How to Look After Your Heart, Naturally

Vegan cardiologist Dr Heather Shenkman

The size of an adult fist, your heart pumps blood around your body, and basically keeps you alive. Beating over 100,000 times a day, a healthy heartbeat is usually around 60 to 100 minutes (resting) while babies have much faster heartbeats (and athletes usually much slower heartbeats). The sound of a heartbeat is caused by the valves of your heart opening and closing, and this blood is pumped to all organs except for corneas (in your eyes). As long as there is oxygen, your heart can still beat.

You can get ‘broken heart syndrome’ where blood flow is temporarily interrupted due to stress.  Most animals also have hearts (blue whales have the world’s largest heart that weighs almost 30 stone) and the American pygmy shrew has the fastest (1200 beats per minute). Giraffes have ‘lopsided’ hearts with a thicker left ventricle, to get the blood far enough up their long necks to their brains!

Of course, things go wrong with our hearts. Heart disease and other heart conditions are the leading causes of ill health and death in England and most western countries. Although some causes are genetic and age-related, many are due to diet, lack of exercise and lifestyle. But while towns and MPs focus on ‘waiting times’ in hospitals (one person has a heart attack every 5 minutes in the UK, resulting in 100,000 admissions a year), it would be far more proactive and effective to switch funding for motorways to walking communities and open parks (free exercise to reduce stress) and promote local organic food at affordable prices, rather than promoting big supermarkets and online shopping stores to ‘create more jobs’ in high-stress environments. Stress is very much linked to heart attacks (most happen on Christmas Day).

We do of course now have better medical care (though funding humane research that is effective, kinder and cheaper than animal testing, a good reason to switch donations from British Heart Foundation). Bringing good food and regular exercise to care home residents and hospitals would help.

So how do we help prevent heart disease, or treat signs from angina to serious heart conditions? Like most things in medical care, there is a lot of good information out there, but also some vested interests (and others not visionary enough to make changes that would make a huge difference – walking communities, community gardens providing fresh free organic food, GPs prescribing gym memberships and counselling over statins etc).

NHS says the main 3 steps for a healthy heart are:

1. Eat well (they say to avoid ‘bad cholesterol’ foods that are mostly fried and red meats, butter and lard, hard cheese, cakes, biscuits and foods with palm oil or coconut oil). They instead suggest eating more fruits, vegetables and wholegrain bread. Try overnight oats (Crowded Kitchen) for a heart-healthy breakfast.
2. Give up smoking. This is easier said than done for most people, but it can be done (there is free help on the NHS if you can’t afford private therapy). It’s been shown that nicotine patches are far less effective than Allen Carr method (that the NHS won’t fund, why not?)
3. Keep blood pressure in check. This puts pressure on your heart and arteries. Eat well, exercise, drink little or no alcohol and limit salt (no more than a teaspoon per day in adults).

What Is The Science To Prevent Heart Disease?

Gemma Newman is at the forefront of bringing modern effective advice to patients, regarding using food as their main medicine. Heart disease is when the vessels get narrow (this can cause angina, chest pain, a stroke or dementia, as well as heart attacks – men may also like to know that clearing your arteries may also help to cure impotence, for the same reason – blood flow). She suggests modifying your favourite dishes (replacing the butter and beef), get plenty of exercise and learn to relax.

Dr Heather Shenkman is a US cardiologist who only performs angioplasties to open up the most severe clogged arteries. For most of her patients, she helps them through advice on plant-based foods, regular exercise and healthy lifestyles. She does say that you have to (mostly) eat good natural foods. She even once had to stent a vegan. She writes ‘Oreos, potato chips, Twizzlers and Pepsi are all vegan, but they’re certainly not health foods’.

There is no need to take oily fish or supplements to help your heart, this has no proof whatsoever. A major study involving 112,000 headed by Dr Lee Cooper from University of East Anglia concluded that ‘we can be confident in the findings that go against the popular belief that long-chain omega-3 supplements protect the heart’. Tim Chico (Professor of Cardiology at Sheffield University) said that there is no ‘magic bullet’, rather simple lifestyle changes. He advised people to forgo expensive fish-oil supplements and ‘spend their money on vegetables instead’. These Four Berry Pie Bars (Crowded Kitchen) are packed contain berries and oats, both known heart-healthy foods. Ideal for a sweet tooth!

Dr Caldwell B Esselstyn JR is a US doctor who works at the prestigious Cleveland Clinic. He became the first in the world to reverse angina (proven on angiograms) through diet alone. His advice is way more stringent (giving up all animal foods and refined oils). He says general advice given is too vague and ineffective. Many areas on earth have hardly any heart disease. He says the advice of ‘30% fat’ given to the public ‘guarantees disease development and progression’.

British Heart Foundation recommends around 20% of calories a day from fat, more than him and World Health Organisation (15%). And doling out facts and figures just makes people worry unnecessarily (for instance, cholesterol rates can rise significantly during pregnancy and menopause).

Vested interests can play a huge part too. In the US, politicians promote the very foods that promote heart disease, due to political interests and hardline beliefs about what people should eat. That’s for them to decide, but they should not be confusing this as ‘science’ to tell people to eat in a way that may cost them their lives. One doctor once wrote he was bemused that some people thought changing the foods they put on the end of their forks, was more dramatic than having their chest cut open for a triple-by-pass operation. What we must do is separate vested corporate interests of the food industry from ties to politics, like lobbying or funding. Science (from those who know best) should be those who tell us what to eat, then we can choose to eat as we please, but with accurate information.

Vegan cardiologist Ellsworth Wareham lived in the Seventh Day Adventist town of Loma Linda (Calfiornia). He died recently (aged 104) but continued to perform surgery until his 90s. He said the only concern was the patients’ faces, when they saw how old he was, as they went under the knife!

Writer Paul Greenberg went vegan for a year, to (successfully) reduce his stubborn high blood pressure, after receiving a friendly warning from his doctor. His takeaways were:

1. Don’t eat ‘white bread that you can stand on without squishing it’
2. Stick to natural foods and a little sea salt, over table-salt
3. Take a good multi-supplement, to cover nutrition bases.
4. Take 3 to 5 hours exercise a week (gentle is fine)
5. Eat well, but live your life (a little ‘cheat’ now and then is fine!)

Heart-Healthy Plant-Based Recipe Books

Some heart medications are negated by the effects of eating foods rich in vitamin K (so go easy or give up grapefruit and lots of green leafy veggies). Use vegan butters with no palm oil. Use a reusable silicone baking liner or unbleached parchment paper (in compostable packaging). Keep recipes away from pets, due to toxic ingredients. 

Plant-Based Delicious is a beautiful book (by a certified holistic nutritionist) of easy-to-prepare comforting dishes with fresh flavours and good-for-you ingredients. Each recipe features flavour combinations to intrigue and impress your taste buds, while also nourishing your body. Each recipe is free from oil and gluten. Recipes include:

1. Spicy Sheet Pan Cauliflower Tacos
2. Brown Rice Poutine with Miso Gravy
3. Tofu Benedict Bowls with Corn Hollandaise & Spinach
4. Mixed Mushroom Lasagna with Kale & White Bean Ricotta
5. Moroccan Potpies with Almond Pastry
6. Maple Bakon Cauliflower Steaks with Lentils & Ranch Dressing
7. Mint Chocolat Ice Cream Cheesecake
8. Double Chocolate Chip Chickpea Cookies

Whether you’re a seasoned vegan looking for new recipe ideas or a newbie wishing to eat more vegetables, each wholesome recipe is sure to become a household favourite that you’ll make again and again. No longer do you have to compromise health for flavour!

The Simple Vegan Kitchen is a stunning book of 60 recipes created by a registered dietitian, so you know they are as healthy as they are delicious. Still containing the flavours you crave, these meals are yummy enough to eat everyday. Containing the proper amount of protein, carbohydrate and fats, they also contain key nutrients like iron, calcium and omega-3. Recipes include:

1. Carrot Cake Overnight Oats
2. One-Pan Mushroom Gnocchi
3. Herby Lentil ‘Meatballs’ & Garlic Bread
4. Peanut-Miso Tofu Noodle Bowl
5. Barbecue Chickpea Wraps
6. Edamame Crunch Salad with Peanut Dressing
7. White Bean, Balsamic & Rosemary Dip
8. Lemon-Coconut Energy Balls

Find nourishing dishes that will create a lifelong healthy relationship with food, a 30-day meal plan and gorgeous photographs of each recipe. Author Lauren McNeill is a plant-based registered dietitian, who holds a Masters of Public Health in Nutrition.

The Vegan 8 (all recipes have 8 or less ingredients, bar salt, pepper and water) is also free from oil and gluten, the recipes developed to help the author’s husband’s gout. Brandi has tips on her blog on how to cook and bake without oil. She eats nuts & olives in whole form to get fat, though is not a fan of applesauce. She prefers nut butters & almond flour (negates the need for oil). Unlike most oil-free cookbooks, her recipes are super-tasty, she’s a cooking genius! Recipes include:

1. Hungarian Red Lentil Soup
2. Smoky White Bean Potato Stew
3. Bakery-Style Blueberry Muffins
4. Teriyaki Patties
5. Thai Red Curry Sweet Potato Dip
6. Spinach-Artichoke ‘Cream Cheese’ Dip
7. Cajun Veggie & Potato Chowder
8. Skillet Baked Mac n Cheese
9. No-Bake Espresso Fudge Cake