Nutritionist’s Cheap Daily Meals to Help Prevent Heart Attacks

Some heart-health advice is familiar to almost everyone: cut back on butter and bacon, choose olive oil for cooking and eat more oily fish such as salmon.

For the more than 7.6 million people in Britain living with cardiovascular disease, making these dietary changes can be vital. A healthier diet may help reduce the risk of premature death and long-term health complications.

However, while these food swaps may benefit blood pressure and overall heart health, they are not always easy on the household budget.

A one-litre bottle of olive oil now costs about £7.50—roughly twice as much as it did five years ago. Meanwhile, a standard 250g two-pack of boneless salmon fillets costs between £4.15 and £6.25 in UK supermarkets.

Analysis in The Food Foundation’s Broken Plate report found that, as inflation pushes up food prices, 1,000 calories of healthier food now costs twice as much as the same amount of less-healthy alternatives.

It is little wonder, then, that eating well can often feel like an expensive choice.

Yet experts speaking to Our News Outlet say plenty of affordable ingredients can support heart health. The key is knowing which budget-friendly foods to choose.

Whole grains such as brown rice may help lower the risk of heart disease. Legumes, including kidney beans, provide soluble fibre, magnesium and potassium—nutrients that can help regulate blood pressure.

Dietitian and author of How Not To Eat Ultra-Processed, Nichola Ludlam-Raine, explains how to create heart-healthy meals for less than £5 a day.

Breakfast

Porridge with milk, a banana and a spoonful of peanut butter (around £1)

Porridge may not be the most glamorous way to start the day.

But research suggests that a simple bowl of oats can offer multiple benefits for the heart.

Porridge oats are a type of whole grain—a term for foods made with every part of the grain, much of which is removed during processing. They are rich in nutrients, antioxidants and minerals that support healthy blood pressure.

A 2016 study by researchers at Imperial College London, involving more than 700,000 people, found that those eating 90g of whole grains a day—around three servings—had a 22 per cent lower risk of cardiovascular disease and a 19 per cent lower risk of coronary heart disease than people who ate none.

Oats also contain soluble fibre. This can help reduce cholesterol by forming a gel in the digestive system that binds to cholesterol-containing bile acids and carries them out of the body in stool, instead of allowing them to be reabsorbed into the bloodstream.

Adding a banana and a spoonful of peanut butter can provide further heart-health benefits, according to dietitian Nichola Ludlam-Raine.

Bananas are a source of potassium, which can help offset some of the effects of sodium by encouraging the kidneys to remove it through urine. This, in turn, may help lower blood pressure.

Peanut butter adds a useful source of unsaturated fats, which are considered more heart-friendly than saturated fats.

Overnight oats with plain yogurt and frozen berries (around £1-£1.50)

Another way to up your wholegrain consumption is through overnight oats – which can be made easily the night before by combining porridge oats with yogurt and frozen berries and sticking it in the fridge.

‘Oats bring the fibre, and frozen berries are often much cheaper than fresh – and contain more of the antioxidant vitamin C too,’ says Ms Ludlam-Raine.

While fresh berries can cost £3 per punnet (usually between 150g-400g), you can buy a 1kg bag of frozen berries for around the same price – making them a far more budget-friendly option.

Wholemeal toast with baked beans and grilled tomatoes (around £1-£1.50)

Wholemeal toast is another good first source of whole grains, while baked beans provide an additional heart-healthy element, says Ms Ludlam-Raine.

A 2017 study led by researchers at the University of Catania found that higher legume consumption resulted in a 10 per cent lower risk of cardiovascular disease.

Baked beans, therefore, can help to provide a plant-based protein option filled with heart-healthy soluble fibre, says Ms Ludlam-Raine.

Adding a side of tomatoes also provides heart-healthy antioxidant lycopene, which can help to lower blood pressure and can stop LDL ‘bad’ cholesterol from oxidising and clumping together to form artery-clogging plaque.

Grilling the tomatoes first, research shows, improves the body’s ability to process and absorb lycopene.

‘Beans on toast is a simple way to get fibre from both the bread and beans, plus a portion of vegetables,’ says Ms Ludlam-Raine.

Lunch

Tinned sardines in tomato sauce on wholemeal toast, with cucumber or tomatoes (around £2-£3)

While salmon is often touted as a heart-healthy oily fish, sardines are far more affordable and still offer the same benefits, says dietitian Ms Ludlam-Raine.

A group of researchers at McMaster University in Canada investigated the correlation between fish consumption and cardiovascular disease in 2021.

They found that eating just two 85g servings of oily fish a week led to a 16 per cent lower risk of major cardiovascular events like heart attacks, strokes and heart failure.

One of the main benefits of oily fish are the Omega-3s that they provide. 

These fatty acids both reduce the levels of blood fats that cause heart disease and work to prevent blood clots. 

A 100g serving of cooked salmon contains roughly the same amount of Omega-3s as tinned sardines – for a fraction of the price. 

‘Sardines provide heart-healthy omega-3 fats, and the wholemeal bread adds fibre,’ says Ms Ludlam-Raine.

Homemade lentil and vegetable soup with wholemeal bread (around £1-£2)

Lentils are part of the heart-healthy legume family, while wholemeal bread provides another serving of whole grains.

‘Lentils are an affordable source of protein and soluble fibre, and frozen vegetables work brilliantly here,’ explains Ms Ludlam-Raine.

1kg of frozen vegetables can be bought from supermarkets for less than £1.50, making them more affordable than fresh, while still providing the same health benefits.

Jacket potato with baked beans and a side salad (around £1.50-£2.50)

Jacket potatoes can help to provide potassium – which works to offset the effects of sodium on blood pressure – while beans provide a heart-healthy portion of legumes.

Potatoes can also be stored in the fridge to help them last for several weeks, and a single baking potato costs less than 40p.

As a meal, Ms Ludlam-Raine explains that this is ‘filling, high in fibre and easy to make with inexpensive staples’, while also providing benefits for your heart.

Dinner

Chickpea and spinach tomato curry with brown rice (around £1.50 – £2.50)

Here, chickpeas provide a serving of legumes, brown rice adds a portion of whole grains, and tomatoes give an added boost of heart health via lycopenes.

The spinach also provides a heart-beneficial element of potassium when cooked, which helps to lower blood pressure.

‘Chickpeas provide fibre and protein; frozen spinach adds vegetables without much waste – but cook with a little rapeseed oil instead of ghee,’ says Ms Ludlam-Raine.

‘Rapeseed oil is also a useful swap for butter when cooking because it contains more unsaturated fat, and you only need a small amount.

‘Olive oil is lovely too, but you don’t need to buy it to eat well for your heart.

‘I’d also look for lower-salt tins where possible, and avoid adding much salt during cooking.’

Rapeseed oil is also much kinder to your wallet, costing about half as much as olive oil, priced at around £3 for a litre.

Wholewheat pasta with lentil and vegetable tomato sauce (around £1.50 – £2.50)

Another option that provides whole grains, legumes, and lycopenes is a wholewheat pasta dish with lentil and vegetable tomato sauce.

‘This is a budget-friendly alternative to a meat-heavy sauce, with plenty of fibre from the lentils, pasta and vegetables,’ says Ms Ludlam-Raine.

Wholewheat pasta has between three and four times more fibre than white pasta, as well as a lower glycemic index – which means that you’ll feel fuller for longer.

Sardine, tomato and pea pasta (around £2-£3)

Here, oily fish helps to provide you with heart-healthy omega-3s, while tomatoes provide lycopenes.

Peas are an inexpensive addition, costing less than £2 for 1kg, and they’re also a good source of plant-based protein, dietary fibre, and potassium.

According to Ms Ludlam-Raine, this dish is: ‘a quick way to include oily fish, alongside fibre and vegetables’.