Every February, people from all over the UK and the world come together to celebrate National Heart Month, encouraging others to make small lifestyle changes in order to lead healthier – and hopefully longer – lives.

Even if you don’t introduce any of these changes immediately into your lifestyle, reading up about protecting your heart and how you can do this easily in February is the first step you’ll take towards being healthier… after all, knowledge is power, as they say!

However old you are, keeping your heart healthy is the most important thing you can do in order to both prevent heart disease and also manage the condition if you do find yourself in poor health at some point in the future.

Healthy eating can help you to reduce the chances of developing coronary heart disease, as well as preventing you from gaining weight, getting high blood pressure or developing diabetes. Try and eat lots of fruit and vegetables, starchy food like potatoes, rice, bread and pasta (wholegrain where possible), and the right kind of fats. Replace saturated fats (found in sausages, bacon, fatty cuts of meat, cheese, cream, biscuits, cakes, pies, butter and so on) with mono and polyunsaturated fats.

Sources of these include avocados, peanuts, cashews, almonds, cooking oils made from plants or seeds, fish, pine nuts, linseed and chia seeds.

If you are keen on taking action this February, make sure you share your heart-healthy journey on social media sites using the hashtag #nationalheartmonth. You’ll also find all sorts of inspiration from others by seeing what they’re posting under the hashtag as well.

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