However, a heart-healthy eating pattern can help improve cardiovascular health and reduce important risk factors for vascular disease. The American Heart Association’s 2026 guidance emphasizes an overall dietary pattern rather than “special” individual foods.
🥗 Good foods to include regularly
- Fatty fish — salmon, sardines, trout and mackerel provide omega-3 fats.
- Leafy greens — spinach, kale and other greens provide fiber and nutrients.
- Berries and other fruit — provide fiber and plant compounds.
- Beans and lentils — excellent sources of plant protein and fiber.
- Nuts and seeds — walnuts, almonds, chia and flax provide unsaturated fats.
- Whole grains — oats, barley and whole-grain breads are preferable to refined grains.
- Olive or other nontropical plant oils — use these in place of butter and other sources of saturated fat.
- Vegetables of many kinds — variety is more important than one particular “superfood.”
These choices align with current AHA recommendations emphasizing vegetables, fruits, whole grains, legumes, nuts, seeds, fish and unsaturated fats while limiting highly processed foods, added sugar, excess sodium and saturated fat.
⚠️ If you take a blood thinner
Don’t suddenly make major changes to your diet without checking with your clinician if you take warfarin. Foods high in vitamin K—particularly leafy green vegetables—can affect warfarin’s action. The goal is generally consistent intake, not avoiding healthy vegetables altogether.
And don’t replace prescribed anticoagulants with garlic, ginger, turmeric, fish oil, or another “natural blood thinner.”
For preventing blood clots, lifestyle is bigger than any single food: staying physically active, avoiding prolonged immobility, not smoking, maintaining a healthy weight, and managing blood pressure, cholesterol and diabetes are important.
