Protect Your Heart With Your Grocery Cart
February 24, 2026 | Episode 57
Producer’s Note: The following is an AI-generated transcript of The Wellness Conversation, an OhioHealth Podcast
SPEAKERS: Marcus Thorpe, Lindsey Gordon, Ciara Bartholomew, Nan Radabaugh, RD
Lindsey Gordon 0:14
What if your grocery cart could help protect your heart? That's right, your heart health could be in better shape well before you get into the kitchen. But do you know what you should be looking for and, most importantly, what you should be staying away from?
Marcus Thorpe 0:26
Thanks for joining us for this wellness conversation at OhioHealth Podcast. I'm Marcus Thorpe, along with Lindsay Gordon to help us guide through this really important topic. Is Kira Bartholomew, who's a registered dietitian at OhioHealth McConnell Heart Health Center, as well as clinical dietitian, Nan radebaugh, Kira and Nan, thanks for joining us. We're really excited about having you because we always have questions about food, yes, but we don't really know the answers about what to do once we get into the grocery store. So I think you'll be perfect for what we're looking for today.
Lindsey Gordon 0:56
Absolutely. Thank you both so much for being with us. Yeah, I think you know, before we jump in here, can you share a little bit about your roles and what you do here at OhioHealth in this space? Nan, we'll start with you Sure? Absolutely.
Nan Radabaugh 1:09
So Ciara and I are both registered dietitians, and we work with in the cardiopulmonary rehab program with OhioHealth. And OhioHealth has cardiac rehab at a lot of their facilities around the state. I primarily work with patients that come to McConnell Heart Health Center, and most of the patients we see come through they've just had some sort of major cardiac event, so they've had a heart attack, or they've had major heart surgery, or they're going through heart failure, and they kind of come to get some supervised exercise with our awesome team of exercise physiologists, registered nurses and respiratory therapists. And then we get the chance to actually sit down with them, one on one and talk about their nutrition to kind of help them reach their health goals through their diet. And we also do some group nutrition classes as well.
Ciara Bartholomew 2:02
Yeah, lots of group teaching where, you know, everybody gets to sit down, and we get to talk about, like, recipe ideas, or like, we can talk about, like, how do we like? We even do talk about, like, the grocery store sometimes over there too. But we look at the big picture with a lot of these patients too, because there's a lot of comorbidities that overlap with these guys. So we have to, you know, deal with diabetes. Sometimes we have cancer patients. Like it's a whole thing.
Marcus Thorpe 2:25
I love the idea of switching our mindset from sick care when it comes to health care to well care, of taking better care of ourselves during the well situations, and making sure that we're not only focused about medications and, you know, we talk about exercise a lot, and everybody knows, okay, I got to get a little exercise. What we don't talk about is how your grocery store and what you're picking out can actually impact your heart health. Let's talk first about that and how it can influence your heart outcomes. Can't it?
Nan Radabaugh 2:55
Yeah, absolutely. I mean, nutrition is just as big of a piece of the puzzle as exercise and medications when it comes to heart health. I mean, we have lots of research now showing that kind of following an eating pattern that is high in minimally processed, plant based foods with like healthy unsaturated fats high in fiber, really can reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease and good nutrition. I mean, it really starts with what choices you're making at the grocery store.
Lindsey Gordon 3:25
I feel so much pressure at the grocery store these days because, you know, it's not just for me anymore. Of course, I want to live longer, right? I have reasons to live longer now. I have my two littles, but then I'm also tasked with making sure they are getting meals that have nutritional value and there is sugar in everything I feed them. And some days I go to bed and I'm just like, dang, I failed today, like they had way too many, you know, processed foods. Did we get enough of, like carrots or blueberries or but, you know? And I beat myself up about it, but I but then, on the other hand, I'm like, okay, at least I'm aware, right? But I get so overwhelmed when I read the nutrition labels. Because number one, what am I really looking for? And number two, I see that there are these unhealthy oils and sugars and pretty much everything. So how would you like for someone like me when I'm feeling overwhelmed and I'm going into the grocery store with my list, and I know I want it to be healthy. What advice would you have for someone like me? Like, where would I start? You know, I know it's kind of a loaded question, but let's it is a loaded maybe. Like, let's start with like, you know what to what to look for on that nutrition label. Like, how do we decode that?
Ciara Bartholomew 4:45
Yeah, absolutely, especially from, like, from our standpoint here in cardiopulmonary rehab, like we mainly look at a lot, lot of the times just three major things, sodium, saturated fat, and a lot of times those added sugars as well. You can find them right there on the. On the nutrition label. And of course, that there's, there's numbers that we, you know, talk about with our patients, how like, what to limit, how many milligrams, or what's the Percent Daily Value to look for? But a lot of the times, we try to make it as simple as possible for them, when it comes to reading the nutrition label, I like to focus mainly on the Percent Daily Value with my patients, that that percentage, that's on the right hand side of the nutritional label, you can't miss it, so that we don't have to pay attention to all those milligrams, and makes it over complicated and overwhelming, especially because they have to memorize all these different numbers. What are their restrictions, you know, and all that kind of stuff. But I keep it simple with like sodium, saturated fat and added sugar. A low source is less than 5% moderate sources around 55 to 15% a high source is over that 20% so a little red flag should go off in your head if you see that thing in mind, keeping it as simple as possible when reading that label, absolutely.
Marcus Thorpe 5:54
What kind of like first principle, do you think, Nan, Can Can I take, or can people take as they walk into a grocery store?
Nan Radabaugh 6:03
Well, I think that label reading like having that knowledge is really important because, you know, I know that if I'm stopping, you know, and getting fruits and vegetables at the produce section, that I know I'm making healthy choices, right? But once I kind of get out of that section, and I get more into the sections where we've got packaged foods. A lot of the you know that do have nutrition labels, that's when it starts to be really important that you know what to look for. And not only limiting the things that Kira mentioned, but also making sure you're choosing foods that are high in a couple things, so things like fiber, right? That percent daily value. If we if it's 20% or higher, that means it's a high source of that thing. So that we want something with protein. We want to look, you know, that it has, if it has fat in it, that it's mainly unsaturated fat. So those are the things we kind of want more of when we're looking at those labels.
Lindsey Gordon 6:58
What are some of the more common things that people overlook when they are taking when they're focusing on their heart health. What are some of the things we like? I again, Marcus brought up the exercise part. I think, when I think about my heart health, I think about doing cardio, physical exercise, getting my heart pumping, but from a nutritional standpoint, that's just as important, right? And what's, what are some of the concerns that you have with with diets today? Like, how are you what are the biggest educational things you're teaching your patients today in terms of improving their lifestyle, improve improving their nutrition?
Ciara Bartholomew 7:39
Yeah, I find that, especially in my counseling sessions, a lot of the times, like, they've had these, like, major life events, and they're thinking, okay, now I have to lose everything, like I have to not eat the things that I like anymore, and, you know, now I can't enjoy the foods that I'm eating. And that's just not true. You know, it's just we have to get that background knowledge when we're going to the grocery store to be able to buy the things that we still enjoy. Just, you know, everything in moderation, right? I I say that pretty much every single day, in my in my job, I feel like I should have it tattooed somewhere at this point. You know what I mean. But having that discussion where it's like, no, we're not trying to take away. We're trying to build kind of that knowledge base in the back of your head to think, okay, like, what can I add to my meals? What can I, you know, to make this more Heart Healthy, to make this more fulfilling, more satiating, to give me more energy when I'm going to go exercise and build up my strength and my muscle. What are some great heart healthy sources of protein, heart healthy fats for my cholesterol, all that kind of good stuff.
Lindsey Gordon 8:35
Sounds like it's a mindset shift.
Ciara Bartholomew 8:37
Absolutely, absolutely, very much so because, I mean, it's a scary situation to be in. And, you know, like, I have a lot of patients that come in and they're just anxiety ridden, and I don't blame them, because this is, like, a major life event that's very scary. And so, like, we have to kind of sit down and make it as realistic and easy as possible. I mean, sometimes people very much are like, black and white. I'm ready to cut out everything, and I'm going to go 180 degrees in the right direction with my diet and more power. To you, some people are like that, but I'm more along the lines of, let's make realistic goals and changes one step at a time. And you know, something is better than nothing. You know?
Marcus Thorpe 9:14
I grew up in a household with a father who had heart disease heart attack at the age of 35 so it was from that point on where sodium, you know, salt, sugar, those kind of things, we started to pull some of that out, because we knew the dangers. Can we talk about sodium and sugars when we're grocery shopping? And what should we be looking for? What are kind of like, what's too much. What's normal? What should we be looking at with sugar and salt?
Nan Radabaugh 9:45
Yeah, well, I can definitely speak. I'll start with the sugar part, right? So sugar, we kind of think of it as not being good for us, maybe because it's raising blood sugar, it gives us extra calories, but it's all. So really important for our heart health as well. And actually, there's different lipid levels that your doctor will look at, things like your total cholesterol, your LDL, your HDL, cholesterol and triglycerides. And triglycerides, just like some other types of cholesterol, when they're high, it's not good for your heart. It can lead to more plaque and risk of heart disease. So one of the things that has the biggest impact on that is added sugar over consuming added sugar. So not only is that excess sugar maybe giving us excess calorie, leading to weight gain, but it could also impact those important lipid levels. And luckily, the food label tells us exactly how much added sugar there is. So lots of foods have natural sugar occurring in the product, like a fruit or something, exactly, fruits have fructose, that's natural fruit sugar. Milk has lactose, that's natural milk sugar. But added sugar is specifically added in the processing of foods so it's high, and, you know, highly processed foods. And on the food label, it will tell you how much, how many grams of sugar, and then how many of those grams of sugar are actually added sugar. And as far as recommendations go for added sugar, the Dietary Guidelines for Americans says no more than 10% of your calories should come from added sugar. That looks like about 50 grams per day. If we're eating around a couple 1000 calories per day, the Heart Association is even stricter. It's more like 30 grams a day. And so it's something that we don't always think about with heart health, but that's really important.
Lindsey Gordon 11:38
How effective is like a food log or a food diary to keep track of all this stuff. I mean, I've been using my fitness pal on and off for like years. I use the free version hashtag, not an ad, but I, you know, sometimes I punch in my day and I'm like, Oh, wait, that had way more sugar in there than I thought, or, Oh, I didn't really get enough protein. I mean, is that effective?
Ciara Bartholomew 11:59
It could be a very useful tool. I love them and I hate them at the same time, just because, like, especially for my patients that have to, like, rigorously track certain things, like my heart failure patients or my chronic kidney disease patients that have a strict sodium restriction of maybe, like, 2000 milligrams or less. And I've seen as low as 1000 milligrams for some patients, which is really, really low, and so things like that could actually be very helpful as a tool to think, okay, am I staying within, like, my daily like, safe limitation for salt that day. For some other people, like, it can be very, very overwhelming. It's a lot of work, and it's a lot takes a lot of time to build it as a habit. I know that I'm not personally under any specific restriction, but I tried out my fitness pal for a while just to see, like, what my day to day is looking like. And it's good insight to have. But I find that over time it gets kind of annoying to do it myself, unless you're building, like, the presets and stuff like that, but it is a good eye opener to have just to see like, okay, like on my normal day to day eating when I'm not really thinking about it like, what does my actual eating day look like in protein or sodium, saturated fat, all that good stuff. But it can be a little biased too, because if we're logging it, we might be a little more good that day, because right that we're being tracked. You know?
Marcus Thorpe 13:18
what salt are you adding to your food after you make it. Are you counting that as well, some little, small things here and there that could be adding up when it comes to your health and those kind of things. Let's talk about where we shop, right? There's probably more options now than we've ever seen, and there's commercials coming at us non stop, of come here or get this. You know, food subscription, traditional grocery stores, Farmer markets, online deliveries, discount stores. How do you look at what's the right choice for families these days?
Nan Radabaugh 13:49
I mean, I think you can achieve heart healthy. You know, grocery food shopping at any type of any of those locations are great. I really think it depends on the family, the person, and what makes sense for their lifestyle. You know, you have to take into consideration their budget, the convenience. So really, I think we can achieve healthy eating at any of those stores. Now, you know, I think regardless of where you go, you're going to have to navigate healthier options and less healthy options. So kind of like learning some of the things we talk about today on this podcast will really help you navigate that no matter where you're shopping, I can think of like the Farmers Market is a great example. I can go to the farmers market over the summer. I can get lots of healthy fruits and veg vegetables that I can make at home. But I can also get, like, a bag full of homemade cookies and candy and, you know, grab my lemon, shake on the way out, everything else like that, right?
Marcus Thorpe 14:47
The tamale guy gets me every time. Do I need three tamales?
Nan Radabaugh 14:54
So even something like a farmer's record, right? We have to navigate those choices and know what to look for. And. It to help make the healthier choices.
Marcus Thorpe 15:02
Yeah, I like that.
Lindsey Gordon 15:04
A lot of it too. When I'm grocery shopping, I feel like, like nutrition label aside, just what's on the words on the packaging, sometimes I think could be a little misleading. I know that part of a healthy diet, we need whole grains, right? And so sometimes bread will be labeled whole grain or heart healthy. How can we tell what's legit? Is there an easy way? Probably not.
Ciara Bartholomew 15:31
Yea, and I mean taking the nutritional label out of the equation, like we need it at the end of the day, but those front of the label package, like the packages with the labels on the front makes it super duper easy, especially with whole grains like I like me personally, when I'm grocery shopping for my breads and such, I like to look for the little gold stamp from the whole grains Council, something quick and easy that you can look for it even divides it into percentages, like 100% whole grain, 50% whole grain, or just like the standard that has a mix of whole grains and more refined or enriched grains like that. So you can always look out for that to ensure, okay, like this company's already went through the process, and I know that this is a whole grain, but if for whatever reason, that company didn't go through that process, we do have to take a peek at the the ingredients list that teeny weeny, itty bitty font that's on the bottom, unfortunately, that, you know, we need a magnifying glass to look at. But an easy way to put it is, if you see something like wheat, it could be more refined, but if you see whole wheat in the ingredients, less you can, know, okay, like this is a more whole source, like that, instead trying to avoid the ones to say like refined or enriched flour, you know, that's a red flag for a refined grain, trying to keep it easy that way.
Marcus Thorpe 16:45
Yeah, makes sense. You know, I remember my mom would take us to the grocery store, and she would say, Okay, we got to shop the perimeter first we got to we got to work our outside in because we got to get all our healthy things. Is that still the case? Do do you still encourage people to start kind of on the outsides, where we see kind of our milks, our cheeses, our vegetables, our fruits, those kind of things? Is that the best way to start?
Nan Radabaugh 17:08
Yeah, I mean, those areas of the store are typically where you find, like the most minimally processed foods or Whole Foods are going to be kind of in those areas. Now, if you're buying fruits and vegetables. You know, you really can't go around. You're going to be get fresh fruits and vegetables. You're getting healthy foods. Once we kind of get into, say, the dairy section or the fresh meat and seafood section, we have to be a little more cautious of our choices there, because we get a lot of our saturated fat, which is the type of fat that can raise bad cholesterol levels from meat and dairy. So with say, the proteins, right, we want to choose really lean sources of protein. So you know, skinless poultry and seafood, or, you know, lean cuts of meat, like sirloin, tenderloin, round 90% or higher, percent lean ground meats, even. And then with dairy, well, we want to choose those low or non fat dairy, like 1% milk or skim milk. And then eggs are in that section too. You know, eggs are one of those things, right, back and forth over the years. Are they good for you? Are they not good for you?
Ciara Bartholomew 18:15
My husband and I have this debate all the time. If I had a nickel, you know.
Nan Radabaugh 18:19
So eggs are a great source of complete protein, and we, you know, we'll suggest that to our heart patients, as well as, like, a good source of protein. Now the yolk themselves. The yolk itself has a lot of good stuff in it has vitamin D, it has protein, but it also has, like, a day's worth of cholesterol. So I always, typically, you know, if people are asking about eggs, if they're eating more than one egg a day, I just say, well, have one whole egg and then throw some extra egg whites in, because the egg whites are pure protein. But yeah, I mean, chopping the perimeter is still great, you. I think it is kind of a myth though, that there are no healthy foods once you get outside of that perimeter as well, because that's gonna find some good stuff, and pretty much every section, almost every section of the grocery store.
Lindsey Gordon 19:11
I know. I think that's where I struggle, is like I need the stuff that's on the go. I need the the stuff that can go in that well, we've actually graduated from a diaper bag. I know isn't that great. We Yeah, we know no more diapers in our house, thank goodness.
Nan Radabaugh 19:28
But it's a lot easier to go out that way.
Lindsey Gordon 19:31
I know, but I'm still like, Okay, we still need stuff for on the go. And I mean, my daughter only likes one type of granola bar, and my son only likes the yogurt that comes in the pack, right? And I read these labels, and I look at them, and I make sure I'm getting no added sugar, but at the same and then I'm up against, you know, when I was on social media, I would get, I was on, like, you know, the mommy algorithm. And so I'd get all these people telling. Me like, these are what? These are the healthy snacks I get for my kids at Costco and and I'm like, is this true? I don't know. So, Nan, I love how you mentioned there are some healthy finds in that middle section of the grocery store. And when I think of the middle section of the grocery store, I'm thinking of those on the go snacks. What helped guide me there? What should I be looking for? I mean, you don't have to give like, specific products or anything, but or anything, but more like, what are some things to keep in mind, of course, checking for added sugar, right?
Ciara Bartholomew 20:28
Yeah, definitely, yes, absolutely, especially with snacks. Like, I'm a snacker myself, like, I think snacking could be part of our healthy diet. Snacking gets a bad rep, unfortunately, but those snack aisles, yes, can be a little bit dangerous, especially like those chips and certain types of crackers and, you know, the goldfish and, yeah, oh my gosh, I wish. But of course, those are probably not the best options, and they are grab and go, you know. But there are other options that we can think about, especially with my like my cardiac patients, I love a little bit of crunch with my snacks, so like, lightly salted or unsalted nuts and seeds are always a good option, high in fiber, high in protein, lots of good heart healthy fats in there. And a little bit goes a long way about, like a handful or so, or a quarter cup is about a serving size. Other things to think about would be like whole grain crackers with some cheese slices that you can get, like the pre sliced cheese slices. Yeah, throw that together. The main idea with snacking especially is we like to think about, you know, try not to make it just one food group. It's mostly carbs. You know, when we think about snacks like, especially those salty or snacky foods tend to just be a carb. You know, trying to pair like a carb and a protein together gives you a little bit more of a nutritional bang for your buck, is how I like to describe it.
Lindsey Gordon 21:40
What about the dried fruits? Like dried my kids love dried strawberries. And I say I'm putting this all on my kids, but really, it's because I eat the snacks that I buy for them. So this is also putting this on my kids. I'm blaming I'm eating all this too. Okay, so this is also self serving questions.
Nan Radabaugh 22:00
Yeah. I mean, you know, we think about, you know, fresh fruits and vegetables being super healthy, but we can get fruit and vegetables in other forms that are a little more processed, right, but are still good for you, right? So I don't know if you're doing like the freeze dried, freeze dried, yeah, strawberries, yeah. I mean, those are just strawberries. There's literally nothing else added to them. The thing when we dry fruit, right, is we're getting rid of all the moisture, so like things like raisins or other types of dry like cranberries, things like that. Because we're taking all that water out, we're really concentrating down kind of that fruit sugar that we were talking about, right? So you can get a lot more natural sugar in like, small portions. So we just kind of got to watch the portion with some of those dried fruits. But no, I mean, they're especially the ones that are just fruit and there's no added sugar to it. Things like cranberries, they have a lot of sugar added because there's such a tart right berry that that's one that I always get the reduced sugar, but it still has added sugar. So there are some dried fruits that do have a lot of added sugar, so kind of finding those ones that are just the fruit, I think that's a great option, and then you don't have to worry about refrigerating it. And certainly a good on the go.
Marcus Thorpe 23:14
Yeah, as we wrap I want to leave people with something that they can really use on an everyday, every week basis. So let's close by sharing some staple items that you think people need to get on a regular basis at the store or have in their homes whenever they are around, and then maybe some versatile foods that people can have, that they could use for multiple purposes, for multiple recipes. Let's start with just staples. What would you suggest some families have constantly in their house that are good for them, that they can use pretty consistently.
Nan Radabaugh 23:46
Well, I know, like for me, on a really, really busy week, it's key to have, you know, things always have things on hand that are healthy but don't take a lot of prep time. So when I think about, say, like, proteins, right, things that are shelf stable, things that don't really take much time to prepare, like reduced or low sodium tuna, right? A great healthy source of lean protein, or unsalted nuts and peanut butter, these are all healthy sources of protein, or even the eggs, right? Those are easy to throw together. Things like canned beans, another great source of protein and fiber. We can get the no salt added version, we can have brown rice that's pre cooked. Those pre cooked brown rice that throw that together with some beans and some I always have frozen vegetables on hand. They're nice and fresh, no salt added, cook up in like, a few minutes. So those are some of the really easy things that I always like to have on hand to kind of cover all my food groups and just kind of throw together for a quick meal.
Marcus Thorpe 24:51
And Ciara, what would you leave our listeners with about just, let's think about this as we're kind of grocery shopping and finding. Virtual foods that work for us on a regular basis.
Ciara Bartholomew 25:02
Take it step by step, like, I know, like at the end of this conversation, like we're thinking, Okay, well, I need to change my whole grocery list and, you know, rearrange my thinking and all that kind of stuff. But I kind of like what I mentioned before. I'm all about small, realistic goals, right? So say, for instance, like, we've got kids at home and we all want them to try different types of foods. Yes, you know, like, say we really like, like, frozen fish sticks right now, maybe taking the opportunity to, like, peruse the fish section over at the grocery store, get them to try something a little more whole. Maybe breading it ourselves at home with something like a low sodium, like bread crumbs or so making it so it's just a little bit less processed with less added salt. That's one thing to think about, really getting together as a family, picking, like a quick and easy, limited ingredient recipe that we all like and just, you know, checking it out at the grocery store and trying it at home is a good way to cut back on those like frozen convenience meals or packaged foods and things like that. But just picking one thing to work on at a time is going to be the easiest thing. Little swaps here and there, like, maybe instead of full fat sour cream, we can swap to Greek yogurt. Give that a try. You know, get a little bit more protein and they're less fat. Just little tweaks here and there, make it easy, make it less overwhelming.
Lindsey Gordon 26:14
I love that. I feel like I can do it.
Marcus Thorpe 26:16
This has been great information. We're so glad you're here. We hope you'll come back, because we know we're going to get a lot of questions online once people listen to this and say, Well, what about this? And what about that? We'd love to have you back and maybe tackle this again in a couple of months, because I think there's always evolving new information, and you're the right people for it. So thank you so much for joining.
Nan Radabaugh 26:36
We'd love to come back.
Ciara Bartholomew 26:37
Yeah, thank you.
Lindsey Gordon 26:37
Thank you awesome. I'd love for you to come grocery shopping with me. That's what I really need. Well, thank you both so much, and thank you for listening to this episode of the wellness conversation in OhioHealth podcast. If you're looking for more information on the topics we talked about today, or you want to find another episode, we have them all on our landing page at OhioHealth.com/TheWellnessConversation.
Marcus Thorpe 27:01
That's right, and you can subscribe to our podcast that way you don't miss anything we'd like for you to follow us on all of our social media channels, to continue the conversation and as always, thanks for joining us.