A Heart-Healthy Diet and Its Benefits for Seniors in Edmonton, AB
Senior Heart Health | February 20, 2025
Maintaining a Healthy Heart and Mind: What’s Good for the Heart is Good for the Brain!
Did you know that a heart-healthy diet also supports brain health? When you prioritize nutritious eating for your heart, your brain benefits too. A well-balanced diet—packed with fruits, vegetables, and whole grains—helps reduce plaque buildup in the arteries, ensuring a steady flow of oxygen-rich blood throughout the body, including the brain.
Nutritious eating benefits the senior’s brain by boosting mental performance, slowing the aging process and lowering the risk of dementia.
Five Elements of a Heart-Healthy Diet
#1. Vitamins:
Particularly folate and B12—help prevent the inflammation that causes plaque to narrow arteries, which can lead to heart attack and stroke, which can diminish cognitive function. Folate comes from cooked, dry beans, peas, peanuts, oranges and orange juice, dark-green leafy vegetables like spinach and mustard greens, fortified cereals and enriched grain products. B12 is in salmon, trout, beef, poultry, cheese, eggs and fortified cereals.
#2. Antioxidants:
Vitamins A, C and E and nutrients lutein, lycopene and selenium—promote brain health. Good sources include dark-skinned fruits and vegetables. Vegetables include: kale, spinach, brussels sprouts, alfalfa sprouts, broccoli, beets, red bell pepper, onion, corn and eggplant. Fruits high in antioxidants include prunes, raisins, blueberries, blackberries, strawberries, raspberries, plums, oranges, red grapes and cherries. Almonds, pecans and walnuts also are good antioxidant sources.
#3. Minerals:
Some minerals boost brain function. Iron—from organ meats, beef, pork and most legumes—supports focus and concentration. Zinc—from beef and other meats, oysters, whole-grain bread and soybeans—sharpens verbal memory, helping you recall words.
#4. Omega-3 Fatty Acids:
Found in fatty fish, such as salmon, trout, halibut, mackerel and tuna, help build gray matter, promoting intellectual performance. WebMD reports that one study found that healthy adults who ate the most omega-3 fatty acids had the most gray matter in brain areas that regulate mood. Among cooking oils, canola and walnut oil, are the best sources of omega-3s. On the other hand, a diet high in saturated fats can raise the risk of Alzheimer’s disease.
#5. Maintaining a Healthy Body Weight
Through healthful diet and exercise—are essential to the heart and mind. The Alzheimer’s Association reports that a long-term study of 1,500 adults found that those who were obese in middle age were twice as likely to develop dementia. And those who also had high cholesterol and high blood pressure were six times at greater risk of dementia.
Heart-Healthy Diet for Seniors
A diet rich in essential vitamins, antioxidants, minerals, and omega-3 fatty acids can help support cognitive function, enhance memory, and reduce the risk of neurodegenerative diseases. Additionally, maintaining a healthy body weight through balanced eating and regular exercise is crucial for long-term cognitive well-being.
Comfort Keepers® Edmonton is Proud to Offer a Wide Range of Home Senior Care Services
Our trained caregivers will ensure your loved one is comfortable, independent and safe in their home. On top of that, we will also aim to enhance their overall health, quality of life and general happiness.
Top-Notch Home Healthcare for Seniors in Edmonton, Alberta
Comfort Keepers of Edmonton offers a wider range of senior care services. We offer retirement care, respite care, senior care, companionship care, end-of-life care, post-surgery care, palliative care, personal care, and senior living transition services. If you are concerned about the health and well-being of your aging loved ones we can help with 24-hour care and more!
Helping Seniors Age-in-Place with Companionship Care and Interactive Caregiving™
Empathetic care starts in the heart and allows us to meet our client’s needs. Our trained caregivers are selected with one specific quality in mind, empathy. We strive to stimulate our clients emotionally, mentally and socially, thus enhancing their overall quality of life.
Our Interactive Caregiving™ provides a system of care that addresses companionship, safety, nutrition, mind, body, and activities of daily living (ADLs). The system increases seniors’ sense of well-being, independence and companionship by focusing on Senior Mind, Senior Body, Senior Nutrition, and Senior Safety.
Affordable and Client-Directed Homecare is Available for Qualifying Albertans
Comfort Keepers® Edmonton is an Approved Service Provider for the Client Directed Homecare Invoicing (CDHCI) Program Offered by Alberta Health Services.
What is the Client Directed Home Care Invoicing Program (CDHCI)?
CDHCI is a great program provided by Alberta Health Services (AHS), allowing clients to choose an approved agency like, Comfort Keepers Edmonton for Personal Care, Respite Care and Homemaking needs. The chosen agency can then bill AHS directly for services rendered for approved hours through Alberta Blue Cross. Read more about the program HERE.
Accredited Home Care Edmonton
Comfort Keepers® Edmonton was awarded the “Accredited with Exemplary Standing” seal by Accreditation Canada. This honour demonstrates Comfort Keepers’ commitment to offering safe, high-quality home care to its senior clients in Edmonton, MB.
To learn more about senior in-home care in Edmonton, contact the Comfort Keepers® office. Our service territory includes Edmonton, Devon, Sherwood Park, Stony Plain and surrounding areas, contact the Comfort Keepers Edmonton office at 780-465-4665.
Individualized Home Care Options
Long-Term Home Care, 24 Hour Home Care & Short Term Care Options Customized for You
