Here’s what you need to know about gentle nutrition basics to promote heart health after 40 without compromising satisfaction or falling into the dumpster fire of diet culture.

Make gentle nutrition easy for your busy life, by using Rachel Hartley’s pyramid of nutrition needs:

• Adequacy – eat enough consistently throughout the day.
• Balance – eat protein, carbs, and fats at most meals and snacks.
• Variety – add a variety of foods to your weekly menus
• Individual foods – add specific foods or individual nutrients to promote your health goals (i.e. add more fiber-rich foods, consider a magnesium supplement, and add more omega-3 foods like walnuts, fish, and flax).

These steps build on each other. If you’re not eating enough due to time, finances, or culinary skills, thinking about balance and variety will be difficult. 

Diet culture encourages focus on individual foods (eat this, don’t eat that). But if you don’t eat adequately, apply balance as much as possible, and enjoy a variety of foods, adding in specific “superfoods” or nutrient supplements won’t matter. As my friend and colleague Val Schonberg says, “You can’t out-supplement a bad diet!” 

What about gentle nutrition for heart health?

“The goal of making heart health additions to your nutrition shouldn’t primarily focus on preventing or avoiding the need for medication.”   – Dr. Jenn Salib Hubber RD ND

Think about what you can add to your current way of eating to boost heart health. The add-in mindset has a positive spin whereas the substration (restriction) mindset tells you what you shouldn’t eat. Nobody likes to be told what they can’t eat! With the add-in mindset, you’re more likely to stick with your nutritional goals. 

Add these heart-healthy foods to your weekly meals and snacks:

• Focus on unsaturated fats like olives, olive oil, avocado, walnuts, almonds, flaxseeds, fish, and nuts.

• Increase fiber-rich foods like oatmeal, fresh fruits, vegetables, whole grains, beans, lentils, nuts and seeds.

• Add plant-based protein sources like chickpeas, beans, legumes, nuts and seeds, tofu, tempeh, quinoa, peanuts, and hemp seeds.

• Add nuts to your snacks! Almonds, walnuts, pistachios, and nut butter are packed with heart-healthy unsaturated fats (look for nut butter without added sugar and oils).

• For optimal blood pressure, increase potassium-rich foods like Medjool dates (the big ones!), banana, baked potato with skin, tomato paste, cooked beet greens, sweet potato with skin, swiss chard cooked, avocado, dried figs, orange, cantaloupe, and honeydew.

• Add dark leafy greens and beets to increase nitric oxide production to keep your blood vessels relaxed so blood can flow more freely. 

What does heart-healthy eating look like in real life?

The easiest way to get in most of these ingredients is through what I call Buddha Bowls or greens, beans, and grains bowls. It’s a throwback to my days working with the Health Starts Here program and Whole Foods Market. 

Here’s how to build a bowl:

• Cooked whole grain of choice – oats, quinoa, brown rice, whole grain pasta, etc

• Cooked (or canned) beans or legumes of choice – chickpeas, lentils, black beans, edamame, etc

• (optional) Plant-based or animal protein – cooked tofu, tempeh, hard cheese, pasture-raised eggs, chicken breast, grass-fed ground meat

• Sauted or raw greens – beet greens, swiss chard, kale, spinach, dark green lettuce like romaine, spring mix blend.

• Top will colorful vegetables (raw or roasted) – peppers, sweet potatoes, carrots, beets, tomatoes, broccoli or broccoli slaw, etc

• Add crunch with nuts and seeds

• Finish with your favorite dressing or sauce – avocado green goddess, lemon tahini, chimichurri, cashew curry, salsa, fermented veggies like sauerkraut, kimchi, beets, carrots, etc.

Key takeaways to support your heart health after 40

Focus on what you can add rather than what you should take away. Increase your intake of unsaturated fats, fiber, fruits and vegetables, and potassium-rich foods. 

Remember, as Dr. Jenn Salib Hubber likes to say, “Patterns of eating matter more than individual foods and meals.” Gentle nutrition after 40 is a long game. It’s not about quick wins. It’s about little wins that pile up. 

Learn more about heart health for women in perimenopause and menopause by joining me and Dr. Jenn inside the Midlife Feast Community! Use this link and the code AMANDA to get 50% off your first month of membership.