Heart Healthy Diet: Kardea Gourmet
Background
The Kardea Gourmet: Smart and Delicious Eating for a Healthy Heart is a combination of a nutrition guidebook and cookbook. It was created by Dr. Richard Collins, a cardiologist, Susan Buckley, a registered dietitian who is focused on heart healthy weight loss and Rob Leighton, self-described as a foodie with a cholesterol problem.
The book was inspired by the author’s “love of food, desire to keep things natural, belief in science and passion for vital living”. It includes simple and flexible advice for heart healthy diet full of delicious eating designed to help you to improve your general health or to address specific issues such as high cholesterol, high blood pressure, glucose balance, inflammation and obesity.
Heart Healthy Diet Basics
Kardea Gourmet commences by explaining the principles of cardiovascular health and assisting you to identify your risks. You will then learn methods by which you can effectively manage those risks, which largely involve dietary adjustment.
A large amount of this heart healthy diet is dedicated to nutritional education with information about the good and bad fats and carbs, the role of vitamins and minerals and the potential benefits of nutritional supplements.
The authors explore a variety of heart healthy approaches to eating including the Mediterranean diet, the Okinawan Diet, and low fat vegetarian diets. A specific diet for heart disease is not prescribed but instead you are given the opportunity to create a heart healthy way of eating that suits your lifestyle and preferences.
It is not a requirement to become a vegetarian to follow this plan but it is recommended that meat intake is limited to a four-ounce portion at any meal. Sugar and desserts should be limited. A high consumption of fresh fruit and vegetables, whole grains and legumes is emphasized.
At the end of The Kardea Gourmet is a selection of recipes categorized into sections including Gazpachos, Barley Pilaf/Barley Paella, French, Italian, Eastern Mediterranean, Moroccan and other selected recipes from the Kardea kitchen.
Recommended Heart Healthy Foods
Fruit, vegetables, oatmeal, brown rice, barley, whole grain bread, bran cereal, pasta, black beans, garbanzo beans, almonds, walnuts, fat free yogurt, eggs, seafood, lean meat and poultry, herbs and spices, coffee, tea, dark chocolate, red wine.
Sample Kardea Gourmet Meal Plan
| Breakfast Oatmeal with apple and cinnamon |
| Morning Snack Handful of walnuts |
| Lunch Mediterranean Tuna Salad |
| Afternoon Snack Raw vegetables with hummus |
| Dinner Pasta Fagioli |
| Dessert Dark chocolate truffle |
Exercise Recommendations
Exercise is encouraged but specific guidelines are not included in this heart healthy diet. The authors say, “Exercise, even a short walk after eating, can improve your blood lipid and sugar levels.”
Costs and Expenses
The Kardea Gourmet: Smart and Delicious Eating for a Healthy Heart retails at $24.99.
Click here to purchase the book at a discounted price.
Pros
- Provides information and education about cardiovascular disease and a heart healthy diet.
- Encourages the intake of a variety of healthy foods including fresh fruit and vegetables, whole grains, legumes and nuts.
- May assist with the management of cardiovascular disease and diabetes.
- Appeals to those who enjoy eating food that is delicious as well as healthy.
- Encourages exercise.
Cons
- Does not contain clearly defined guidelines for a heart healthy diet.
- Does not contain a meal plan.
- No recipes are provided for breakfast or dessert.
- Many of the recipes contain meat and other animal products, which seems to contradict some of the concepts presented in the book.
- Will require a fair amount of time in the kitchen.
- Does not include exercise guidelines.
Conclusions
The Kardea Gourmet provides information about cardiovascular disease and educates readers so that they can create their own approach to a heart healthy diet. It also includes a selection of flavorful recipes.
This book will appeal to readers who want to learn more about the connection between heart health and dietary intake. However those with serious health concerns may require a stricter and more clearly defined nutritional plan.
Loading ...
Hi…first, thanks for taking the time to review The Kardea Gourmet: Smart & Delicious Eating for a Healthy Heart. We appreciate your comments — pro and con!
The premise of the book is that Whole Natural Plant-Based Eating is the healthiest way to eat…and that the diet debates should move beyond the questions whether we should be eating a low carb, low fat or high protein diet. These are questions that tell us what not to do — not what is the healthiest thing to do.
But here is a reality — most Americans will not move to a 100% plant based diet overnight. They will journey toward this end as tastes and eating pattern change.
The Kardea Gourmet offers a framework for heart healthy eating that serves as a navigation tool for this journey, and we recognize that many people will stop along the way (e.g. I now eat mostly plant-based but use some animal-based foods to add deliciousness).
We also do not think about the “diet” as something you start and then stop when weight-loss targets are achieved. The Mediterranean “diet,” for instance, is not a diet in weight loss sense; rather, it is how a group of people ate over the course of lifetime. The same holds true for the Okinawan diet and other Asian diets associated with longevity. We debate how meal plans fit —- looking forward to your thoughts.
And yes, many of our recipes do include some meat — in our experience, too many people turn off to the prospect of even starting this journey if it means a sudden shift to no meat or dairy. Our recipes are designed to show how someone can transition a meat preference to plant-based: Julia Child’s beef bourguignon becomes a vegetable bourguignon with beef and then becomes a vegan mushroom bourguignon….or a Middle Eastern Lamp Kefta Kabob becomes a bean/meat kabob and then to a black bean burger.
And yes, we have a fair number of fish dishes —- as we seek to blend sufficient levels of effective Omega-3s into a natural plant-based eating foundation.
As for exercise, no question of the importance, but our goal was to keep the Kardea Gourmet short and digestible — and stay focused framing a healthy, livable, evolving nutritional framework
Click over to http://www.kardeakitchen.com to get a flavor of what we are doing to support the individual’s journey.
Again, thanks so much for the review and we look forward to continuing this very important discussion.