People often say that breakfast is the most important meal of the day. This is true for many reasons as it is the first meal that is consumed which allows us to gain enough energy to carry on our busy lives through the rest of the day. That being said, it’s important that we eat the right food for breakfast in order to be happy, healthy and have a sufficient amount of energy to power all of the muscles and organs in our body.

One crucial organ that we have is the heart. The heart works tirelessly 24/7 pumping blood through our veins. However, this important organ can easily be damaged, especially by the foods that we consume. To add on to this, breakfasts seem to be a leading meal when it comes to heart-damaging food. This is often due to foods that are common breakfast favorites such as greasy bacon, cholesterol infused eggs and saturated fat loaded pancakes.

With all of this in mind, it can be easy to forget that there are many other breakfast foods that exist that are actually heart healthy. Here is a heart healthy breakfast plan to get you started.

Whole grains

Everybody knows that you should always choose whole grains over white grains as they are less processed and therefore contain more nutrients, such as magnesium which lowers blood pressure and in turn, creates a healthy pumping heart. You can incorporate whole grains into your breakfast by choosing to have whole grain toast over white toast. On the other hand, you can also have oatmeal or whole grain cereal such as puffed quinoa and brown rice crisps to meet your daily needs of whole grains.

Fruit

Fruits are essential for heart health as they contain a variety of vitamins that are necessary to humans. A good fruit to add to your breakfast include bananas which contain potassium which has the ability to repair damaged heart tissues. In addition, fruits rich in vitamin C, such as oranges, and other citrus fruits, have been known to reduce the risk of heart disease. Due to their natural taste, fruits are an easy addition to any breakfast. Enjoy them as is, chopped up and added on top of toast, oatmeal or cereal, or as a thirst-quenching glass of juice.