Two Appliances Central to my Heart Healthy Kitchen

My favorite 2 appliances that have helped transform my kitchen into "heart healthy enabled": George Foreman Grill and Sunbeam Breadmaker.

George Foreman Grill & Sunbeam Breadmaker
2 appliances central to my heart healthy kitchen

Why am I in love with these two appliances?

George Foreman Grill:

• Easy to use & cost effective.
• Make fresh grilled meals without the mess of a full grill!
• Has allowed me to stock my freezer with heart healthy seafoods & chicken breasts that can be grilled to serve in just 5-20 minutes!
• Tip #1: spray your meats with I Can't Believe It's Not Butter spray before grilling - this will lengthen the life of your Foreman Grill.
• Tip #2: sprinkle garlic powder on just about anything you are grilling (the spray will keep the powder on the meat). 1 teaspoon of garlic powder adds 33mg of potassium and only 2mg of sodium to whatever you are cooking! 

Sunbeam 5981 Breadmaker:

• Easy to use & cost effective.
• Has allowed me to explore and discover heart healthy (no sodium) breads.
• You cannot be heart healthy on store bought (highly preserved) breads - read the labels, it is not possible. You can make heart healthy, homemade breads without much effort and this Sunbeam Breadmaker is my cornerstone to accomplishing this!

These two appliances have enabled me to bring a whole array of foods I once thought "too hard to make" or "not heart healthy" back into my kitchen and healthy lifestyle!

Heart Healthy Tuna Fish Sandwich

Imagine... A tuna fish sandwich low in fat & low in sodium with a boost of potassium to benefit your heart! It is possible...

The Tuna Base: Mix 1/2 a 5 oz can of "chunk light tuna in water" with 1 teaspoon of nonfat mayonnaise.

The Bread: 1 serving of your favorite "no sodium" sandwich bread (cut into 2 slices). Plenty of no sodium bread recipes are provided in previous posts, my favorite to use with tuna is the garlic chili bread or the garlic herb bread.

The Preparation:

• Toast 1/8 cup of low fat mozzarella on the sandwich bread.
• Sprinkle 1 tsp of garlic powder on the toasted cheese (while still hot).
• Spread the tuna base on the bread to complete the sandwich.

The Heart Health Facts:

• 345mg potassium: 82mg (bread) + 90mg (tuna) + 120mg (mayo) + 20mg (mozzarella) + 33mg (garlic).
• 341mg sodium: 9mg (bread) + 180mg (tuna) + 60mg (mayo) + 90mg (mozzarella) + 2mg (garlic).
• 6g fat: 3g (bread) + 0.5g (tuna) + 2.5g (mozzarella).
• Total: 345mg potassium, 339mg sodium, 6g fat [a 1:1 health ratio]

 Now, complement the sandwich with any heart healthy side dish and you have a heart healthy meal! Examples:

• Sandwich with a fresh orange: 602mg potassium, 341mg sodium, 6g fat [a 2:1 meal]
• Sandwich with a vegetable medley side: 1233mg potassium, 396 mg sodium, 7g fat [a 3:1 meal]

There you have it - a hearth healthy tuna fish sandwich meal!

Brown Rice & Broccoli - A Heart Healthy Side Dish

An easy & tasty side dish to have with any meal: Brown Rice & Broccoli delivering a 7:1 to 3:1 health ratio!

The Ingredients:

1. 1 cup (after cooked) Brown Rice - try any of the "10 minute boil in a bag" varieties for easy prep.
• 115mg potassium, 0mg sodium, 1g fat.
2. 1 cup steamed Broccoli.
• 261mg potassium, 20mg sodium, 0.2g fat.
3. [optional] 1 tbsp Heart Healthy Salsa.
• 40mg potassium, 40mg sodium, 0g fat.
4. [optional] 1/8 cup Low Fat (2%) Mozzarella.
• 20mg potassium, 90mg sodium, 2.5g fat.

The Results:

• Brown Rice & Broccoli: 376mg potassium, 20mg sodium, 1.2g fat
  19:1 health rating!
• Brown Rice, Broccoli & Salsa: 416mg potassium, 60mg sodium, 1.2g fat
  7:1 health rating!
• Brown Rice, Broccoli & Mozzarella: 396mg potassium, 110mg sodium, 3.7g fat
  4:1 health rating!
• Brown Rice, Broccoli, Salsa & Mozzarella: 436mg potassium, 150mg sodium, 3.7g fat
  3:1 health rating!

I like adding either mozzarella or salsa (or both) to the brown rice and broccoli mixture. While the straight rice & broccoli is a 19:1 health gem, I find I need the salsa and/or mozzarella flavoring to make this taste great.
Easy to make, tastes great and a potassium:sodium health rating worth adding to any meal. This 7:1 to 3:1 side can join with any healthy main dish to deliver a meal your heart will love!

Recipe for Heart Healthy Garlic & Chili Bread

An "easy to make" heart healthy (high potassium/low sodium/low fat) bread recipe I recently perfected....

Garlic & Chili Bread

Nutrition (per serving, 12 servings per loaf):

• 82mg Potassium
• 9mg Sodium
• 3g Fat
• A 9:1 Health Ratio

Effort: About 10 minutes to collect and prep the ingredients; about 3 hours of "bread machine time".

1 1/4 c Water
2 T Unsalted Butter
3 Garlic Cloves (finely chopped)
2 T Green Chili Peppers (chopped)
2/3 c Frozen Corn
3 1/4 c Bread Flour
1/3 c Cornmeal
2 T Sugar
1 1/4 t Yeast

Place ingredients in bread maker and process on white bread (or basic bread) cycle. Makes a 1 1/2 pound loaf.

This bread makes great sandwich - allowing you to keep sandwiches in your heart healthy diet. It also make a great "soup dipping" bread.

Heart Healthy "Eggnog"!

Heart Healthy Eggnog?!? Impossible, you think (so did I).

Well, look what I discovered: "heart healthy eggnog" via Silk Nog (ok, so it is "heart healthy nog" - but it tastes the same)!

The vital stats on the nutrition content (1/2 cup): 150mg potassium, 75mg sodium, 2g fat. Yes, you read that right - eggnog with a 2:1 health ratio.

Consider this.... a 1/2 cup of Silk Nog and 1 banana yields 687mg potassium, 77mg sodium and 2.5g fat. Wow - a 9:1 heart health ratio with something that tastes so good it feels like you are cheating!

So, ring in the holidays: as amazing as it sounds, I'll be improving my heart health while sipping the eggnog (Silk Nog, that is).

A Banana A Day...

Looking for a way to jumpstart your heart healthy (high potassium/low sodium/low fat) diet?

A banana a day keeps the high blood pressure away!

The nutrition facts behind bananas (1 average sized banana): 537mg potassium, 2mg sodium, 0.5g fat [a 269:1 health ratio]

Consider a meal with 0mg potassium and 180mg of sodium - if all you do is eat 1 banana with this meal you have transformed it from a sodium pit into a heart healthy (3:1 potassium:sodium) fare. Now consider the impact of eating 2 bananas a day - this simple treat transforms 360mg of sodium contribution into a net healthy feast.

How about an even more compelling argument for a banana or two a day? Many people consider a potassium:sodium ratio of 1:1 to be "heart healthy". Well, ok, then eating 2 bananas a day means you can eat 1074mg of sodium in any "potassium poor" food you want and you'll maintain a 1:1 health ratio. Anyway, you get the message: bananas are a super boost to any potassium:sodium diet you are constructing.

Bananas taste good, bananas are inexpensive, bananas require no preparation. A banana a day keeps the high blood pressure away!

Healthy (Tilapia) Fish Tacos

When you see fish tacos at a restaurant, you probably think: not heart healthy. Here's a way to make great tasting fish tacos with a 3:1 heart healthy potassium:sodium ratio.

Fish Preparation:

• Spray both sides of a (4 oz) filet of frozen tilapia with I Can't Believe It's Not Butter Spray (or similar spray) and sprinkle a teaspoon of garlic powder on the top of the filet.
• Cook the filet for 6-8 minutes in your George Foremann Grill (or similar grill).

Tacos (2 total):

• Start with 2 soft corn tortillas (slightly warmed in a toaster oven or microwave, if desired).
• 1 teaspoon of heart healthy salsa on each tortilla [2 tsp total].
• Split 1/8 a cup of low fat (2%) mozzarella across both tortillas.
• Split the (just cooked) tilapia across both tortillas [just cooked means the fish is warm and heats the salsa and mozzarella].

That's it, you have 2 great tasting tilapia fish tacos! The nutrition profile:

• Potassium (mg): 40(tortillas) + 26(salsa) + 20(mozzarella) + 424(tilapia) + 33(garlic) = 543mg.
• Sodium (mg): 10(tortilla) + 26(salsa) + 90(mozzarella) + 64(tilapia) + 2(garlic) = 192mg.
• Fat (g): 1(tortilla) + 0(salsa) + 2.5(mozzarella) + 2.8(tilapia) + 0(garlic) = 6.3g.
• Total: 543mg potassium, 192mg sodium, 6.3g fat - a 3:1 potassium:sodium ratio.

Note that the potassium:sodium ratio is technically 2.83:1 - I'll round that to 3:1 given how good these tacos taste ;-)   Seriously, though, what I do is add a serving of my Vegetable Medley to the 2 tacos to make a complete meal. The nutrition profile of the meal (2 tacos + salad) is as follows:

2 tacos + vegetable medley (w/out mozzarella) meal:

• Potassium (mg): 543(tacos) + 888(salad) = 1431mg.
• Sodium (mg): 192(tacos) + 55(salad) = 247mg.
• Fat (g): 6.3(tacos) + 1.2(salad) = 7.5g.
• Total: 1431mg potassium, 247mg sodium, 7.5g fat - a 6:1 healthy meal!

2 tacos + vegetable medley (w/ mozzarella) meal:

• Potassium (mg): 543(tacos) + 908(salad) = 1451mg.
• Sodium (mg): 192(tacos) + 145(salad) = 337mg.
• Fat (g): 6.3(tacos) + 3.7(salad) = 10g.
• Total: 1451mg potassium, 337mg sodium, 10g fat - a 4:1 healthy meal!

Good tacos, good salad ... Happy & healthy heart! Enjoy...

Recipe for a Perfect "Warm Breakfast"

Fall is upon us, the temperatures are dropping and you want something warm for a heart healthy breakfast...

Combine oatmeal, banana & bran to make a high potassium, low sodium, low fat and tasty warm breakfast entree.


The base recipe:

• 1 serving Quaker Instant Oatmeal: 105mg potassium, 75mg sodium, 2g fat.
• 1 banana (sliced into the oatmeal): 540mg potassium, 2mg sodium, 0.5g fat.
• 1/4 cup Kelloggs All Bran (mixed into the oatmeal): 175mg potassium, 40mg sodium, 0.5g fat.
• Total: 820mg potassium, 117mg sodium, 3g fat [a 7:1 healthy meal!]

If the base recipe is too bland for your tastebuds, then you can upgrade to one of Quaker's many flavors of instant oatmeal (e.g. apples & cinnamon, maple & brown sugar, etc). Unfortunately, flavored oatmeals have a 1:1.5 to 1:2 potassium:sodium ratio - changing the recipe's nutrition as follows:

• 1 serving Flavored Quaker Instant Oatmeal: 105mg potassium, 160-200mg sodium, 2g fat.
• 1 banana (sliced into the oatmeal): 540mg potassium, 2mg sodium, 0.5g fat.
• 1/4 cup Kelloggs All Bran (mixed into the oatmeal): 175mg potassium, 40mg sodium, 0.5g fat.
• Total: 820mg potassium, 202-242mg sodium, 3g fat [a 4:1 healthy meal]

A 4:1 potassium:sodium ratio is still incredible for your heart; but suppose you are in love with 7:1 nutrition profile of the base recipe yet want more of the flavor of the 4:1 recipe? The answer: use honey instead of flavored oatmeal:

• 1 serving Quaker Instant Oatmeal: 105mg potassium, 75mg sodium, 2g fat.
• 1 banana (sliced into the oatmeal): 540mg potassium, 2mg sodium, 0.5g fat.
• 1/4 cup Kelloggs All Bran (mixed into the oatmeal): 175mg potassium, 40mg sodium, 0.5g fat.
• 1 tablespoon honey (mixed into the oatmeal): 11mg potassium, 0mg sodium, 0g fat. 
• Total: 831mg potassium, 117mg sodium, 3g fat [a 7:1 healthy meal!]

7:1 to 4:1 - pick one of these 3 recipes that tastes best to you. In any choice, you have a high potassium, low sodium & low fat warm option for your heart healthy menu through the chilly fall & winter months.

Recipe for Heart Healthy Whole Wheat French Bread

Another easy to make, heart healthy to eat bread for your menu:

Whole Wheat French Bread

• Nutrition Facts (per slice): 104mg potassium, 2mg sodium, 1g fat (52:1 health ratio!)
• Effort: under 15 minutes my time (10 min ingredient prep, 2 min rise prep, 2 min bake attention), 2.5 hrs machine time.

3/4 t yeast
1 1/4 T honey
1 1/4 c water
2 c Whole Wheat Flour
1 1/2 c Bread Flour

Place ingredients in bread machine pan in order specified by the manufacturer. Process on dough cycle. Remove bread from machine. Shape into a tapered loaf. Place on greased baking sheet, cover with towel and let rise until doubled, about 30 minutes. Cut diagonal slices about 1/4 inch across the top of the loaf with a sharp knife. Brush with cold water. Bake at 400 until done, about 15-20 minutes.

This recipe makes a pretty "hefty" bread. It is a great with soups or any dish with sauce for dipping a slice of bread. The recipe was adapted from the Low Sodium Cooking website - adapted to add additional flavor & reduce the density of the bread.

Recipe for Heart Healthy Garlic Herb Bread

Following from my recent bread analysis - I claimed it is possible to make heart healthy bread without being an expert chef tied to the kitchen. So, here you have one example:

Garlic Herb Bread 

• Nutrition Facts (per slice): 49mg potassium, 2mg sodium, 2g fat (25:1 health ratio!)
• Effort: under 15 minutes my time (10 min ingredient prep, 2 min rise prep, 2 min bake attention), 2.5 hrs machine time.

1 1/4 c Water
1 T Unsalted Butter
2-4 Cloves Garlic (finely chopped) [increase based on your garlic palate]
3 1/4 c Bread Flour
2 T Sugar
1/2 t Rosemary
1/2 t Oregano
1/4 t Thyme
1 1/4 t Yeast [increase to 1 1/2 for lower altitudes]

Place ingredients in bread machine in order recommended by manufacturer. Process on dough cycle. Remove and shape into two long loaves. Place on greased baking sheet, cover with towel and allow to rise until doubled, about 45 minutes. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Bake until golden brown, about 20 minutes.

Pretty simple: less than 15 minutes of my time as a chef, around 2.5 hours of letting the bread machine, nature & oven do all the work. This bread makes great sandwich bread - allowing you to bring sandwiches back into your heart healthy diet.


Note: this recipe was adapted from the Low Sodium Cooking website (modified for more garlic emphasis and high altitude cooking).

Need a great bread machine without breaking the bank? Try the Sunbeam 5891 Breadmaker. I use this for all my breads - the price is great, as is the machine itself.

The Truth About Bread

I'll make a bold statement and then back it up with facts: it is not possible to maintain a heart healthy diet if you frequently eat commercially prepared breads.

I will not make any friends in the commercial bread industry with that statement, but it is true. Proof by example: Wonder Breads has tried to fool the market by introducing a product called "smart white" which has focused on reducing sodium. What wonders have they created? Each slice of bread has 100mg of sodium. All the technologies and resources of a large commercial enterprise and 100mg of sodium per slice is the best they can come up with? So, a sandwich has at least 200mg of sodium from the bread alone! Two slices of toast has at least 200mg of sodium! etc. etc. etc.

Maybe I am just making fun of Wonder Breads, you think? Go to your pantry - read the labels on your bread. Go to the grocery store and read the labels on your bread. Use the internet and search for nutrition facts on various brands & types of bread. I guarantee you will conclude the following: 100mg of sodium per slice of bread is the best the industry has reached and you are typically at 200+ mg of sodium per slice from your average commercially prepared loaf!

• Do you need to remove commercially prepared breads from your heart healthy diet: YES
• Do you need to remove breads altogether from your heart healthy diet: NO
• Is it possible to have as little as 2mg of sodium per non-commercially prepared slice of bread: YES
• Do you need to be an expert chef slaving for hours in the kitchen to prepare heart healthy breads: NO!

With that cliffhanger, I will sign out and leave you curious. Heart healthy & easy to prepare bread recipes coming your way - stay tuned...

The Perfect (Heart Healthy) Baked Potato

Looking for a great recipe for your heart healthy diet? Bring baked potatoes into your menu.

The USDA nutrition facts on a (raw) baked potato: 610mg potassium, 8mg sodium, 0.16g fat - that's a whopping 76:1 potassium to sodium ratio with almost zero fat! Incredible!

Ok, I know, eating a raw baked potato is not that exciting. So, let's dress up a baked potato into a heart healthy (high potassium, low sodium, low fat) treat with some of the following additional ingredients:

• Add an 1/8 to 1/4 a cup of low fat (2%) mozzarella cheese.
• Add a tablespoon or so of a low sodium salsa of your choosing.
• Add a 1/2 to 1 cup of steamed broccoli.
• Add a 1/2 to 1 cup of potassium rich vegetable medley.

Note: DO NOT add butter to your baked potato - you may as well kiss your heart goodbye by destroying the potato in this way. Add the low fat mozzarella cheese directly to the potato (before the other ingredients) and it will serve the same purpose as butter (but taste better and feel better).

Topping your baked potato with a selection of these ingredients gives you a ton of flavor with a wonderful potassium:sodium gift to your heart:

Ingredients	P(otassium)/S(odium)/F(at) Counts
Baked Potato	610mg P, 8mg S, 0.16g F	610mg P, 8mg S, 0.16g F	610mg P, 8mg S, 0.16g F	610mg P, 8mg S, 0.16g F
1/4 cup Low Fat Mozzarella	40mg P, 180mg S, 5g F	40mg P, 180mg S, 5g F	40mg P, 180mg S, 5g F	40mg P, 180mg S, 5g F
1 TBSP Low Sodium Salsa	40mg P, 43mg S, 0g F	40mg P, 43mg S, 0g F	40mg P, 43mg S, 0g F	40mg P, 43mg S, 0g F
1/2 cup Steamed Broccoli	130mg P, 10mg S, 0.1g F
1 cup Steamed Broccoli		261mg P, 20mg S, 0.2g F
1/2 cup Vegetable Medley			424mg P, 6mg S, 0.6g F
1 cup Vegetable Medley				848mg P, 12mg S, 1.2g F
Nutrition Facts	820mg P, 241mg S, 5.26g F	951mg P, 251mg S, 5.36g F	1114mg P, 237mg S, 5.76g F	1538mg P, 243mg S, 6.35g F
Potassium:Sodium Ratio	3.4:1	3.8:1	4.7:1	6.3:1

Summary: dress up a baked potato with low fat mozzarella & salsa for flavor, veggies for flavor & potassium and wind up with a tasty 3:1 to 6:1 high potassium/low sodium/low fat treat for your heart healthy meal.

Consider this... If you use 1/8 a cup of mozzarella (instead of 1/4) and do not find this as a sacrifice to taste, then your baked potato treat is a whopping 5:1 to 10:1 treat!

Revised Nutrition with 1/8 cup of Mozzarella instead of 1/4
Nutrition Facts	800mg P, 151mg S, 2.75g F	931mg P, 161mg S, 2.86g F	1094mg P, 147mg S, 3.26g F	1518mg P, 153mg S, 3.85g F
Potassium:Sodium Ratio	5.3:1	5.8:1	7.4:1	9.9:1

Heart Healthy Seafood

So you want seafood to be part of your high potassium/low sodium/low fat heart healthy diet. As I demonstrated in my salmon analysis: not all seafood is as good as we have all been lead to believe. Thus, I will enumerate the types of seafood you should allow in your heart healthy diet:

1. Pink Salmon (1/2 fillet or 124 g): 513mg potassium, 107mg sodium, 5.5g fat [5:1 potassium to sodium] - remember pink salmon is the only salmon that qualifies as heart healthy!
2. Yellowfin Tuna (4 oz): 645mg potassium, 53mg sodium, 1.4g fat [12:1 potassium to sodium]
3. Halibut (4 oz): 653mg potassium, 78mg sodium, 3.3g fat [8:1 potassium to sodium]
4. Cod (4 oz): 586 mg potassium, 103 mg sodium, 0.9g fat [6:1 potassium to sodium]
5. Tilapia (4 oz): 424mg potassium, 64mg sodium, 2.8g fat [7:1 potassium to sodium]

Keep any or all of these 5 types of seafood in your fridge or freezer and you have a high potassium/low sodium/low fat hearth healthy seafood contribution to your diet.

It should go without saying, but I'll say it anyway: serve any of these seafoods breaded or sauteed in butter and they are no longer heart healthy - the fat you introduce via breading or sauteing cancels out all the positives.

The best way to prepare seafood and preserve the "heart healthy benefits": grilled (consider a George Foreman Grill for ease & simplicity). Feel free to add any sodium free spices before grilling; but grilling your seafood is the only way to prepare it in a heart healthy manner.

The Truth About Tortillas

Tortillas always seemed like and innocent & healthy food to me. Then I read the labels from a heart healthy viewpoint - wow! I'll summarize and then explain:

The only form of tortilla that is heart healthy is soft corn tortillas.
Every form of flour tortilla does more harm to your heart than good.


That's it - soft corn is what is allowed in a heart healthy diet. Here are the facts to back this up from Mission Tortillas (it is the same for all other brands, I just have the mission facts handy):

• Mission Medium-Sized Flour Tortillas (1 tortilla): 440mg sodium, 3.5g fat.
• Mission Medium-Sized 96% Fat Free Tortillas (1 tortilla): 330mg sodium, 1.5g fat.
• Mission Yellow Corn Tortillas (2 tortillas): 10mg sodium, 1g fat.

Look at those sodium counts! Consider an average meal uses 2 tortillas (2 tacos or 1 quesadilla) and, then, 2 standard flour tortillas have 880 mg of sodium. What is humorous is that Mission marks their "96% fat free" tortillas as "heart healthy." You cannot call an ingredient "heart healthy" when it contributes 660 mg of sodium to your meal - that is ludicrous!

Anyway, the good news is corn tortillas ROCK - not only do 2 tortillas contain a measly 10 mg of sodium, but they also contain upwards of 40 mg of potassium (e.g., corn tortillas are a 4:1 potassium:sodium food vs flour which are a 1:5 potassium:sodium food). Corn tortillas add nothing but pure positives to your high potassium/low sodium/low fat heart healthy diet.

A Potassium Rich Vegetable Medley

Taking my background research in beans, frozen veggies and salsas, I created the following recipe for a delicious and heart healthy vegetable medley.

Preparation:

1. A can of high potassium/low sodium black or kidney beans: 2400 mg potassium, 35 mg sodium, 3.5 g fat.
2. 2/3 cup of (steamed or boiled) high potassium/low sodium lima beans: 640 mg potassium, 3 mg sodium, 0.5 g fat.
3. 1 cup of (steamed or boiled) high potassium/low sodium peas: 350 mg potassium, 8 mg sodium, 0.6 mg fat.

Mix these 3 ingredients and place in a sealed tupperware container to refrigerate between servings. The mixture should remain fresh for at least 7-10 days and yield about 4-5 servings.

Serving:

1. Roughly 1 to 1-1/4 a cup of the bean/pea mixture (about 1/4 of the preparation): 848 mg potassium, 12 mg sodium, 1.2 g fat.
2. 1 tablespoon (or less, depending on preference) of a low sodium salsa of your choosing (I like a corn relish or mango/peach salsa, among others): 40 mg potassium, 43 mg sodium, 0 g fat.
3. 1/8 a cup of low fat (2%) mozzarella cheese: 20 mg potassium, 90 mg sodium, 2.5 g fat.

Mix the bean/pea selection, salsa & mozzarella and serve cold.

That's it - a small amount of preparation for 4-5 servings and then a quick "mix & serve". What do you get? A delicious potassium rich vegetable medley to add as a salad component to any meal. The final analysis of each serving: 908mg potassium, 145mg sodium, 3.7g of fat - a 6:1 potassium:sodium recipe that is low in fat and tasty to eat!

A variation I often do on this recipe: skip the mozzarella and mix just the beans, peas and salsa. The result: 888mg potassium, 55mg sodium, 1.2g fat - a 16:1 tasty potassium:sodium recipe!

Read the Labels: Frozen Veggies

Vegetables are good for you, we all know that. But, which vegetables are best for your high potassium, low sodium, low fat heart healthy diet?

First off, let's focus on frozen vegetables for this post - frozen veggies are typically easy on your budget and easy on time to prepare. Going over the USDA facts in my reference data, I came across 3 vegetable gems that appeal to my taste buds and my heart healthy goals:

1. Peas (1 cup): 347 mg potassium, 8 mg sodium, 0.6 g fat (55:1 potassium:sodium).
2. Broccoli (1 cup): 261 mg potassium, 20 mg sodium, 0.2 g fat (13:1 potassium:sodium).
3. Lima Beans (1 cup): 955 mg potassium, 4 mg sodium, 0.7 g fat (239:1 potassium:sodium).

Wow, these are impressive potassium:sodium gems. So it seemed easy: go to the store, buy frozen peas, broccoli and lima beans and start adding to my diet. Oh, if only it was that easy...

Frozen Peas:

Kroger is the "store brand" at my local grocery store. So, buy Kroger frozen peas to save money and be healthy, right? WRONG! Take a look at the image to the left showing the nutrition facts of Kroger frozen peas. Look at the sodium line: 200 mg! You have got to be kidding - they added sodium to my peas. Scouring the frozen food shelves, I could not find a variety of peas from Kroger that did not have a huge amount of sodium - Ugh!

Kroger failed on peas, so I started scanning the nutrition facts on all the different brands of peas. Finally, I found Birds Eye with the same nutrition factsheet shown to the left. 0 mg of sodium, now that's a frozen vegetable remaining true to its fresh standards. Why on earth is Kroger adding sodium to their peas? Thanks to Birds Eye, I do not care - they cost about twice what the Kroger sodium bombs run; but they are healthy and good for my heart (and still less than 30 cents a serving).

Frozen Broccoli:

The Kroger frozen pea fiasco sure had me weary when I started my broccoli scan. But, see the nutrition facts to the left. Kroger frozen broccoli has only 20 mg of sodium - NICE! They can do it with broccoli but not with peas, go figure. Anyway, I now have the store brand frozen broccoli in my freezer - a cost effective & 13:1 gem to incorporate in my meals.





Frozen Lima Beans:

Ok, now on to lima beans. The Kroger brand comes in 2 types: Ford Hook with 5 mg of sodium and Baby with 240 mg of sodium. Argh - their they go again, adding 240 mg of sodium to baby lima beans. Why - don't ask me, I will just move on and add Kroger Ford Hook Frozen Lima Beans to my freezer: cost effective and a 239:1 potassium:sodium gem for my meals.

Kroger Ford Hook Lima Beans

Kroger Baby Lima Beans

Summary:

"Read the labels," have I said that before? It was amazing what a sodium spectrum I found in the frozen vegetable section of the store. But, alas, healthy is possible if you just read the labels.

I now have extremely cost effective broccoli & lima beans and affordable peas as staples in my hearth healthy list of ingredients. 

Read the Labels: Beans

As I was perusing the USDA potassium:sodium counts of foods, I came across the amazing heart health value of beans. Here are the astonishing facts from the USDA for 2 of my favorite types of beans:

1. Black Beans (1 cup): 611 mg potassium, 2 mg sodium, 0.9 grams fat - a 305:1 potassium:sodium ratio!
2. Kidney Beans (1 cup): 713 mg potassium, 4 mg sodium, 0.9 grams fat - a 178:1 potassium:sodium ratio!

Are you kidding me - 305:1 & 178:1!???!!? That is unbelievable when you consider a 3:1 diet is good for your heart!

Now comes the hard truth. If you buy raw black beans (or kidney), the food preparation time is ridiculous. You have to soak the beans for hours and do all kinds of time consuming preparation. No chance I could keep these in my diet if buying in raw form. Yet, go to your typical grocery store and they have all types of "ready to eat" canned beans. But, here comes the big letdown again - read the labels on your typical canned beans - SODIUM off the charts! Here's one popular brand and what they have done to their canned black beans:

• Bush's Best: 450mg sodium per 1/2 cup (that's 900 mg per cup - canceling out the potassium...)

As I was about to toss beans off my food list, I came across Kuner's brand canned beans with 10mg of sodium per 1/2 cup. Thus, Kuner's canned black beans deliver a potassium:sodium ratio of 611:20 (or 31:1) per 1 cup serving! Similarly, Kuner's canned kidney beans deliver a potassium:sodium ratio of 712:20 (or 35:1) per 1 cup serving. Must be expensive to get beans prepared healthy, right? Wrong - Kuner's cans average about 85 cents at my local stores (as low as 70 cents when on special).

So, it was that easy.... Identify beans as a target high potassium food, browse the grocery store shelves, find the brand willing to prepare them without sodium for a reasonable price and I have a 31:1 to 35:1 ingredient to add to my diet. Just read the labels...

The Truth About Salmon

Everywhere you read in the high blood pressure literature, salmon is talked up as a "magic food" for your heart - great in potassium, great potassium/sodium ratio, great in omega-3, great tasting, etc etc etc.

So, naturally I wanted to have salmon in my heart healthy diet. But, here is the problem I ran into: my heart healthy diet is low in fat (and yours should be too) but on a random stroll through the grocery store I found salmon high in fat beyond belief!

Was it true, salmon could not be in a heart healthy diet with a low fat focus? I needed to go to my reference shelf and study salmon. A summary of the findings:

• [good salmon] Fish, salmon, pink
• 1/2 fillet (124 g) = 5.5g fat
• potassium/sodium/magnesium = 513/107/41
• [average salmon] Fish, salmon, chum
• 1/2 fillet (174 g) = 7.4g fat
• potassium/sodium/magnesium = 847/99/43
• [average salmon] Fish, salmon, coho, wild
• 1/2 fillet (178 g) = 7.7g fat
• potassium/sodium/magnesium = 772/103/59
• [bad salmon] Fish, salmon, Atlantic, wild
• 1/2 fillet (154 g) = 12.5g fat
• potassium/sodium/magnesium = 967/86/57
• [bad salmon] Fish, salmon, sockeye
• 1/2 fillet (155 g) = 17g fat
• potassium/sodium/magnesium = 581/102/57
• [bad salmon] Fish, salmon, chinook
• 1/2 fillet (154 g) = 20.6g fat
• potassium/sodium/magnesium = 778/92/188

Most of the salmons listed above have so much fat that, regardless of their impressive potassium:sodium ratio, you cannot avoid the "obesity factor" of high blood pressure by eating them.

So, there you go: incorporate pink salmon into your heart healthy diet and you can maintain the high potassium, low sodium, low fat diet your body so desperately needs. I have found that my local grocery store sells frozen pink salmon fillets at a very reasonable price - the yummy taste of grilled salmon has remained in my heart healthy diet!

Read the Labels: Salsa

If you are like me, spicy foods are a central part of your eating habits. I like to add salsa to just about everything I eat; from traditional tacos and quesadillas to the less traditional salads and grilled cheese sandwiches.

So, what happened when I embarked on my high potassium/low sodium focus? Would salsa survive? Fortunately, the answer is, "Yes, salsa can be a part of any high potassium/low sodium heart healthy diet AS LONG AS you read the labels."

This can best be demonstrated by example. Lets look at a selection of salsas and a 1 tablespoon serving of each:

• [good] Santa Barbara Salsa's Mango and Peach Salsa: 42.5 mg sodium, 0 g fat.
• [good] 505 Southwestern Green Chile Sauce: 47.5 mg sodium, 0 g fat.
• [good] Archer Farms Corn Relish (available at Target): 42.5 mg sodium, 0 g fat.
• [average] Kroger Tomatillo Salsa Verde (available at King Soopers): 90 mg sodium, 0 g fat.
• [bad] Pace Picante Sauce: 125 mg sodium, 0 g fat.
• [bad] Texas Pepper Works Barn Burner Salsa: 190 mg sodium, 0 g fat.

Note that these counts are for 1 tablespoon - I found this is what is a typical serving for me. Some people may go upwards of 2 tablespoons a serving, if so then double all the counts. In addition, the potassium count for salsa is generally 1/2 to 1 of the sodium count (i.e., typical store bought salsa has a 1:2 to 1:1 potassium to sodium ratio). Not surprisingly, the salsas with lower sodium tend towards the 1:1 ratio - meaning they are a "net neutral" addition to your diet.

So, what does all this mean?

1. [store bought] Salsa is not a vehicle for you to increase your potassium to sodium ratio.
2. Used in moderation, a low sodium salsa can contribute flavor to your diet with a pretty neutral impact.
3. Read the label: if you want to keep salsas, you must use the "good" or "average" sodium varieties.

Conclusion: Keep salsa as a component of your diet, for flavor, but only when you choose the brands low in sodium. That is, a small sodium contribution of the right salsas can be offset by other high potassium ingredients (black beans, corn tortillas, etc); thus allowing you to keep the flavor while staying healthy.

A perfect breakfast: yogurt, fruit & granola

A recipe for a perfect high potassium, low sodium, low fat & economical breakfast.
Main ingredients: bananas, melons, yogurt and granola/fiber cereal.

Here is a great hearth healthy breakfast option:

• 1 banana
• 1/2 cup melon (I do 1/4 cup servings of 2 of cantaloupe, watermelon or honeydew melon)
• 1 6 oz serving of fat free yogurt
• a 1/4 to 1/3 cup serving of granola or fiber based cereal

We buy 2 medium sized melons (whichever 2 of cantaloupe, watermelon or honeydew is on sale). After slicing the melons into tupperware, this yields about 2 weeks of breakfast for 2 people (eating this 4-5 mornings a week, each).

The average nutrition & cost breakdown:

• banana: 550 mg potassium, 0.5 g fat, 2 mg sodium, 10 cents.
• melon: 185 mg potassium, 0.15 g fat, 10 mg sodium, 40 cents.
• yogurt: 280 mg potassium, 0 g fat, 100 mg sodium, 40 cents.
• granola: 230 mg potassium, 0.6 g fat, 50 mg sodium, 15 cents.
• TOTAL: 1245 mg potassium, 1.25 g fat, 162 mg sodium, $1.05 per breakfast.

WOW: your heart will kiss you for this. A whopping 8:1 potassium to sodium ratio, low fat and no hole in your wallet! Starting my day with an 8:1 meal is how I got my blood pressure under control.

For completeness, this analysis is using: (1) Kellogg's "All Bran" as the granola/fiber cereal, adjust the nutrients/cost to your favorite granola or fiber cereal; (2) the average of cantaloupe, watermelon & honeydew for the melon count; (3) typical prices for these foods at supermarkets in the Colorado mountains.

Identifying basic foods high in potassium, low in sodium and low fat

After my last post, you may be asking, "If a low fat/lean turkey sandwich has 1500 mg of sodium, how can it be possible to create a complete diet with 1000-1500 mg of sodium per day?????" It is actually not that hard: it takes a little planning and a little flexibility. The key is to identify the high potassium, low sodium and low fat basic ingredients that appeal to your tastes and build from these ingredients.

Searching google for "low sodium foods" (or anything similar) will make your head spin - everybody is trying to sell you something, nobody wants to make it easy. After much (painful) investigation, I discovered that all the websites and books giving you sodium and potassium counts are actually just reiterating data readily available from the USDA. So here you go, the 3 places to research your diet and identify the basic ingredients to put to work for you:

1. USDA Nutrition Data: The authority on nutrition counts - available in many different forms to suit your needs (PDF files for each nutrition type, database load files, etc). A great source of "raw data" if you want to build your own database or spreadsheet to analyze foods.
2. Nutrition Data from Self: A searchable interface to the USDA data - just type a food into the search box and get the USDA results. If you do not want to download all the raw data from the USDA, this is a good website to use for searching the USDA data. 
3. The World's Healthiest Foods: A list of the healthiest foods (i.e., base ingredients). Instead of searching the USDA data, this website has preselected some of the foods and enumerated them for you.

These are the starting points - identify high potassium/low sodium/low fat heart healthy ingredients that suit your tastes and start building recipes and meals from these.

I will highlight some of my favorite heart healthy ingredients in future posts...

Sodium, Sodium Everywhere...

So, it sounded so simple, "remove sodium from my diet and strive for 1000 mg of sodium a day." Heck, I don't even like the taste of salt and do not eat salty foods. Simple, so I thought.

Then I started analyzing what was in my typical/favorite meals: Sodium, Sodium Everywhere! It is not just salt, it is everywhere!

As I mentioned in past posts, I have never had a problem with obesity since I have maintained a low fat diet since my mid 20s. I thought my diet was perfect until I took a look at the evil sodium devil. Lets look at what was one of my favorite low fat (and I thought completely healthy) lunches: Barbeque Turkey Sandwich:

1. 2 slices of large sourdough bread: 3 grams of fat, 400 mg of sodium.
2. 2 slices of lean turkey sandwich meat: 2 grams of fat, 820 mg of sodium.
3. 1 TBSP of barbeque sauce: 0 grams fat, 120 mg of sodium.
4. Small serving of low fat cheddar cheese: 2 grams of fat, 120 mg of sodium.

The result: 7 grams of fat (very low fat), 1460 mg of sodium - OUCH!

So that was my typical meal: low fat and high sodium, even though I was using seemingly healthy ingredients. Multiply this by 3 for a typical day and I was consuming 21 grams of fat (excellent) and 4380 mg of sodium (horrendous). Your heart will never survive on 4380 mg of sodium a day.

What was wrong? Take a closer look at the ingredients: nothing was fresh, everything was processed & preserved. That was it: processed foods are chock full of sodium, that's how they are preserved and mass distributed!


Another lesson learned in my quest for a healthy diet: sodium is lurking everywhere in processed foods, check the labels you'll be astonished. Luckily, as I will demonstrate in future posts, removing the evil sodium devil from your diet is not actually that hard, you just have to pay attention.

Success: How I lowered my Blood Pressure

Heart Healthy is High Potassium, Low Sodium & Low Fat - it is that simple...

So, I took everything I learned about the "contributing factors" to high blood pressure (HBP) and made myself a plan of attack to lower my blood pressure.

My Plan:

1. Walk 1-2 hours per day, briskly with my dogs, 4-5 days a week.
2. Hike/run 8-14 miles 2-3 days a week (again with my dogs).
3. Maintain a diet with a "low fat" focus.
4. Modify my diet so my potassium:sodium ratio was 3:1, at worst, every day (hitting 5:1 or better many days).

The results: after about 2.5 months, my blood pressure measured 113/80 (down from 140/95).

That is, it is working! I've never felt better and the blood pressure keeps declining!

The hardest part of this plan was item #4 - finding a way to increase potassium, lower sodium and maintain a low fat focus. As such, I will devote a lot of space in this blog to 2 topics: (1) recipes for a positive potassium/sodium/fat mix that taste good; (2) lessons on sodium (it's everywhere, not just salt).

Heart Healthy is High Potassium, Low Sodium & Low Fat - it is that simple...

Contributing factors to High Blood Pressure

Summarizing my findings on what causes/contributes to high blood pressure... HBP happens when you have too many of the following 9 contributing factors:

1. Overweight.
2. Lack of physical activity.
3. Tobacco use.
4. Stressful lifestyle.
5. Alcohol consumption.
6. Increasing age.
7. Family history.
8. High sodium intake.
9. Low potassium intake.

The first 7 factors were not a surprise to me, they are common to many medical conditions. As for my personal situation: I had none of the first 4 factors; I do drink, so #5 was against me; at 42, age was only a slight factor; #7 (family history) was against me. So, looking at the first 7 factors: #1-#4 did not apply, #6-#7 are out of my control, only #5 could I change. I found it hard to believe that I could get such high blood pressure at a relatively early age from just alcohol and family history. So, there must be something to the last 2 factors I needed to learn.

To be honest, I had never heard anything about potassium before in my life. It was never mentioned in any "healthy diet/healthy eating" literature I had encountered; it was never mentioned in any health classes I had in my childhood. It was an unknown commodity to me. Here is what I found:

High blood pressure (and its negative impact on your heart) is a man-made disease. Before the (rampant) existence of HBP people: (1) did not drink or smoke; (2) were active and not overweight; (3) ate a diet where the ratio of potassium to sodium ranged from 3:1 to 5:1 (i.e., 3:1 means 3 mg of potassium for every 1 mg of sodium in food intake). Conversely, the typical person today (especially in the US): (1) does drink or smoke (or both); (2) is inactive and overweight; (3) eats a diet with a potassium to sodium ratio of 1:5 to 1:10. Yikes, mankind had reversed itself on every contributing factor to HBP and its eventual negative impact!

Back to my situation: drink=yes/smoke=no, active=yes/overweight=no - 3 of 4 I am "in the clear". So, I studied my diet and, sure enough, my potassium to sodium ratio was in the 1:5 to 1:10 range.

So, changing my diet to a healthy potassium to sodium ratio was apparently the key. And, from the background research I mentioned in the last post: there is a wealth of studies that have demonstrated a reduction in blood pressure by focusing on getting your potassium to sodium ratio to the 3:1 range or better.

I now had my mission, it was just a matter of execution ;-)

Researching high blood pressure

I figured I had 2 options for dealing with my sudden & unexpected case of high blood pressure (HBP).

(1) I could go to a doctor, get prescribed some scary sounding drugs, not understand why I had HBP, discover the unfortunate side effects (every drug has some) and live a life addicted to a drug I feared for a disease I did not understand.

Sorry for the negative view of the healthcare industry; but this pattern is the only pattern I have ever experienced with the medical/pharmaceutical industry...

(2) I could learn about the disease myself and construct a profile of my body/life against the disease. From here I could build a lifestyle and natural plan to reduce my blood pressure.

Given my clear bias, I obviously chose approach #2 and started on a path to understand HBP, why I had it and how I get rid of it. Sounded simple, but... Do a google search for "lowering high blood pressure" and you get 24 million results! Do a google search for "lowering high blood pressure naturally" and you get 20 million results! I went to my local library and found row after row of books about HBP!

I visited the first 400 results from each google search and skimmed a dozen books in the library. Below are the two resources I found that best explained HBP to me and taught me how to adjust my lifestyle to lower blood pressure. Hopefully these vetted starting points can help others get to results instead of spending days/weeks looking for good, unbiased starting points...

Great online overview: Natural Remedies for High Blood Pressure
Great book with pointers/references to studies backing up all the findings: What Your Doctor May Not Tell You About Hypertension: The Revolutionary Nutrition and Lifestyle Program to Help Fight High Blood Pressure

It all started when...

It all started when I went to a blood drive to donate blood... I had been healthy all my life: exercising regularly and eating a low fat diet. Apparently this was not enough. I was 42 at the time and I was about to learn what I didn't know (but needed to know) about eating right.

Donating blood was a regular thing for me. I always got pleasure out of the "light physical" that accompanied it:

• Pulse: always 55-65 for me (people joke that my heart barely pumps ;-)
• Temperature: typically around 96.8 (not 98.6) - consistent with the low pulse.
• Blood Pressure: typically around 100-110/70.

So, giving blood was a double positive: help others and validate my health.

This all changed in May 2010. It had been over a year since my last donation - I was busy with work and just kept "forgetting" to do my typical 2-4 times/year donation. So what happened? Happy to be in the light physical step, waiting for the nurse to say, "Wow, your readings are ultra-healthy!" But it did not happen this way. What did the nurse say, "blood pressure is 145/90".

WHAT! 145/90! I made her redo it 2 more times: 140/95, 145/95 .... I had HIGH BLOOD PRESSURE! What was I going to do. I was astonished.....