book a FREE whole health strategy call with me and let’s chat about how I can help you practice gentle nutrition and build other health-promoting behaviors you not only can but want to stick with!
Manage Your Stress
Chronic stress raises cortisol and other fight-or-flight hormones that can damage every organ system in your body over time, including your cardiovascular system. And of course, ongoing stress is detrimental for our mental and emotional wellbeing.
Here are some behaviors you could focus on to manage stress:
Meditation
Deep belly breathing
Movement
Getting outside in nature (daily or as often as possible)
Doing creative projects, like painting, singing, gardening, cooking, etc.
Rest
Don’t (or Quit) Smoking
If you’re a smoker or tobacco user of any kind, getting support to break that habit can have a tremendously positive impact on your overall health and reduce your risk for cancer, heart disease, and others.
Improve Your Sleep
Believe it or not, your body is doing important work when you sleep, including repairing tissues, clearing out waste products, regulating hormones and metabolism, and supporting your cardiovascular and immune system.
If you are chronically sleep deprived, working to improve your health habits will be well worth your effort. Some suggestions:
Aim to go to bed and wake up at the same time each day
Keep your bedroom cool and dark
Put screens away at least one hour before bedtime
Put your phone on silent if it’s in the room with you
Limit caffeine to early in the day
Avoid drinking large amounts of water or other liquids in the evening hours
Try to get at least 30 minutes of natural daylight, preferably towards the morning hours
Your Whole Health Is So Much More Than Your Weight
A weight-neutral approach to health invites you to zoom out from weight and look at your health in terms of your overall physical, mental, and emotional wellbeing. It encourages you to consider things that are within your control (your behaviors) and what’s not fully within your control (body shape and size, genetics, age, sex, and others).
It considers the harmful health effects of weight stigma and shame. And emphasizes that having a happy, healthy relationship with food is part of your physical, mental, and emotional health.
Not only that, but I like to share with people that having a healthy relationship with food is the critical (and often missing) foundation that enables you to make sustainable, impactful changes to your eating and other health behaviors.
Without this solid foundation in place, you’re far more likely to end up spinning your wheels, struggling in and out of diets, all-or-nothing approaches to food and exercise, or wrestling with downward thought and shame spirals that sabotage your best efforts to eat, move, and engage in other fundamental self-care that supports your overall health and wellbeing.
If you’d like help healing your relationship with food or focusing on your nutrition and health-promoting self-care outside of toxic diet culture, book a free strategy call with me here and let’s chat about how I may be able to help!
**The information provided in this article is for informational and educational purposes only, isn’t a substitute for individual medical or mental health advice, and doesn’t constitute a provider-patient relationship.