Wellness Wednesday: How to keep a heart-healthy diet

LAFAYETTE, Ind. (WLFI) - February is filled with hearts and sweet treats, because of Valentine's Day, but have you stopped to think about your own heart health?

Heart disease affects both men and women. In fact, it is the leading cause of death for both men and women. Research has shown that 70 percent of Americans are not eating a heart healthy diet. A heart healthy diet means that you are choosing foods that are low fat and low salt. Everyone can follow a heart healthy diet and trying to eat less salt is a good goal for everyone to have.

Clinical Dietitian Anna Busenburg with Franciscan St. Elizabeth Health said the goal for salt intake in a heart healthy diet is 2,400 mg of salt per day. This looks like one teaspoon of salt, which contains approximately 2,400 mg of sodium. For fat the goal is 65 grams of fat per day. This looks like just less than five tablespoon of vegetable oil. Choosing heart healthy unsaturated fats are important. These include canola, vegetable and olive oil. Oils that come from plant sources.

Busenburg advised that if you want to figure out how to prepare a heart healthy recipe, make sure that it is low in salt (<140 mg of sodium per serving) and low in fat. Try to include multiple food groups in a recipe to help with a well-rounded diet.

Busenburg discussed two easy-to-make heart-healthy recipes during a live interview on News 18 Daybreak Wednesday, Feb. 20.

The first recipe was tuna salad. Tuna is a heart healthy meat item because it contains unsaturated fats. Unsaturated fats have been found to be heart healthy. Trying to eat about eight ounces of fish is a week is the recommendation from the American Heart Association.

In her tuna salad recipe, there are variety of spices and flavors. There are also garbanzo beans to add some additional texture and a heart healthy protein source. The tuna salad was placed on a bed of mixed green lettuce. This can be a whole entrée salad of even a side salad with another entrée item.

The second recipes was white bean soup. It contains white beans, some onions, carrots and tomatoes. It is seasoned with oregano and cayenne pepper and black pepper. This is an easy soup to prepare and cooked on the stove for 20-30 minutes. You can use canned beans if you don't have time to soak them overnight. Make sure you rinse the beans well under water to remove the syrup like salutation that is in the can. Using other seasonings besides salt helps to make sure the soup is flavorful and also heart healthy. There is no meat in this soup and the beans contain protein and are low in fat.

Anna's heart-healthy recipes can be found on the Franciscan St. Elizabeth Health website.

More information on American Heart Month from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention can be found via the agency's website.

More information from the American Heart Association on heart health and the organization's "Go Red For Women" campaign can be found on the organization's website.