February is National Heart Health Month in the UK, where we’re all encouraged to exercise regularly and eat healthily. What does a heart-healthy diet look like, though? And which supplements have been shown in studies to support heart health?

What a heart-healthy diet looks like

Heart-healthy eating is surprisingly simple, on paper:

• Eat more plants and fibre
• Choose healthier fat
• Eat less salt, sugar and ultra-processed foods

Easy, right?

What does this look like in practice, though?

Start with small, sustainable swaps

For most adults, the best approach is to make gradual changes that become lifelong healthy habits.

This might look like:

• Eating more beans and lentils instead of processed meats
• Choosing wholegrain bread instead of white bread
• Cooking with olive or rapeseed oil instead of butter
• Making more food from scratch instead of relying on salty ready meals

These changes can gradually improve your lipid profile (i.e., your cholesterol levels and triglycerides) and blood pressure.

Some core foods often cited as being heart-healthy include:

• Fruits and vegetables
• Wholegrains (like oats, quinoa, wholewheat, barley, and brown rice)
• Pulses (like lentils, chickpeas, and beans)
• Nuts and seeds
• Oily fish

Focusing on the foods above in place of processed foods that are high in fat, salt, and sugar and low in nutrients can help get your heart health back on track.

How to ‘eat more plants’

It’s all very well to say, ‘eat more plants and fibre’, but what does this mean in practice?

UK dietitians suggest at least five portions of fruit and vegetables a day and around 30 g of fibre, largely from whole plant foods. Some easy ways to achieve this include:

• Wholegrain breakfast cereals or porridge oats, plus frozen berries or sliced banana
• Tinned tomatoes, mixed beans, mushrooms, carrots, chickpeas and lentils for quick stews and curries
• Wholemeal bread, brown rice, wholewheat pasta, and oatcakes as everyday staples

These kinds of natural foods provide a wealth of vitamins, minerals, antioxidants and different types of fibre that help lower low-density lipoprotein (LDL cholesterol), support a healthy gut microbiome, and keep you feeling fuller for longer.

Increasing your intake of soluble fibre from oats, oat bran and pulses is especially helpful for cholesterol.

Healthier fats and oily fish

If any of the following make a regular appearance on your family’s menu, it’s time to switch things up to help your heart:

• Fatty meats (like sausages and streaky bacon)
• Processed meat products (like salami and pies)
• Butter, ghee, and cream
• Baked goods

The occasional treat isn’t going to kill you, but when these foods are eaten daily, they contribute significantly to high cholesterol and blood pressure, which increase the risk of heart disease.

Healthy switches include replacing the saturated fats above with unsaturated fats from plant oils, nuts, seeds and oily fish. That might look like:

• Swapping butter, ghee, and cream for olive, rapeseed or sunflower oil and plant-based creams and spreads
• Making processed meat products and baked goods occasional foods, not weekly staples
• Choosing oily fish (tinned sardines, mackerel, salmon) instead of red meats

Oily fish provide long-chain omega-3 fats (EPA and DHA), which support the normal function of the heart.

Not a fish eater? No problem. Fish get their omega-3 from algae, and so can you. Choose a high-quality algae-derived omega-3 supplement to support heart health without the fishy feelings.

Don’t pass the salt

Eating too much salt raises blood pressure, which in turn increases the risk of coronary heart disease and stroke. Adults are advised to eat no more than 6 g of salt a day (about a teaspoon). That’s the total amount, not just what you add at the table.

Unfortunately, it’s very easy to consume more than 6 g of salt just by eating ready-made sauces, soups, breads, snacks, and ready-meals.

Simple strategies to stay salt savvy include:

• Looking for unsalted or low-salt/sodium versions of tinned tomatoes, beans, vegetables, and soups
• Prioritising minimally processed items (plain oats, nuts, seeds, beans, frozen vegetables, natural yoghurt) and adding your own herbs, spices and small amounts of salt at home
• Paying attention to sweet foods that sneak in salt, such as cereals, fruit juice, tinned fruit, and baked goods

Next level support for heart health

Diet and exercise are the foundation for good heart health. If you’re looking to take more direct action to reduce cholesterol and blood pressure, there are also some tried and tested supplements available.

1. Omega-3 supplements (EPA and DHA)

If you rarely or never eat oily fish, a fish-oil or algae-oil supplement can help support heart health. Be sure to take a quality supplement that provides the amount of EPA and DHA associated with benefits in clinical trials. Typically, that’s around 250 mg each of EPA and DHA daily, though some trials used around 850 mg EPA and DHA combined.

Some fish oil or algal oil supplements focus on just EPA or just DHA, so check the label carefully for a supplement that provides both in roughly equal measure.

2. Thiamine (vitamin B1)

B vitamins might not be new or glamorous, but they’ve been supporting heart health for millennia.

Thiamine (vitamin B1) supports the normal function of the heart, as long as you’re getting enough to meet your daily reference intake (around 1 mg for an adult).

3. Co-Enzyme Q10

Co-enzyme Q10 has been extensively studied for its ability to support cardiovascular health. This coenzyme helps to generate energy in muscles, including the heart muscle, but natural production decreases with age.

CoQ10 supplements can support energy production in the body and provide antioxidants to protect heart muscle cells against oxidative damage. CoQ10 may also help lower blood pressure by influencing nitric oxide activity to help blood vessels dilate.

Low CoQ10 levels may also be behind some statin-induced muscle pains, so talk to your doctor if you’re experiencing these symptoms.

4. Oat beta-glucan (from oats or barley)

Oats and barley are both delicious and easy to include in your diet. If you aren’t eating these regularly, you might want to look into a beta-glucan supplement. This is one of the key nutrients in these grains that supports heart health.

Check that a supplement provides around 3 g of beta-glucan per daily dose. As you make more dietary switches, consider adding oat bran or oats to your cereal or homebaked goods.

Bringing it all together

Natural health supplements can be useful for supporting heart health, but these are best used in addition to a healthy diet and exercise. Other key steps include:

• Learning good stress management strategies
• Ditching alcohol (or reducing intake significantly)
• Quitting smoking and avoiding other recreational drugs

It’s also important to get regular check-ups to catch any cardiovascular symptoms early. You can use fitness tracking devices and apps to monitor for changes in heart rate that might indicate an underlying issue.

Bringing it all together, a genuinely heart-focused diet and lifestyle includes more plants, more fibre, healthier fats, less salt and sugar, and regular exercise. Any supplements should be chosen carefully, so you’re investing your time and money in quality products backed by science.