By Alex Gibson

February is American Heart Month and heart disease is the leading cause of death for men, women and people of most racial and ethnic groups in the United States.

But with that statistic comes a question: What goes into maintaining or developing a healthy heart?

Both diet and exercise are two important components in heart health.

With exercise, experts recommend at least 30 minutes of exercise a day. High Point University graduate student Joe Shomaker tries to exercise when he can.

“Grad school keeps me pretty busy,” Shomaker said. “I love basketball, so I’ll get up shots or play pickup basketball with my friends in my free time and on the weekends to try to keep my heart healthy.”

Colin Carriker, Ph.D., ACSM EP-C is an assistant professor at High Point University. Carriker’s way taking care of the heart muscle is to monitor the calories burned per week.

“One method to enhance weekly calorie burning is to attain a minimum of 7,000 to 8,000 steps per day, with a minimum of 3,000 of those steps completed at a cadence of 100 steps/minute,” said Dr. Carriker. “While this may not exceed the recommended minimum daily physical activity, this is a great way to initiate health behavior change.”

With diet, eating a wide variety of fruits and vegetables is the way to go. Also, consuming whole grains and/or products made up of whole grains and healthy sources of protein, among other things, is a great way to take care of the heart.

Kendra Matthews, a Learning Excellence Specialist at High Point University, received her Bachelors of Science in Dietetics and Masters of Science in Food Science and Nutrition from North Carolina A&T.

Most people want to be as healthy as possible, but for many, that just simply isn’t possible.

“With organic foods, a lot of people can’t afford as much as is available,” Matthews said. “But the expense of it, especially right now, it’s expensive, so it may not be readily accessible for some populations of people or people in general who have families spending a lot of money for groceries. So, it may not be an option. I think with non-organic foods, it’s how you prepare them would be more feasible than organic foods.”

When protecting the heart, there are some things to avoid when deciding what to eat because picking the wrong foods can have catastrophic consequences.

“Cholesterol really stems from animal fats, so limiting really high-fatty meats,” Matthews said. “Lean protein is good, but a lot of times just limiting the high-fatty content will help. Anything like your oils, butter. I think a lot of it comes from over-excessiveness that will increase that (cholesterol).”

Vitamins are another great way to improve heart health because sometimes, food just alone doesn’t cut it.

“With the way foods are genetically modified, I think it would be important to have some type of vitamin supplements in your body because we’re not getting all the nutrient-dense foods that typically we would get a long time ago,” Matthews said. “But right now, since a lot of foods are genetically modified, you’re not getting all the nutrients that you need. So, I do think that it’s important to supplement and have some type of multivitamin in your diet, particularly to help with your immune system.”

However there are some myths about a heart-healthy diet. Some may think a heart-healthy diet may not be the most appetizing, but they’re wrong.

“A lot of heart-healthy things can taste good,” Matthews said. “So just giving it a try. It’s a lot of options, but choosing what would work best for you is what really counts.”

February may be American Heart Month, but Americans should be paying close attention to their heart every month.

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Alex Gibson is a senior at High Point University majoring in Journalism and minoring in Athletic Coaching.  For contact inquiries, please email agibson2@highpoint.edu.