Super foods and supplements for a healthy heart

You are what you eat! If you have a history of heart disease in your family or concerned about heart disease I recommend you begin by implementing these food types into your daily eating habits to maintain a healthy heart.

Super nutrition for a healthy heart

1. Eat your organic seeds and nuts (heaped tablespoon) or 1 tablespoon of cold pressed olive oil / flax oil.
2. Eat 2-3 fresh organic fruits per day.
3. Eat 3-4 servings of organic grains per day: rice, millet, rye, oats or quinoa (as cereal).
4. Eat five servings of organic vegetables per day: watercress, broccoli, spinach, green beans, peas, carrots, sweet potato and peppers.
5. Water: 1.5 – 2 litres per day – reverse osmosis, filtered, bottled or distilled.
6. Eat at least 50% food raw and eat organic fruit and vegetables.
7. Avoid burnt, fried, browned food as well as excess animal fat.
8. No sugar, white flour, processed food, preservatives and chemical additives.
9. Reduce alcohol consumption if you have BPH and have no alcohol if you have prostate cancer
10. Eat organic beans and legumes daily (tofu, quinoa & seed vegetables).
11. Always have proteins with each meal: cheese, yoghurt, eggs, nuts, fish, chicken, red meat.
12. Eat at least breakfast, lunch and supper – snack if needed in between with fruit and almonds.
13. Please consume BST hormone- free dairy products please.
14. Rotate foods – do not eat the same foods every day.
15. Eat fish 2 to 3 times a week minimum.  Low fat fish (0.1-2.9%): angelfish, geelbek, hake, kingklip, kabeljou  Medium-fat fish (3-10.9): pilchards, snoek, tuna, yellowtail
    High-fat fish (11-30%): barracuda, salmon, butterfish, herring, mackerel, sardines
16. Limit exposure to chemicals – herbicides and pesticides present to the body as estrogens
17. Limit lead, cadmium and mercury exposure and quit smoking
18. Eliminate all Transfats from the diet – pastries and biscuits
19. Re-pack food in plastic containers into glass containers ASAP

The best way to prepare food

Do a 2-minute sauté followed by adding water based sauce and let the food “steam-fries” at lower temperatures. Grilling, steaming, boiling or baking is better cooking methods than any form of frying. Do not kill your food by cooking it to death – you destroy the live enzymes and nutrients.

Healthy heart supplements

• Multivitamin and multi-minerals: preferably of organic origin
• Antioxidants like Grapeseed extract, Alpha Lipoic Acid and/or Coenzyme Q10
• Vitamin C – 2000mg per day in divided doses
• EPA/DHA fish oils 1200-2400mg and eat oily fish 3 times per week
• Vitamin E 400mg
• Viscum Alb herbal tincture
• Magnesium 300mg daily

Warning

If you are on a low dose of aspirin and you take extra vitamin E and/or extra omega 3 oils – your blood might become too thin – check PI – discuss with healthcare professional.

It is important to re-evaluate your supplementation programme with any major health status change. Get professional assistance from your integrative healthcare doctor with your supplementation programme.

References:

1. New Optimum Nutrition Bible – Patrick Holford
2. Prescription Alternatives – Earl Mindell
3. Natural medicine – Beth Maceoin
4. Herbal Medicine – expanded commission E Monographs
5. Genesende Voeding – Dr Willem Serfontein
6. Gesondheid vir `n leeftyd – Dr Christiaan
7. Men`s Health September 2006
8. Townsend Letter June 2009 issue #311