4 Heart-Healthy Ingredients + Recipes for Game Day and Beyond

February is American Heart Month and Friday, February 5th, 2016 is National Wear Red Day - a day to wear the color red to help raise awareness about heart disease being the number one killer of women. Close behind Wear Red Day is another February day many will get together to celebrate - Superbowl Sunday. In honor of American Heart Month and Wear Red Day, let's challenge each other to make our game day buffet a little healthier and try some new good-for-you foods and recipes.

When the American Heart Association reports that more than 1 in 3 people have some sort of cardiovascular disease and every 85 seconds, someone dies from heart disease, every day is a good day to focus on getting healthier, including a day notorious for filling us up with fried, greasy, salty foods. With those statistics, there is a good chance someone close to you is at risk for or has some sort of cardiovascular disease, so offering healthier options during the big game is good for everyone.

This post will take the guess work out of your game day menu so you have plenty of healthy snacks on hand to last through the end of the big game.

1. Avocados

Avocados are rich in monounsaturated fat (a good kind of fat!), fiber, antioxidants, B vitamins, vitamin K, folate, and many other nutrients. Eating more of those good monounsaturated fats can help you lower your LDL or "bad" cholesterol, which is one of cause of heart disease. Replacing saturated fats (found in animal fat like meat and dairy) with healthy fats found in avocado is a heart-healthy choice. Many people enjoy guacamole on game day, but avocado is versatile and can be used for so much more:

Greatist || 39 Deliciously Unexpected Healthy Avocado Recipes

Avocado Central || Fresh Avocado Guacamole Recipes

Festive "Guaca-Bowl-E Nachos Stadium"

2. Nuts

Nuts are another "healthy fat" food, and while all nuts have different nutritional benefits, all nuts (especially walnuts) contain a healthy dose of those LDL-lowering, inflammation-reducing, unsaturated fats. They're also rich in omega-3 fatty acids that help prevent heart disease and stroke, improve blood vessel function and lower inflammation and triglyceride levels. Nuts make a great every-day snack, and can be spiced up for a great game-day snack:

Ellie Krieger  || Spiced Nuts

Greatist || Energy Bites for On The Go Snacking

Real Simple || Dark Chocolate and Nut Clusters

3. Whole grains

Whole grains contain the entire grain (bran, germ, and endosperm), which makes them more nutritious and full of fiber compared to refined/white flour or grains. Diets rich in fiber, such as a diet rich in whole grains, can help reduce the risk of diabetes, high blood pressure and other types of heart disease. The beta-glucan (a type of soluble fiber) found in whole grains can help lower cholesterol and improves heart health and all that fiber keep you fuller for longer, which is good for weight control. 

Whole grains foods don't have to be boring - you can find hundreds of recipes for tasty whole grain versions of your favorite foods in cook books and on the internet:

Cookie and Kate || Whole Grain Pizza Recipes

The Skinny Fork || Whole Wheat Lasagna Rollups

Buzzfeed || 23 Whole Grain Desserts You'll Actually Love

4. Beans

Beans are a staple food in many parts of the world for good reason - they're packed full of protein, fiber, B-vitamins and minerals. 

Chili is the ultimate comfort food, and makes a great tailgating or game-day meal. Unfortunately, some of the favorite white chili and creamy soup recipes are full of high-fat sour cream, cheese, and cream. A good substitute for cream in these soups is cooked, blended cauliflower. I know, it sounds weird, but even cauliflower-haters can't sense the presence of this nutrient-packed vegetable

Based off the recipe for White Turkey Chili from Whole Foods Market and this Creamy (No Cream!) Sweet Corn and Potato Chowder from Iowa Girl Eats, this Healthier Turkey Chili is a great option for game day because it's light, packed with protein and fiber, and can be topped with all your favorite chili toppings.

Ingredients

1/2 lb. dry Navy Beans
1/2 lb. dry Great Northern beans
or 1 lb. of whatever dry beans you like
2 cups water
1 Tbsp olive oil
1 lb. ground lean turkey
1 7-oz can green chilis
1/2 large onion, diced
1 green bell pepper, diced
1 red bell pepper, diced
2 cups frozen corn
1 tsp salt
1 tsp black pepper
1 tsp chili powder
2 tsp cumin
1 tsp oregano
1 large head of cauliflower, chopped into florets
1/3 cup milk (skim, 2%, whole, coconut)
4 cups broth (I used homemade turkey stock, but you could use vegetable broth to make the recipe vegetarian)
2-3 cloves of garlic, diced

Soak the dry beans overnight in water. The next day, rinse and drain the beans, and add them to the bottom of the crock pot. Add all spices (reserving 1 tsp of cumin for the turkey), chopped bell peppers, frozen corn, diced onion, and the can of green chilis (drained or undrained). Pour water into crock pot.

Cauliflower cream:

Bring broth to a boil, adding cauliflower florets to the pot and cooking until cauliflower is soft (you'll be able to spike easily with a fork). Remove from heat and allow to cool. Once cool enough to blend, pour broth and cooked cauliflower mixture, diced garlic, and milk into blender and blend until smooth. Alternatively, you can blend in the pot if you have an immersion blender. Add  this mixture to the crock pot.

Turkey: 

Finally, heat 1 Tbsp olive oil in a skillet over medium-high heat. Add raw turkey to the pan and stir frequently, cooking until browned. Add cooked turkey to the crock pot, give the ingredients a good stir, cover crock pot and turn on low for 6-8 hours until beans are cooked/soft.

Top chili with some of your favorite toppings: avocado, cilantro, onions, Greek yogurt/sour cream, a little cheese, and enjoy.

More healthy chili recipes from Epicurious ||  Healthy Chili Recipes for the Superbowl and Your Heart

What's your favorite healthy recipe for game day?

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Fat Focus: Why You Should Eat More Healthy Fats

This year's news sites may have left you feeling conflicted on how you should feel about dietary fats - after decades of low-fat recommendations, news articles started popping up, talking how butter isn't bad for you, why you should eat egg yolks, and why you should embrace fats.

It wasn't too long ago when all Americans were advised to adopt a low fat, low cholesterol diet. 

All of a sudden, there was a lot of conflicting information, and a lot of questions from clients about fat - how should we feel about them? Should we ditch the low-fat products and bring back the butter? Should we eat the beef and throw out the bacon? Well, yes and no. It is really the types of fats you're choosing most of the time that makes a difference.

There was a lot of research coming out in the 1970's ad 1980's that led to recommendations for Americans to decrease the amount of total fat (especially saturated fat) and cholesterol in their diets, which was often replaced with over-processed low-fat foods and carbohydrates, and without much guidance over what sorts of fats were still OK to be eating.

Use fats and oils sparingly

Usually when a food is processed and the fat is taken out of a product, companies have to add something else, and that something else is usually sugar, thickeners, additives and flavorings, which led to more processed low fat foods and refined carbohydrates. Replacing fats with carbohydrates (especially those refined carbohydrates) can lead to increased cholesterol and triglyceride levels. We replaced butter with margarine and vegetable oils, increasing our use of trans fats, like hydrogenated vegetable oils, which has now been shown to increase our bad cholesterol and decreases our good cholesterol. This is obviously the opposite of what the guidelines wanted!

Those low-fat foods also just don't leave consumers as satisfied as the original product, which can lead to over-eating in the long run.

 How many 100-calorie snack packs or fat-free flavored yogurts could a person eat without getting full? Probably quite a few! 

These foods are sometimes seen as better than a higher-fat food because they're lower in calories, but those foods often contain a lot of sugar and just don't leave you satisfied. Low in fat and low in calories doesn't mean something is healthier.

The research can get confusing, and there are so many schools of thought on what type of diet we should be eating with varying levels of fat intake (vegan, paleo, raw food, the list goes on...) Based on the research on the benefits of healthy fats, people should focus on adding more of the whole foods (including more healthy fats) to replace more of those pre-packaged/processed snack foods.

Including good fats in your diet.

Good fats are the fats found in seafood, seeds and nuts - monounsaturated (MUFA) and polyunsaturated fats (PUFA). These fats can lower your risk for heart disease (and related deaths), help lower cholesterol, and are  likely to keep you satisfied longer when paired with a complex carbohydrate (vegetable, fruit, or whole grain). 

Polyunsaturated fats:

Omega-3's are always a hot topic.Fish and fish oil are great whole-food sources of these fats.   Omega-3's are a type of PUFA that helps to reduce inflammation in the body, lower triglyceride levels and improve heart functioning. 

Include more healthy fats in your diet by eating fatty fish (salmon, albacore tuna, sardines, trout or mackerel) at meals 2 times per week, adding ground flaxseed or chia seeds to snacks (sprinkled on oatmeal/cereal, on yogurt, in baked goods), and add walnuts to a homemade trail mix.

***If you are looking for a fish oil supplement, not all supplements are made the same. Look for at least 500 mg of DHA+EPA per serving of the capsules. 

Monounsaturated fats:

You may have heard that eating nuts and olive oil can be good for your health - these are two great sources of monounsaturated fats. Although nuts are high in fat (and even contain saturated fats), this is where we again draw the line that not all fats are created equally. These sources of healthy fats are minimally processed and can not only make your heart healthy, but will again be more satisfying if added to meals:

• Nuts and nut butters- a great source of heart-healthy fats, protein, and fiber. Look for nut butters with the oil on the top - it is easy to stir it in, and some of the other varieties contain trans fats/hydrogenated oils and sugar. For a snack, grab a small handful or ~1 oz of nuts and pair it with a piece of fruit or dried fruits. 
• Avocado - packed with vitamins E, C, potassium and loaded with fiber. Try swapping your usual sandwich spread for avocado or try topping your toast with some avocado instead of butter.
• Olive oil - great on salad! A salad dressing with fat helps you absorb the fat-soluble vitamins in the vegetables

Coconut oil is actually high in SATURATED fats, not the heart-healthy MUFAs and PUFAs that have been shown to benefit our health. Although this fat is highly-regarded in articles on many popular health sites, there hasn't been much research done on this fat.

Instead of focusing on cutting out processed foods entirely, make an effort to increase these healthy fats (nuts, seeds, fish, avocado, and olive oil) in your meals and replacing snack foods with sources of these fats. 

How do you incorporate healthy fats into your diet?

This easy post-workout smoothie recipe is a great way to eat those healthy fats, has plenty of healthy carbohydrates to refill your glycogen stores, protein to promote muscle repair, and berries and healthy fats to reduce inflammation after a hard workout.

• 1 cup frozen berries
• 1/2 frozen banana (makes smoothie extra thick, like a milkshake)
• Several handfuls of spinach
• 1-2 Tbsp ground flaxseed (you can buy it ground and keep it in the refrigerator or grind it yourself with a coffee grinder) or 1-2 Tbsp chia seeds or 1 Tbsp nut butter of choice (peanut, almond, cashew butter)
• 1/2 cup - 1 cup plain Greek yogurt
• 1 cup milk of choice

Add all ingredients to blender and blend until smooth. You can customize the smoothie with different fruits and seeds/nut butters. 

Perfect post-workout breakfast. Top with additional healthy toppings - oatmeal, granola, dried fruit, frozen berries, peanut butter, hemp seeds, chia seeds, sunflower seeds, walnuts, etc!

Call or e-mail the Sports Nutritionist to make an appointment and get recipes to incorporate more healthy fats into your diet.

You might also like:

EatRight PRO || Quick Tips for Making Environmentally-Responsible Seafood Choices

Kath Eats Real Food || Why This Registered Dietitian Eats More Fat

Fact Sheet || Coconut Oil and Health

Washing State Dept. of Health || Farm Salmon vs. Wild Salmon

Harvard Family Health Guide || The Truth About Fats: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

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