Heart-healthy grocery shopping tips from dietitian

CLEVELAND, Ohio (Aging Untold) — Grocery shopping plays a key role in maintaining a heart-healthy diet, but certain foods can work against cardiovascular well-being.

Heinen’s dietitian Melanie Jatsek said a heart-healthy diet is also an anti-inflammatory diet.

“The great thing about a heart-healthy diet is you’re not just eating to feed a healthy heart,” Jatsek said. “You’re eating to feed a healthy brain, a healthy liver, healthy digestive system.”

Jatsek said shoppers should stay as close to plant-based as possible, limit added sugar and focus on fiber and healthy fats. She filled a cart at the Brecksville location with items from the center aisles, which can be full of high-sodium, unhealthy choices.

Sweet alternatives

To satisfy a sweet tooth, Jatsek said shoppers should choose walnut or almond butters, figs and dates.

“Mother Nature’s candy,” Jatsek said.

In the cereal aisle, sugar, not sodium, works against a healthy heart.

“The added sugar is what messes with cholesterol and triglycerides,” Jatsek said. “You see triglycerides on your blood panel. That’s the fat in your blood, which can rise due to too much sugar.”

She recommends choices with three grams of fiber or more per serving.

Watch the sodium

Condiments and sauces contain high levels of sodium. Look for options that have around 120 milligrams of sodium per serving or less.

Jatsek recommends using salsa in salads to add spice and more vegetables, or tahini as a replacement for a condiment in a grain bowl.

“Tahini is great because there’s no sodium in it. It’s good, healthy fat from sesame seeds,” Jatsek said.

In the chip aisle, Jatsek recommends black bean chips with sunflower oil for more fiber or corn tortilla chips made with avocado oil.

“We’re getting a good, healthy fat there,” Jatsek said.

Budget-friendly options

At the Hunger Network’s Midtown market, shelves are full of canned goods, which can be high in preservatives. The market labels them to help shoppers make healthier choices.

“We would much rather you choose something like our whole grain pasta, or even just our bag of regular pasta, because there’s no extra preservatives in these,” Elijah Knoll, the manager, said.

Knoll stocks lower-sodium options when possible and provides shoppers with recipe guides incorporating fresh produce so they can better feed a healthy heart.

“Food really is medicine, and so when we’re looking at things that we can really have control over, it doesn’t have to cost that much if you’re eating real food,” Dr. Rhea Rogers, a board-certified physician and Aging Untold expert, said. “We want to shop on the outside and not on the inside.”

Rogers said shoppers should focus on fruits, vegetables and natural foods.

“If you’re looking on the back of an ingredient and you can’t pronounce it, that’s probably a red flag,” Rogers said.

Reading labels

Ingredients are listed by what there’s the most of in a product, Sam Cradduck, a gerontologist and Aging Untold expert, said.

“When you eat carbs, something that’s ultra-processed or things like that, then you’re going to want it quicker because it’s going to be a big spike, drop down and you want to crave it more,” Rogers said.

Rogers recommends eating foods with a low glycemic index, which do not raise sugar levels quickly.

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