With a shared passion to get more New Zealanders eating nutritious and tasty food, we’ve partnered with the Heart Foundation to develop a delicious range of heart-healthy meals available in My Choice.
Why is it important to eat for our heart health?
A range of lifestyle factors influence our heart health – for example what we eat, whether we smoke, stress and our activity levels all can all play a key part in reducing our risk of heart disease.
When it comes to what we eat there is no on single diet that is best for our heart health. Instead there are various eating patterns that support a long and healthy life and have been shown to reduce risk factors such as high blood pressure and raised cholesterol levels. Well-known examples include the traditional ways of eating in the Mediterranean and Okinawa, Japan. These dietary patterns share some common themes – which include plenty of plant foods, a focus on healthier fats and contain less processed foods.
What makes our meals heart-healthy?
Plenty of plant foods
Plant foods such as vegetables, fruits, beans, chickpeas, whole grains, nuts and seeds are low in saturated fat, contain heart-healthy fats and are an excellent source of fibre. They give our bodies vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, and phytochemicals, which offer protection against disease.
Veggies Veggies Veggies
Veggies are at the core of our Heart Healthy meals. We ensure there’s a variety of veggies in every meal and include plenty of them. Colourful, fibre-rich and nutrient-dense veggies are key to making our dishes nutritious and delicious.
Whole Grains
We focus on using unrefined whole grains to ensure we’re getting all the nutritional goodness. You’ll see a range of ancient grains in our meals like freekeh, farro, quinoa and wild rices.
Good Fats
We focus on using heart healthy oils like olive oils. These oils are rich in unsaturated fats (the heart healthy kind) such as monounsaturated and polyunsaturated.
Nuts and seeds, olives, avocado and salmon are foods that deliver these heart healthy fats, you’ll see these feature in our menus.
Heart Healthy Proteins
We focus on plant-based proteins like beans, chickpeas, lentils, tofu, nuts and seeds, as well as sustainably caught seafood. You’ll also see free-range chicken and eggs, and a reduced portion of red meat from time to time.
Packed full of flavour
We’ve worked with the Heart Foundation to find the perfect balance of heart healthy goodness without compromising on taste. We utilise plenty of herbs, spices, aromatics, and fresh produce to deliver the flavour.
*Heart Healthy recipes available now in My Choice
