Healthy foods love back

It’s no coincidence that February was chosen as National Heart Month.

With Valentine’s Day sprouting up in the middle of this often bleak but thankfully short month, it’s the perfect time to focus on the joys of the heart, including the foods to eat to nurture a healthy heart.

Heart disease is the leading cause of death in the United States, and the most common is coronary heart disease, which leads to heart attacks. But take heart.

“By adopting simple lifestyle alterations, you can lower heart disease risk by as much as 80 percent,” says Dr. Aman Kakkar, a cardiologist at Emory Johns Creek Hospital.

Happily, if you send your loved one a box of chocolates or lavish him or her with lobster you may be showing more love than you even imagined. Dark chocolate is a good source of antioxidants, lobster (if you skip the melted butter) is a great lean protein choice containing healthy Omega-3 fish oils, and a glass of wine (including white wines and champagne) can actually help raise levels of HDL, the protective form of cholesterol.

Wine, dine and romance the night away with these tips on dining out with heart health in mind.

> Fall in love with healthy fats. The monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats in olive oil, canola oil, avocados, nuts, fish and shellfish work to lower your LDL cholesterol blood levels. Avoid trans fats in all foods.

> Find the inner beauty in eating vegetables. The fiber in fruits and vegetables helps lower blood cholesterol levels and helps to fill you up without filling you out. Start your meal with a salad and accessorize your entree with vegetable side dishes. Chefs today are demonstrating their love for seasonal fresh ingredients. The chopped salad at chef Laurent Tourondel’s BLT Steak, newly opened in the W Hotel Downtown, features at least eight vegetables.

> Seek heart-friendly finds in surprising places. Steakhouses, for example, offer customized sizes of steaks and often plenty of seafood selections and vegetable side dishes. At BLT Steak, cuts such as the hangar steak and porterhouse arrive presliced and so are perfect for sharing. Plus the types of saturated fats in beef have less impact than butter on increasing bad cholesterol. So choose leaner cuts, limit portions to about 6 ounces and skip the butter.

> Flirt with the waiter. Whenever you’re making a special diet request to trim fat and calories, let your server know how much you appreciate help in navigating the menu.

> Stay in the nonsmoking section. While smoking is not allowed in most states, keep in mind that if you do smoke you may as well eat whatever you like because no measure of healthy dining can outweigh the negative health effects of that bad habit.

Carolyn O’Neil is a registered dietitian and co-author of “The Dish on Eating Healthy and Being Fabulous!” E-mail her at carolyn@carolynoneil.com.