Easy Recommendations from the American Heart Association
You are working out and crushing your goals inside the gym, but do you ever struggle with what foods you should be purchasing to build heart health and maintain that “healthy lifestyle”?
The American Heart Association takes the guess work out of what healthy foods you should be incorporating into your diet with their Heart Check Mark program! This tool indicates what foods meet the AHA standards, with over 1,000 products having the heart check mark across grocery stores in America.
So, what exactly does it take to be Heart Check certified? Food goes through a rigorous and robust certification process and must comply with 5 coronary heart disease health claims in 6 food categories.
In order to be certified, food must:
1. Provide an adequate source of nutrients and be 10% or more of the daily value of 1 of 6 nutrients including Vitamin A, C & iron.
2. Be limited in bad fats- both saturated and trans fats. For saturated fats, it must contain 1g. or less per serving size and 15% or less calories from saturated fats. For trans fats, it must contain less than 0.5 g. per label serving size.
3. Be limited in Sodium.
Why trust the check mark?
Not only do foods go through a rigorous certification process, but a heart check, means that it’s SCIENCE checked! The criteria used to determine if a food qualifies to be ‘heart healthy’ must meet scientific recommendations in order to even be considered.
Some items that have the Heart Check Mark are:
• Quaker Steel Cut Oats
• Star-Kist Light Tuna
• Blue Diamond Almonds
• Pepperidge Farm Whole Grain Bread
So, the next time you walk through the aisles of your local grocery store, keep an eye out for the Heart Check Mark and know that it’s a choice backed by science and one you can count on!
Here are some delicious recipes that are heart healthy and heart check approved!