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.