A Cardiologist's Top 3 Favorite Foods For Heart & Gut Health (One May Surprise You)

What are the best foods for heart health? Well, it's a tricky question—according to cardiologist and New York Times bestselling author William Davis, M.D., the best heart-healthy players happen to be great for gut health as well, so you'll find quite a lot of crossover between the two categories. His latest must-read book is even titled Super Gut, which only illustrates the importance of your gut for your overall health. 

A cardiologist who praises meat? Now that's rare. After all, it's a plant-based diet that is commonly associated with heart health, as ditching meat in favor of veggies can support blood pressure1 and cholesterol levels. In fact, a study in the Journal of the American Heart Association showed that those who followed a more plant-based diet had enhanced their cardiovascular health by 16%. 

But Davis considers grass-fed, sustainably sourced meat an important part of his heart-healthy food pyramid—especially organ meats, if you can stomach them. Organ meats (liver, tongue, thymus, pancreas, kidney, etc.) are rich in B vitamins, iron, zinc, magnesium, selenium, hard-to-obtain choline, and fat-soluble vitamins (A, D, E, and K). 

Legumes are rich in fiber, which enhances heart health by decreasing total and LDL cholesterol levels2. Not to mention, your gut microbiome thrives off of plant-based fiber—specifically, that prebiotic fiber promotes the growth of a good gut bacteria called Akkermansia muciniphila. "But when it's deprived of fiber, it has an added capacity to consume human mucus3," says Davis, which serves as the protective layer for your GI tract. Once this gut bacteria turns to mucus, it can affect your gut health over time (and since your gut health is connected to just about every process in your body, it can have downstream effects on your heart, brain, and skin health as well). 

There is limited science on ingesting essential oils, but many cultures have been using herbs and oils to enhance their health for thousands of years. In a gut health setting, "those terpenes are very effective," says Davis. In fact, the limited research we do have4 considers ingestion to be particularly useful in situations of digestive distress: Peppermint essential oil, for example, has been shown to promote gut comfort, and bitter orange oil (with its high limonene content) has been studied5 for its effectiveness for gastric health6.