This article originally appeared in MindBodyGreen.
While heart health should be a priority year-round, the month of February seems to place special emphasis on this vital organ. With American Heart Month, and of course Valentine's Day, we've been reminiscing about the best heart-health advice mbg has gleaned from experts. Here are three we can't stop thinking about:
1. Eat more fruits and veggies.
This advice is certainly not new, but it still holds up. While most diets are focused on taking foods away, bariatric surgeon Garth Davis, M.D., is all about what we should be adding to our plates.
"I think [the healthiest diet is] heavy in vegetables and fruits, and it's heavy in starches, too," Davis said during a mindbodygreen podcast episode. Eating this way helped Davis lower his cholesterol, his calcium heart score (aka the buildup of calcium deposits on the arteries), and his overall risk for developing heart disease.