55 Heart-Healthy Vegetables to Help Improve Your Heart Health

What is Heart Health?

Heart health means the health of the heart. This refers to the overall health and well-being of your heart. In other words, the heart is the head of the body, meaning that the heart is the core. It is one of our body’s most essential organs! A healthy heart would mean a healthy heart rate, blood pressure, cholesterol levels, etc. The fantastic thing is that heart-healthy vegetables can help you improve your heart health!

A heart-healthy lifestyle includes regular exercise, a healthy and balanced diet rich in fruits, vegetables, and whole grains, and stress management. At the same time, avoid unhealthy habits such as smoking and excessive alcohol consumption.

It’s a no-brainer, but caring for our heart health can help us reduce the risk of heart disease!

When is Heart Health Month?

Heart Health Month is in February of every year! This month is significant because it allows us to focus on heart-healthy eating. It is equally a time dedicated to raising awareness about heart disease while encouraging people to care for their cardiovascular health.

Most healthcare facilities and organizations use this month to educate individuals about the risk factors associated with heart disease as well as the ways to prevent them. Make sure to check out the American Heart Association for more info.

Personally, this is the time to further remind myself to continue to choose a healthy lifestyle. Honestly, I haven’t been exercising that much because of winter, and I’m always very cold. But I know a heart-healthy lifestyle includes regular exercise, eating a balanced diet, and avoiding smoking and excessive drinking. This is why I am so excited to share these 55 heart-healthy vegetables so we can start prioritizing our heart health!

55 Heart-Healthy Vegetables To Improve Your Heart Health

If you want to improve your heart health using foods, you are in luck! I have gathered 55 heart-healthy vegetables that will help you improve your heart-healthy.

Heart-Healthy Root Vegetables

Root vegetables simply mean those vegetables that grow underground. In other words, you have to dig them up from the ground to harvest them. I remember my parents growing sweet potatoes, yams, and cassava when I was growing up. And whenever we had to harvest them, we would dig them up. Non-roots that grow in the ground, such as onions, garlic, etc., belong to this category. Here are heart-healthy root vegetables to help improve your heart health!

1. Beets
2. Carrots
3. Sweet potatoes
4. Radishes (also a cruciferous vegetable)
5. Jicama
6. Ginger
7. Turnips
8. Garlic
9. Celeriac 
10. Fennel
11. Rutabaga
12. Turmeric 
13. Leeks
14. Onions
15. Shallots
16. Parsnips 

Heart-Healthy Leafy Vegetables (Leafy Greens)

Leafy greens, leafy vegetables, greens, or vegetable greens all refer to the same thing – plant leaves eaten as a vegetable! One distinguishable attribute of leafy vegetables is that they generally have leaves. Some can be eaten raw; the others can be cooked. Here are the heart-healthy leafy greens you should start eating every day:

Note: though kale, collard greens, bok choy, arugula, collards, and watercress are leafy greens, they are also cruciferous vegetables. 

1. Spinach
2. Kale
3. Collard greens
4. Swiss chard
5. Beet greens
6. Bok choy
7. Turnip greens
8. Mustard greens
9. Arugula (I like adding arugula to salads; see this video)!
10. Watercress
11. Radicchio
12. Endive

Hearth-Healthy Cruciferous Vegetables

Everyone and their parents love LOVE cruciferous vegetables; they are an excellent replacement for carbs. You know what I mean for those of you on a low-carb diet. For instance, cauliflower; we have cauliflower cilantro lime rice, which my entire household loves. The cauliflower mac and cheese and cauliflower soup! Cruciferous vegetables belong to the Brassicaceae family. Heart-healthy Cruciferous vegetables include:

1. Broccoli
2. Brussels sprouts
3. Cabbage
4. Cauliflower
5. Escarole
6. Kohlrabi

Non-Leafy Greens (Heart-Heathy Stem Vegetables)

Simply put, non-leafy vegetables are those vegetables that do not have leaves! 

1. Bell peppers
2. Tomatoes
3. Eggplant
4. Zucchini
5. Squash
6. Pumpkin
7. Okra
8. Peas
9. Celery
10. Sugar snap peas
11. Snow peas
12. Artichokes
13. Cucumbers
14. Winter squash
15. Asparagus

Other Hearth-Healthy Vegetables

1. Beans (dry black beans, black-eyed peas)
2. Lentils
3. Chickpeas
4. Edamame
5. Mushrooms
6. Avocado (while avocado is a fruit, we all consider it a vegetable, so I’m adding it here, lol)

What are your favorite veggies from this list of 55 heart-healthy vegetables? If you are struggling to improve your heart health, these vegetables will help!

I know this is a massive list, but I hope you are not overwhelmed by just looking at the list. You can select one or two from the list and start with that.

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