February is the month of celebrating love and kindness, and it’s also American Heart Month! This is the month to take some time to show love to your body, specifically your heart. We recently shared some smart choices you can make to care of your heart, and want to give you a heart-healthy refresher on those tips. We’re also sharing some of our newest heart-healthy recipes with you!
5 Steps to Take to Support Your Heart Health:
First, take a look at five choices that can help support overall heart health that can go a long way towards keeping you healthy for years to come.
- Eating a wide array of plant-based whole foods, including fruit, vegetables, nuts, seeds, whole grains, legumes (peas, beans, lentils), low-fat dairy, and lean proteins has been well-documented for supporting heart health. It’s also important to keep your sodium intake below 1500 mg per day and keep your intake of added sugars low per day.
- Aim for at least 30 minutes of some form of activity per day, even if it’s just a walk around the block!
- Ensure you get enough sleep, or at least 7-8 hours. Check out our post here on how to support your sleep if you need some extra care.
- Manage stress as much as possible. Meditation, journaling, and yoga can also help with this, along with a good night’s sleep.
- Stop smoking if you do, and keep a very low intake of alcohol within a week (1-2 glasses).
How Dairy Fits into a Heart-Healthy Diet
The above steps are smart choices you can make that add up over time to support heart health, and studies have shown that dietary choices particularly, such as getting enough fiber from plant-based, whole foods, play an important role in heart health. Another smart tip? Adding healthy dairy options, especially fermented dairy, into your daily diet at least once or twice per day. In general, dairy consumption has been associated with a decreased risk of cardiovascular disease in studies, as indicated by its starring role in the Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension, also known as the DASH diet. The Mediterranean diet is another well-documented diet that includes lots of plant-based foods and moderate consumption of dairy.
How Does Lifeway Kefir Support Heart Health?
Research indicates that kefir might have an extra edge in further reducing the risk of cardiovascular disease thanks to its live and active probiotic cultures and the unique peptides produced during the long fermentation process. Research has also shown that kefir has a higher antioxidant capacity as compared to non-fermented dairy products to reduce the risk of harmful free radicals. In addition, randomized control trials have shown kefir to be associated with a reduction in lipid profiles, inflammation markers, and homocysteine levels, along with a decrease in both systolic and diastolic blood pressure to reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease. Kefir is also a source of potassium, magnesium, and calcium – all minerals that promote normal blood pressure. Blood pressure is important for supporting your heart, along with many other health factors. The probiotics in kefir may also modulate the gut microbiome to help manage trimethylamine N-oxide levels, a metabolite that raises the risk of heart disease when increased levels in the blood occur.
Our mission at Lifeway Kefir is to support you on your health journey by making the highest quality fermented dairy kefir and farmer cheese out there. Our products contain live cultures that are excellent for overall microbiome health and immune system support. Check out some of our favorite heart-healthy recipes below where we share how to use a variety of our gut-healthy kefir and farmer cheese. Each one of these delightful recipes includes heart-healthy ingredients. So try one today, and you’ll be well on your way to supporting your heart health meal by meal, and snack by snack. We hope you enjoy them!
3 Heart-Healthy Recipes Your Gut Will Love
1. Probiotic Honeycrisp Salad
This heart-healthy salad is anything but boring! With a wealth of heart-healthy greens, fruit, nuts, and low-fat Lifeway Kefir and Lifeway Farmer Cheese, this salad is a great option to make and keep in the fridge when you need something healthy and energizing in minutes. Get the recipe here.
2. Febru-berry Toast
Here’s one of our newest recipes you and your heart will love! This is a quick and healthy meal you make in minutes each morning. It also makes a great bedtime snack as well! Lifeway Farmer Cheese has live probiotics, and it has no salt added, which makes it a game-changer for your heart compared to high-sodium cheeses like cottage cheese. Get the recipe here.
3. Peach Berry Protein Smoothie
We can’t resist Peach Low-Fat Lifeway kefir in a smoothie, and after you try this recipe, we bet you’ll learn to love it as much as we do. This heart-healthy smoothie is packed with heart-healthy greens, berries, peaches, and low-fat Lifeway kefir. Put this recipe on your must-try list this week!
See all our recipes here, and be sure to keep up with our newest recipes over at Instagram so you don’t miss a heart-healthy beat!