Nutritious and Heart Healthy

My approach to cooking and eating saw a radical transformation in 2019 after my husband CB had a heart attack. He was lucky enough to survive an open-heart quadruple bypass surgery. That set us on our journey to healthy eating.

I was shocked to learn that even in 2020, as per CDC Data, Covid 19 was only the 3rd largest killer in the US – after heart disease and cancer. What makes heart disease lethal are reasons like it’s impossible to detect externally, so most people don’t realise they have it till it’s almost too late.  Secondly, arterial clogging is irreversible. So, it turns out that there is no way to really “burn off” the unhealthy food that we’re eating that’s getting deposited along our arteries as plaque.

In other words, every bit of food that we put into our system counts, especially for those who are at high risk of heart disease. I only wish more people could be made aware of this at a younger age, instead of after suffering a critical cardiac episode!

We follow a very strict heart-healthy regimen at home now - irrespective of Covid19 or lockdowns. Essentially, it’s a diet that’s high in vegetables, fruits, whole grains, legumes, lean proteins, includes nuts and seeds, steers clear of food high in cholesterol, trans and saturated fats, excess salt or refined sugars. I use only heart-healthy oils now, and no more than 0.5 to 0.75 litres of it per month for the two of us. I also try to avoid refined and packaged food as much as possible. I aim to pack in as much nutrition as I can into every calorie and minimise our intake of empty calories to the extent possible. All of which is actually perfectly in keeping with all that is being medically recommended these days, to keep one’s immunity levels primed.

Before the lockdown, a cook made our daily meals. Since last April, after all our household help stopped coming, CB and I have been doing all our cooking ourselves, at home. CB actually taught himself to cook from scratch, from various sources on the internet, during these last few months. We figured, since the food that we eat, along with exercise, is going to be our strongest weapon against any kind of illness during this time, we may as well take complete charge of it ourselves. By now both our bodies and natural preferences have got completely reprogrammed to prefer our heart-healthy eating to most of the junk we used to eat before.

Here are two recipes that I have been making quite often lately.

Mediterranean Salad

INGREDIENTS

• Cucumber -1
• Tomato -1
• Red onion-1
• Chopped spring onions- a handful
• Cooked chickpeas- ½ cup
• Apple – ½
• Pomegranate seeds – a handful
• Chopped walnuts – a handful
• Basil - 2 tbsp chopped
• Mixed seeds (sunflower/pumpkin/melon/flax): 1 tbsp

DRESSING

• Juice of 1 lemon
• Extra Virgin Oil - 1 tbsp
• Salt to taste
• Pepper to taste

METHOD

• Toss everything together, chill and serve.

(I can have it as a main course or, as a side with a grilled/roast fish or chicken, or with sandwiches or with a soup or even with dal chawal roti. It has veggies, fruits, nuts, seeds, protein, citrus, herbs - it’s a power-packed nutrient-rich meal full of texture and flavour)

Oats Egg White Omelette

(This is my Heart Healthy spin on an oats omelette recipe a friend sent me recently. It’s become quite a favourite at home. It's highly customizable, you can add more veggies to it to further power up its nutrition quotient.)

INGREDIENTS

• Rolled Oats -1.5 tbsp soaked for 10 min in 2 tbsp low-fat milk
• Egg whites of 2
• Red Onion- ¼ thinly sliced
• Red onion ¼ chopped fine
• Green chilli chopped -1
• A handful of chopped coriander
• Garlic pod - 1 thinly sliced or chopped fine
• Salt and pepper to taste

METHOD

• Add the egg whites to the rolled oats soaked in milk
• Add salt, pepper, finely chopped onion, garlic, green chilli and beat with a fork
• Heat 1 tsp light olive oil in a non-stick pan, add the sliced onion and lightly brown
• Add the beaten egg white mix to the pan, roll it around to spread into a circle
• Sprinkle chopped coriander, transfer to a plate when the omelette is set