It’s no secret that poor metabolic health can cause heart disease. But it’s hard to have good metabolic health if you don’t know how to cook.
Thankfully, you don’t have to be a professional chef to make healthy meals. Nor do you need to buy special equipment or expensive celebrity cookbooks. All you need is time, patience, and some whole, real food.
Here’s what you need to know.
How to cook metabolically healthy
Cooking for heart health doesn’t have to be difficult.
Here are the basics of metabolically healthy cooking in 10 minutes or less, including ways to avoid unhealthy cooking methods that may be impacting your heart.
1. Keep processed foods off your plate
Processed foods are all around us. Today, ultra-processed foods (UPFs) make up 73% of the foods lining American grocery stores, including:
- Canned soups
- Cake mixes
- Margarine spreads
- Instant noodles
- Frozen pie crusts
It’s easy to see why UPFs are so popular — they’re 52% cheaper, extremely convenient, and designed to be addictive. However, the negative impacts of UPFs are well documented. Not only are they associated with high blood sugar, obesity, and diabetes, but they’re also a primary contributor to chronic disease.
If you want to maintain your metabolic health, you need to cook with whole, real foods whenever possible. This includes anything that comes from the ground (or is raised on the ground) and is available in its rawest form. Steak, sweet potato, and lettuce leaves are all examples of whole, real foods.
If you want to switch over from UPFs but still want a little convenience, you can try purchasing frozen vegetables or stew meat for the Crockpot.
2. Limit carbohydrates as the main component of your meals
Carbohydrates may be a major component of the American diet, but they are a serious problem for metabolic health. Carbs are the only element of food that have a measurable impact on blood sugar, which raises your risks for insulin resistance.
A low to no carb diet is excellent for your heart and surprisingly easy to maintain. You might want to avoid certain fruits and vegetables for this, including:
- Potatoes
- Quinoa
- Bananas
Instead, opt for higher-fat, more satiating meals with plenty of animal protein.
3. Get rid of added sugar while cooking
Almost 70% of barcoded foods in the US contain added sugar. That includes products labeled as ‘heart healthy’ or ‘low sugar,’ along with other unregulated terms.
Your best bet is to check all the labels in your cart before getting to the checkout line. Just keep an eye out for one of the 56 alternative words for sugar, including:
- Dextrose
- Sucrose
- Fructose
- Cane Juice
- High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS)
4. Avoid frying or deep-frying foods
We all know that fried food from restaurants is bad for us. However, some cookbooks suggest frying food at home can make it a ‘healthier’ alternative.
The truth is, fried food is detrimental to metabolic health — even if you make it at home.
There are three reasons why:
- Frying foods at high temperatures destroys the nutritional value of the food
- Vegetable oils contain a large amount of trans fats, which cause inflammation
- Inflammation causes organ damage and raises your bad cholesterol levels
It’s best to totally avoid fried foods and resist the urge to make them at home. If you do want to fry, use an alternative like butter or extra virgin olive oil.
Speaking of oils…
5. Know what oils to use while cooking
The differences between good fats and bad fats are night and day. As mentioned earlier, bad fats like vegetable oils contain trans fat, which are linked with all-cause mortality. Good oils, on the other hand, are are beneficial to the body.
You should avoid these oils while cooking at home:
- Canola oil
- Palm oil
- Sunflower oil
- Safflower oil
- Corn oil
- Soybean oil
However, you’re good to use healthier oils like:
- Coconut oil
- Avocado oil
- Olive oil
6. Have protein with every meal
Animal protein has been villainized by food companies for decades. And if history tells us anything, there’s a vested interest in keeping it that way. But when you look at the facts, you’ll see many of their outdated claims have been disproven by science:
- Saturated fat from meat doesn’t have to be significantly limited. In fact, many food scientists are urging Americans to up their intake.
- The cholesterol present in red meat won’t lead to heart disease. The body produces almost everything you need; only 20% comes from food.
- Animal protein is not junk food. There are several vitamins and minerals found only in meat and ruminant organs — it’s some of the most nutritionally dense food in the world.
Protein is so integral to a metabolically healthy diet that some people opt to eat nothing but animal meat. This is referred to as the carnivore diet, which is a heart-healthy eating pattern with many proven benefits.
7. Cook with a fasting window in mind
As you start to cook more from home, consider planning out meals that help you stay fuller for longer. The human body thrives on digestive rest, which is a natural outcome of fasting — which itself is the natural outcome of a satiating diet.
Fasting for even four hours between meals can lead to autophagy, a metabolic process that cleans up dead or damaged cells. The body also relies on ketones in the blood to use up stored fat, leading to leaner muscle.
The more you cook at home, the more home meals you’ll crave — and the less you’ll rely on unsatisfying takeout. And with a diet rich in good fats and protein, you’ll reap the benefits of regular fasting without being hungry all the time.
8. Go light on the salt
Like added sugar and UPFs, salt is a well-established component of the American diet. As a result of this diet, the average adult eats more than 3,400 mg per day, although their recommended intakes should be at 2,300 mg or less.
To combat excess intake and unnecessary consumption, take the same approach you would with added sugar. Focus on eating a teaspoon of salt or less per day, and check the labels of anything you plan to bring home.
One caveat here: if you’re changing your diet to eat fewer carbohydrates or processed foods, you might need to increase your salt intake. Try to monitor how much you actually get in your diet, and speak to a professional if you need some clarification on your numbers.
9. Watch out for unwanted added ingredients
Many long-lasting sauces, spices, and baking mixes come with a roster of unpronounceable ingredients. Many of these are detrimental to our metabolic health, including preservatives like:
- Added sugars
- Nitrites
- Corn syrups
- Monosodium glutamate (MSG)
- BHA and BHT
Again, checking the label is key here. But if you’re cooking with natural spices or extracts from the baking aisle, you shouldn’t have to worry too much.
10. Prep your meals in advance
Time is one of the biggest barriers to cooking metabolically healthy meals. If you have a stressful day at work or a longer-than-normal commute, you probably won’t be in the mood to cook when you get home.
This is where meal prep comes in. By cooking big batches of food and storing portions in the freezer, you can easily prepare a nourishing meal without having to rely on a drive-thru.
Education is the key to cooking heart-healthy meals
It’s easy to feel intimidated by metabolically healthy cooking techniques, especially if you haven’t spent much time in the kitchen. But if you’ve come this far and learned at least one new thing, you’re well on your way to reinventing your diet — and possibly saving your life.
If you want a deeper look at any of these tips, or want more suggestions for increasing your heart health, you can check out my book, Stay Off My Operating Table®. It highlights the seven principles of metabolic health and explains how to take back control of your food.