Hey there, everyone. Welcome back yet to another
Senior Safety Advice Podcast. I'm so glad that
you're here with me today. This is being aired
on February 8th, and I am going to continue this
month's theme of heart health and emotional resilience
with a topic that I love to talk about, comfort
food. I also love to eat it. But I'm going to
do a little twist to it because as I grow older,
I know that I also need to take care of my heart.
So I'm going to focus on comfort foods that don't
harm the heart. And I love this topic because
to me, comfort food really matters. I am 100
% Sicilian, so food has always been very important
in my family, like a lot of families. But Italian
food, Sicilian food is, I think, just something
that is very, very comforting to me and healthy,
I think. So we're going to talk about how I grew
up with that kind of food and how good it can
be for your heart. All right. So as we get older,
when life feels very heavy and annoying and just
can't deal with it, Comfort food can really be
a source of stress relief, especially when that
food is tied to memories, families, feelings,
et cetera. So a lot of people hear the phrase
heart health, and they immediately think, oh,
restriction, giving things up, boring food. And
honestly, that just makes people feel deprived.
But here's what I've learned over the years.
Comfort food isn't about junk food. It's about
familiarity, about warmth, about satisfaction.
And you can obviously have that without hurting
your heart. Now, yes, if you grew up on heavy
butter food and maybe all fried foods, Yeah,
that may be something that you may have to not
necessarily give up, but change. Change how you
cook those things so that they can taste as close
to us what you grew up with. But that type of
food with saturated fats, is not healthy for
your heart. So let's see what we can find that
would satisfy you and give you that sense of
comfort and feeling of comfort food without you
feeling deprived. So let's talk about what comfort
really means. I mean, comfort foods tend to calm
the nervous system. They make you slow down.
They help you feel grounded. and that alone can
support heart health for sure. Eating in a relaxed
way matters just as much as what's on the plate.
One of the simplest heart -friendly comfort foods
that I know is warm soups. It's one of the reasons
that I love colder weather because warm soup
just doesn't taste very good on a hot day, I
think. And I'm not talking about the salty, canned
kind of foods. I'm talking about simple homemade
soups, vegetable soup, chicken soup, and my very
favorite, lentil soup. Warm liquids relax blood
vessels and they're easy to digest and they feel
soothing and they're usually much easier on your
digestive system. Another comfort favorite that
can be heart -friendly is oatmeal. Now I'm talking
about regular cooked oatmeal like your mother
may have made, you know, not the sugary packets.
You can make it creamy, you can add cinnamon,
a little nutmeg, some fruit, maybe a handful
of nuts. Oatmeal helps to lower cholesterol and
it can feel like a hug in a bowl if you make
it taste to your liking. And it's gentle on the
heart. You know, I sometimes will cut up half
an apple, cut that up into small pieces and put
that in my oatmeal along with some almonds and
cinnamon and nutmeg. And that fills me up for
many, many hours. Okay, now there's mashed foods.
Mashed sweet potatoes, my favorite. Mashed beans,
you know, like you get at a lot of Mexican restaurants.
Or you can make at home, of course. Mashed cauliflower.
If you haven't tried mashed cauliflower yet,
I don't know what you're waiting for because
mashed cauliflower with a little bit of olive
oil and salt on it is so good. All of these foods
are soft, they're easy to chew, they're deeply
satisfying, nice and warm. Oh, they're so good.
Sweet potatoes especially are a wonderful comfort
food. They're naturally sweet. high in fiber,
and very supportive of heart health. I've seen
people replace heavy sides with these and still
feel satisfied. These are the kinds of foods
that I normally serve when I have people over
for dinner. And I can't tell you how many times
people say, oh, I can't remember the last time
I had a sweet potato or oh, I never tried mashed
cauliflower. Oh my God, it's so much better than
I thought it would be. So give it a try. Comfort
food doesn't have to mean heavy so that when
you get up off the table you're unbuckling your
belt or unzippering your pants or anything. Alright,
another big one is eggs. Eggs are very familiar.
They're easy to cook, usually, and they're very
versatile. It could be scrambled, it could be
poached, it could be hard boiled, soft boiled,
so many ways. and so many things you can do with
eggs. They provide protein without being hard
on the heart when eaten in moderation. Now, I
want to say eggs have been blamed for heart disease
for many years. I'm going to say decades. I still
hear people say, I love eggs, but I know I should
meet them. And honestly, I have to tell you,
that belief is not only outdated, but it's been
debunked. It's usually not the egg that's the
problem. It's what we pile on top of it, or it's
how you cook it. Bacon, sausage, heavy butter,
refined breads, all of that is not good. But
the egg itself is not an issue. Here's the key
message in very plain language. Eggs do contain
cholesterol, but dietary cholesterol has very
little effect on blood cholesterol for the majority
of people. Your liver actually makes most of
your cholesterol, not the eggs. So if you have
a cholesterol problem, check your liver or have
your doctor check your liver. According to Harvard
Health, Eggs especially are high in nutrients
and mostly low in saturated fat. And saturated
fat is what influences LDL, which is the bad
cholesterol, more than the cholesterol in food.
So eggs are not the problem. Talk with your,
talk with a nutritionist about this latest information.
Actually, I'm not 100 % sure how long this new
information has been out, but it hasn't quite
seem to have gotten to the majority of people
because I still hear people say, oh no, no, I
only eat one egg a week. Well, that does not,
it doesn't make sense because eggs are so high
in protein and nutrition, good for your muscles,
good for so many things. But of course, if you
cook that egg in a lot of butter and then you
add sausage or bacon and eat it with, you know,
you know, refined bread, well then, yeah, that's
going to be that whole breakfast is the issue
with that whole meal. All right. So talking about
saturated fat, let's talk about healthy fats.
Now, this one surprises people because you remember
years ago, fat, you know, was the culprit, you
know, void fat, keep fat out of your diet. But
that, of course, didn't work because most Americans,
Yeah, the majority of Americans got heavier during
that fat -free craze because what's happening
is that a lot of foods that are fat -free are
actually higher in things like sugar and it's
the sugar that is converting into carbohydrates
or carbohydrates that converts into sugar and
that ends up increasing your weight. Yeah. I'm
not a nutritionist, but you can speak with your
nutritionist about it, or you can research it
yourself, but fat is not automatically mean bad.
Now, foods like avocado are high in fat, but
it's not saturated fat. Olive oil is high in
fat, but it's not saturated. Nuts are high in
fat, but not saturated. These kinds of fats help
the heart and they add richness to your diet.
That richness is what people often crave in comfort
food. I myself use extra virgin olive oil as
my source of healthy fat and I use that on everything.
I put it on salmon, I put it on my salad, I put
it on anything that may need a little bit of
fat. So another heart -friendly comfort category
is whole grains. I'm talking about things like
brown rice, quinoa, whole grain pasta. Now they
feel filling, they stabilize blood sugar, and
they provide steady energy. That steadiness helps
the heart to avoid spikes and crashes. Comfort.
is often about feeling steady, right? You know,
you don't want to feel bloated. You don't want
to feel constipated or have diarrhea. You want
to feel steady. You just want to feel good, and
comfort food can give you that if it's the right
kind of comfort food. Now let's not forget fruit.
Now oftentimes, I know from my digestive system,
Warm fruit, cooked fruit, is better for me than
raw fruit. So things like warm apples, baked
pears, fruit doesn't have to be cold or raw to
be healthy. Warm fruit, especially on a nice
cool day, can feel comforting, especially with
a little bit of cinnamon and or nutmeg or maybe
a little honey. And I've seen people at my dinner
table replace those heavy desserts that they
often bring, cakes and brownies and pastries,
with baked fruit. I usually tend to make a baked
apple with cinnamon stick, maybe a little bit
of, you know, nutmeg on it. Sometimes I put in
a little amaretto in the apple, and then I bake
the apple. And how many people say, wow, I can't
remember the last time I had a baked apple. apple,
but you leave the table feeling satisfied, you
had your sweet tooth satisfied, and you don't
feel heavy. And their hearts are thanking them
too, I think. So now here's something that I
think is important. Comfort foods should never
come with guilt because guilt raises stress and
stress raises your blood pressure. And that's
not heart -friendly. So enjoying food mindfully
matters. Eating slowly, sitting down, not rushing,
you know, like many Europeans do. Europeans will
take hours to eat a meal. I only know that because
being Sicilian, that is exactly what we would
do. That calm eating supports digestion and heart
health. Another thing that I see is a lot of
people who eat alone are distracted. You know,
they're either standing at the corner of the
kitchen, you know, eating standing up, watching
TV, or they're watching stressful news. Don't
ever watch the news while you're eating. Why
would you do that? That affects how the body
responds to the food that you're eating, plus
the fact that you're kind of mindlessly eating.
You don't even know what you're eating. So when
possible, sit. breathe, put on some soft music,
enjoy the moment. Comfort is about the experience,
and here's something that many families don't
always realize. Food is emotional care, especially
for seniors. Familiar meals bring memories. They
bring connection and a sense of normalcy when
everything else around you doesn't feel normal
anymore. That emotional comfort can lower your
stress hormones, and that supports the heart.
Now, I want to be clear. This isn't about perfection.
You don't have to give up everything you love.
You don't have to eat clean all the time. If
your favorite thing of comfort food is fried
chicken, then obviously speak with your doctor,
but have a thing of fried chicken once a month.
Make that. If that's okay, then do that. Balance.
It's all about moderation and balance. Small
swaps, you know, maybe instead of having fried
chicken three times a week, you, like I said,
you have it once a month. Instead of having,
you know, mashed potato with large amounts of
butter, you exchange that with, you know, mashed
cauliflower. every now and then with a little
bit of olive oil. And sustainability protects
heart health. So you want to keep things sustainable
because if you go too far, too clean, then you're
going to regret it and you're going to slide
back. So balance, moderation. So if you're thinking
about comfort food today, and who isn't, ask
yourself this. Does this food make me feel calm?
Does it make me feel nourished? Does it feel
kind to my body? Because you are the only person
who can take care of your body. If the answer
is yes, then your heart is probably okay with
it, as long as you speak to your doctor. Well,
that's all I have for you today. I want to thank
you for listening and being here with me. And
if today's episode gave you some useful insights
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