10 Ways To Healthy Heart Tips

A healthy lifestyle will make your heart healthier. Here are 10 things you can do to look after your heart.

Give up smoking

• If you're a smoker, quit. It's the single best thing you can do for your heart health.

• Smoking is one of the main causes of crony heart disease. A year after giving up, your risk of

Get active

• Getting – and staying – active can reduce your risk of developing heart disease. It can also be a great mood booster and stress buster.

• Do 150 minutes of moderate intensity aerobic activity every week. One way to achieve this target is by doing 30 minutes of activity on 5 days a week. Fit it in where you can, such as by cycling to work.

Manage your weight

• Being overweight can increase your risk of heart disease. Stick to a healthy balanced diet low in fat and sugar, with plenty of fruit and vegetables, combined with regular physical activity.

Eat more fibre

• Eat plenty of fibre to help lower your risk of heart disease – aim for at least 30g a day. 

• Eat fibre from a variety of source such as wholemeal bread, bran, oats and wholegrain cereals, potatoes with their skins on, and plenty of fruit and veg.

Cut down on saturated fat

• Eating too many foods that are high in saturated fat can raise the level of cholesterol in your blood. This increases your risk of heart disease.

• Choose leaner cuts of meat and lower fat dairy products like 1% fat milk over full-fat (or whole) milk. 

• 

Get your 5 A Day

• Eat at least 5 portions of a variety of fruit and vegetables a day. They're a good source of fibre, vitamins and minerals. 

• There are lots of tasty ways to get your 5 A Day, like adding chopped fruit to cereal or including vegetables in your pasta sauces and curries.

Cut down on salt

• To maintain healthy blood pressure, avoid using salt at the table and try adding less to your cooking.

• Once you get used to the taste of food without added salt, you can cut it out completely. 

• Watch out for high salt levels in ready-made foods. Most of the salt we eat is already in the foods we buy.

• Check the food labels – a food is high in salt if it has more than 1.5g salt (or 0.6g sodium) per 100g.

• Adults should eat less than 6g of salt a day in total – that's about 1 teaspoon.

Eat fish

• Eat fish at least twice a week, including a portion of oily fish. Fish such as pilchards, sardines and salmon are a source of omega-3 fats, which may help protect against heart disease.

• Pregnant or breastfeeding women should not have more than 2 portions of oily fish a week.

Drink less alcohol

• Do not forget that alcohol contains calories. Regularly drinking more than the NHS recommends can have a noticeable impact on your waistline. 

• Try to keep to the recommended daily alcohol limits to reduce the risk of serious problems with your health, including risks to your heart health.

Read the food label

• When shopping, it's a good idea to look at the lable on food and drink packaging to see how many calories and how much fat, salt and sugar the product contains.

• Understanding what's in food and how it fits in with the rest of your diet will help you make healthier choices.