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These days, the emphasis is on cutting sugar intake, and eating healthful fats, obtained primarily from cold-water fish and plant foods. With that more healthful nutrient balance in mind, here are some heart-healthy dessert suggestions:

Bountiful Berry Parfaits

Chocolate/Hazelnut Cookies

Recipes are in the article

More than seven billion thirsty souls can’t be wrong: Tea is the second-most-popular drink on the planet. Hot tea does a body good.

Humans have cultivated, harvested and brewed the leaves of the evergreen Camellia sinensis shrub for thousands of years. Originally, it was considered medicinal. Although many drinks may be called “tea,” there’s only one true tea. Granted, tea may be green, black, or white. Color depends on when and how the leaves were harvested and handled before making their way to your teacup.

Hot tea also contains a unique, potent polyphenol antioxidant compound, known as epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG). EGCG is credited with many of the remarkable health effects tea drinkers enjoy. It is believed to exert beneficial effects in the body, including possible anti-inflammatory and anti-carcinogen activity. For instance, some evidence suggests that tea drinkers may enjoy some protection against the harmful effects of ultraviolet radiation when out in the sun.

Certain “superfoods” excel at boosting health precisely by boosting one’s levels of these helpful antioxidant compounds. Generally speaking, (natural) color is a good indicator that a given food is rich in these potent antioxidant compounds. That’s why deeply colored fruits, such as blueberries, raspberries and blackberries are considered superfoods. They’re rich in these beneficial compounds. Of course, they also supply other necessary nutrients, and when considering whole foods it always makes sense to consider the “whole” food, not just isolated constituents.

Nevertheless, certain superfoods feature rare components that take on outsized importance. Beets are one example. Raw beets are among nature’s richest sources of dietary nitrates, among numerous other healthful nutrients. Nitrates directly affect cardiovascular health, because they supply a raw material the body uses to produce nitric oxide (NO).