Did you know that heart disease is the #1 killer of men AND women in the US? In fact, one in three people die of heart disease every year! That is approximately one person every minute! Even one is too many and there are nutrition and exercise things you can do to make your heart healthier TODAY! Don’t put yourself at risk by not taking the steps to get healthy with diet and exercise. Here are 5 things you can do every day to help your heart:

1. Exercise! Exercise can help with weight loss and/or maintenance in addition to participating in lowering your cholesterol and blood pressure. Exercise conditions your heart helping it get stronger and not have to work as hard to push blood through your body. Why is that important? It helps keep blood pressure in check! In addition, exercise helps raise your HDL, or good cholesterol, and having low HDL is a risk factor for heart disease.
2. Eat more fiber! The average person eats about 10-13 grams of fiber per day and the recommendation is 25-38 grams per day! You can increase your fiber intake by eating more whole grains (especially oats), consuming lots of vegetables and fruits with skins and adding a serving or two of beans and nuts to your day. Soluble fiber (found in oats, fruits with skins, almonds, beans, legumes, seeds, etc.) can help lower bad cholesterol ultimately improving the health of your heart. In addition, fiber helps you feel full faster, stay full longer and can help you take in less calories at meals.
3. Eat your omega-3s! Healthy fats, specifically omega-3s found in fatty fish, walnuts, seeds, soybeans and healthy oils, can help raise your HDL or good cholesterol. Eating fatty fish a few times a week can help you get your omega-3s and if you don’t like fish, you can also take 2 – 4 grams of fish oil a day to get your omega-3’s.
4. Skip the salt! Sodium, or salt, can contribute to an increase in blood pressure. If you are a heavy exerciser and sweat a lot, then replenishing your sodium is important because you are losing salt in sweat. However, for most people, consuming more whole foods instead of processed foods is helpful to decrease sodium intake. Plus, seasoning food with herbs and spices instead of salt can help reduce your sodium intake.
5. Cut back on saturated fat! Saturated fat in the diet can contribute to high LDL (bad) and total cholesterol levels. Limiting these fats like the kind you find in the skin on chicken, marbled in meat, baked goods, fried foods and in white, thick and creamy foods (salad dressings, cream cheese, gravy, Alfredo sauce, mayonnaise, etc.) will help decrease your saturated fat intake. The goal is to keep you saturated fat to less than 10% of total calories.