Heart Healthy Swaps for Your Favorite Foods
The following article was written by Heinen’s Chief Dietitian, Melanie Jatsek RD, LD.
Out of all the departments at Heinen’s, produce is my personal favorite. The bounty of fresh fruits and vegetables chock-full of flavor and packed with health-boosting power is truly unrivaled.
Beyond that, I delight in the fact that I don’t have to decode food labels to determine if it’s good for me—because the food is the label. From apples to asparagus, I know what I’m getting when I place a produce item in my cart.
Next time you’re perusing Heinen’s, here are three key rules to remember:
- Everything in the Produce Department is good for your heart, so load up!
- Foods outside of the Produce Department can be good for you, but check the ingredients to be certain.
- If the packaged food you’re examining is full of preservatives and other ingredients your great grandmother wouldn’t recognize, exchange it for a more wholesome option.
Use these simple heart-healthy swaps to get inspired before your next visit to Heinen’s!
- Nut Butter: Heinen’s freshly ground almond, cashew or walnut butter
- Butter: Miyoko’s creamery vegan butter; Kerrygold butter
- Cheese: The Dairy Free Co. cashew cheese; Violife
- Milk: Elmhurst nut milk or other plant-based milks; Grass-grazed cow’s milk
- Yogurt: Siggi’s plant-based yogurt
- Frozen Meals: Primal Kitchen frozen meals; Heinen’s frozen quinoa; Heinen’s frozen vegetables
- Beef: Heinen’s CARE Certified organic grass-fed beef; Pre beef
- Snack Mixes: Make your own trail mix using a combination of nuts, seeds, coconut flakes and goji berries.
- Potato Chips: Brad’s kale chips; Rhythm beet chips or cauliflower bites
- Pretzels: Pistachios or almonds
- Crackers: Flacker’s; Mary’s Gone crackers
- Bread: Ezekiel frozen sprouted bread; Angelic Bakehouse; Dave’s Killer Bread
- Sandwich Wraps: Nori wraps; Angelic Bakehouse wraps; Siete almond flour tortillas
- Pizza: Heinen’s frozen cauliflower pizza crust
- White Rice: Brown rice, wild rice, quinoa or Heinen’s frozen riced cauliflower
- Pasta: Liviva bean pasta; fresh or frozen spiralized zucchini or squash noodles
- Pasta Sauce: Lucini (Contains 230 mg of sodium per serving compared to 450 mg in the average brand.)
- Cereal: Steel-cut oats; flaked quinoa; Love Grown cereal
- Cookies: The Gluten Free Bites; MadeGood granola minis
- Chocolate: Endangered Species chocolate (70% cacao or more); Hu chocolate
- Condiments: Primal Kitchen
- Salad Dressing: Bragg
- Sports Drinks: Unsweetened coconut water
- Soda: LaCroix sparkling water; kombucha
- Coffee: Navitas matcha tea; Four Sigmatic mushroom powder; bone broth
Key Takeaway
If you have a burning desire to improve your health and are feeling inspired to make small changes to your eating habits, let me be the first to congratulate you! That’s a big deal. On the other hand, sometimes we are forced into change at the hands of a new diagnosis or health challenge. If this happens to be your current reality, I hope these suggestions ignite a spark inside and motivate you to get started, because it’s never too late.
