Hello, Monica Reinagel here with this week's episode of the Nutrition Divas quick and dirty tips for eating well and feeling fabulous.

As I'm sure you're aware by now, February is Heart Health Month and today I'm going to talk about some heart healthy foods.

But if you're expecting yet another recitation of the usual suspects, almonds, salmon, dark chocolate, red wine, blah, blah, blah, blah.

Well, then you've underestimated the nutrition diva.

This year, I'm going rogue.

With a list of five foods you probably won't see on anyone else's heart healthy list,

and the reasons they deserve a place in your cardio-conscious diet.

Thanks to our sponsor Audible, the internet's leading source of audio books, including fiction,

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Visit audible Podcast.com slash Diva. and And now let's start with the five most surprising heart healthy foods. Number one,

steak. Red meat tends to get a bad rap, but the truth is that lean cuts of red meat, like fillet mignon, or the more budget-friendly

flank steak are both nutritious and heart healthy. Red meat is a good source of protein, of course,

as well as iron,12 zinc and other nutrients and

although some of the fat is saturated beef is also a good source of mono

unsaturated fat which is the same heart healthy kind of fat you get from olive oil.

In fact, beef tenderloin contains more mono-unsaturated fat than it does saturated fat.

Now if you're going to be grilling that steak, please be sure to check out my episode on

grilled meats in which I explain how to prevent the formation of carcinogenic compounds

when cooking meat over open flames or coals. Number two, coffee.

Contrary to popular lore, coffee is not bad for your heart.

Coffee drinkers have no higher risk of heart disease than non-coffee drinkers,

and actually have a reduced risk of heart disease than non-coffee drinkers and actually have a reduced risk of heart failure.

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