General wellnessHeart healthNutrition

5 top foods for your heart—plus 1 to avoid

What's best to eat for heart health? A cardiologist weighs in.

Mar, 2026
LearnCholesterol5 top foods for your heart—plus 1 to avoid
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Salmon and Other Fatty Fish
Berries
Oats
Flaxseed
Avocados
Cut the Sugar

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It seems like a new study comes out practically every day telling us what to eat and what to avoid. When it comes to heart health, though, take the headlines with a grain of salt.

"There’s not one magic food," says Jimmy L. Kontos, MD, an interventional cardiologist with Grand Strand Medical Center in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. "It’s about trying to find a balance between a healthy diet and lifestyle. If you have a strong family history of heart disease, you may not be able to avoid problems, but you can put yourself in the best position by eating a heart-healthy diet."

With that in mind, here are five heart-healthy foods to consider adding to your menu—and one to skip.

Written byFrances Largeman-Roth, RDN.
Medically reviewed byGaby Vaca-Flores, RD.June, 2024
Sources: Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics. What Are Omega-3 Fatty Acids. March 1 + 14
  1. Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics. What Are Omega-3 Fatty Acids. March 1, 2022.
  2. Wall R, Ross RP, Fitzgerald GF, Stanton C. Fatty acids from fish: the anti-inflammatory potential of long-chain omega-3 fatty acids. Nutr Rev. 2010;68(5):280-289.
  3. Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. Omega-3. Last updated April 21, 2022.
  4. U.S. Department of Agriculture. Eat fish! Which Fish? That Fish! Go Fish! Last Modified: April 2, 2020.
  5. U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Advice about Eating Fish. Content current as of: June 8, 2022.
  6. Mayo Clinic. Fish oil. December 8, 2020.
  7. Erlund I, Koli R, Alfthan G, et al. Favorable effects of berry consumption on platelet function, blood pressure, and HDL cholesterol. Am J Clin Nutr. 2008;87(2):323-331.
  8. Aboonabi A, Meyer RR, Gaiz A, Singh I. Anthocyanins in berries exhibited anti-atherogenicity and antiplatelet activities in a metabolic syndrome population. Nutr Res. 2020;76:82-93.
  9. Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. Oats. Accessed Aug. 2, 2022.
  10. Rodriguez-Leyva D, Weighell W, Edel AL, et al. Potent antihypertensive action of dietary flaxseed in hypertensive patients. Hypertension. 2013;62(6):1081-1089.
  11. Parikh M, Netticadan T, Pierce GN. Flaxseed: its bioactive components and their cardiovascular benefits. Am J Physiol Heart Circ Physiol. 2018;314(2):H146-H159.
  12. Khandouzi, N., Zahedmehr, A., Mohammadzadeh, A. et al. Effect of flaxseed consumption on flow-mediated dilation and inflammatory biomarkers in patients with coronary artery disease: a randomized controlled trial. Eur J Clin Nutr 73, 258–265 (2019).
  13. Caligiuri SP, Rodriguez-Leyva D, Aukema HM, et al. Dietary Flaxseed Reduces Central Aortic Blood Pressure Without Cardiac Involvement but Through Changes in Plasma Oxylipins. Hypertension. 2016;68(4):1031-1038.
  14. Pacheco LS, Li Y, Rimm EB, et al. Avocado Consumption and Risk of Cardiovascular Disease in US Adults. J Am Heart Assoc. 2022;11(7):e024014.
  15. American Heart Association. Tips for Cutting Down on Sugar. Last Reviewed: Apr 17, 2018.

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