Heart-Healthy Habits: Food, Movement and Sleep Basics

Heart-healthy habits are mostly ordinary things done on most days: eating plenty of plants and fish, moving your body most days of the week, getting enough sleep, not smoking, and knowing your numbers with your doctor. No single food or supplement does the job alone. Heart-healthy habits work as a set, and small, steady changes count more than a short burst of effort.

This guide walks through the basics the American Heart Association groups into its "Life's Essential 8," explains what each habit looks like in a real week, and shows where an omega-3 supplement can fit as one small piece of the picture.

What are heart-healthy habits?

The American Heart Association (AHA) lists eight measures that support heart and blood vessel health. Four are daily behaviors and four are numbers you track with a health care provider.

Daily habits	Numbers to know
Eat better	Blood pressure
Be more active	Cholesterol
Get healthy sleep	Blood sugar
Quit tobacco and nicotine	Body weight

The daily habits feed the numbers. Better food, more movement and enough sleep all help keep blood pressure, cholesterol and blood sugar in a healthy range. That is why the list works best as one routine, not eight separate projects.

What should you eat for a healthy heart?

You do not need a strict diet. Well-studied eating patterns, such as the DASH plan from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute and the Mediterranean-style pattern, share the same simple shape.

• Fill half the plate with vegetables and fruit. Fresh, frozen and canned without added salt or sugar all count.
• Choose whole grains. Oats, brown rice, whole-wheat bread and barley bring fiber with them.
• Eat fish each week. The American Heart Association recommends one to two servings of seafood a week, the NIH Office of Dietary Supplements notes. Salmon, sardines, trout, herring and mackerel are good sources of the omega-3s EPA and DHA.
• Add beans, lentils, nuts and seeds. They supply protein, fiber and healthy fats.
• Cook with liquid plant oils. Olive and canola oil are better everyday choices than butter or lard.
• Watch salt and added sugar. Much of the sodium in a typical day comes from packaged and restaurant food, not the salt shaker.

Fiber deserves its own mention. Soluble fiber, found in oats, beans, apples and barley, supports healthy cholesterol levels already within the normal range. If fiber is also on your mind for digestion, our guide to daily gut health habits covers how to add it slowly.

A simple heart-healthy day of eating

Breakfast could be oatmeal with berries and walnuts. Lunch could be a big salad with beans, olive oil and a slice of whole-grain bread. Dinner could be baked salmon with roasted vegetables and brown rice. A handful of nuts or a piece of fruit covers a snack. Nothing on that list is special or expensive, and that is the point.

How much exercise does your heart need?

The U.S. Physical Activity Guidelines for adults call for at least 150 minutes of moderate activity a week, such as brisk walking or easy cycling. Another way to meet the guideline is 75 minutes of vigorous activity, such as running or fast cycling. The guidelines also ask for muscle-strengthening work on two or more days a week.

That sounds like a lot until you break it up:

• A 30-minute walk on five weekdays covers the 150 minutes.
• Three 10-minute walks after meals count the same as one 30-minute walk.
• Two short sessions of push-ups, squats, lunges or resistance bands cover the strength part.
• Gardening, carrying groceries, cycling to the shop and taking the stairs all add up.

"Moderate" means you can talk but not sing. If you have been inactive, start with what you can do today and add five minutes each week. Any movement is better than none, and less sitting helps on its own.

Why does sleep matter for your heart?

In 2022 the AHA added sleep to its heart-health checklist. During healthy sleep, heart rate and blood pressure drop and the body gets time to recover. Short or broken sleep night after night puts more strain on that system.

The CDC says adults need at least seven hours of sleep a night. A few habits make that easier:

• Keep the same wake-up time on most days, weekends included.
• Get outdoor daylight in the morning to set your body clock.
• Stop caffeine by early afternoon.
• Keep the bedroom cool, dark and quiet.
• Give yourself a wind-down period without screens.

Our guide to building an evening wind-down routine goes step by step. If you snore loudly or wake up tired after a full night, tell your doctor, because those signs are worth a closer look.

Where do omega-3 supplements fit in heart-healthy habits?

EPA and DHA are long-chain omega-3 fatty acids. The NIH Office of Dietary Supplements notes that EPA and DHA are found in fish and other seafood, that omega-3s are important parts of the membranes that surround each cell, and that scientists are studying how omega-3s affect health. If you rarely eat fish, you likely get little EPA and DHA from food.

Fish such as salmon, sardines and trout supply the omega-3s EPA and DHA, and a supplement can fill the gap on weeks you eat little fish. A supplement does not replace the other habits on this page. It is one small piece that sits beside food, movement and sleep.

Pure Omega+™ is our fish oil softgel. Pure Omega+ provides 1,440 mg of omega-3 fatty acids, with 864 mg EPA and 576 mg DHA, in a two-softgel serving. Take two softgels daily with meals. The softgels are lemon-flavored, and taking them with food is easy to pair with breakfast or dinner. For timing ideas, see the best time to take fish oil.

Pure Omega+ contains fish (anchovy), and the gelatin softgel may contain porcine, so it is not suitable for a plant-based diet. The label reads: Do not exceed recommended dose. Pregnant or nursing mothers, children under the age of 18, and individuals with a known medical condition should consult a physician before using this or any dietary supplement. Keep out of reach of children. Do not use if safety seal is damaged or missing. Store in a cool, dry place. The NIH Office of Dietary Supplements notes that high doses of omega-3s may cause bleeding problems when taken with warfarin (Coumadin) or other anticoagulant medicines. If you take a blood thinner, talk with your doctor before you start any omega-3 supplement.

What to look for in any fish oil

• EPA and DHA amounts on the label, not only the total fish oil number.
• The serving size, so you know how many softgels the label figures are for.
• Third-party testing, so an outside lab checks purity and potency.

Every batch of Pure Omega+ is third-party tested for purity and potency by an outside lab. It is bottled in an NSF-certified, GMP-certified, FDA-registered U.S. facility. You can read how that works on our standards page.

Why should you know your heart numbers?

Your doctor can check your blood pressure, cholesterol and blood sugar, and those numbers tell you more than any single habit. Many people feel fine while a number drifts out of range, which is why regular checkups matter. Ask your provider how often you should be checked, and write your numbers down so you can see the trend over time.

The last daily habit on the list is simple to say and hard to do: avoid tobacco and nicotine. If you smoke or vape, quitting helps your heart, and free help is available at 1-800-QUIT-NOW in the U.S.

Frequently asked questions about heart-healthy habits

What is the single most important heart-healthy habit?

There is no single winner, because the habits support each other. If you smoke, quitting is a good first step. If you do not, moving more and eating more plants and fish are strong places to start.

How quickly do heart-healthy habits make a difference?

Some changes show up sooner than others, and many build over time. The key is to pick habits you can keep, not habits you can only hold for a short time.

Do I need a fish oil supplement if I eat fish?

The NIH Office of Dietary Supplements reports that the American Heart Association recommends one to two servings of seafood a week. If you eat fatty fish that often, food may already cover much of what you need. A supplement can help on weeks when you eat little or no fish. Ask your doctor what makes sense for you, especially if you take other medicines.

Does walking count as exercise for the heart?

Yes. Brisk walking is moderate activity, so it counts toward the 150 minutes a week in the U.S. Physical Activity Guidelines for adults. Walk fast enough that you can talk but not sing.

How much sleep is enough for heart health?

Adults need at least seven hours a night, the CDC says. A regular schedule, morning daylight and a calm wind-down routine all help. If you snore loudly or wake up tired, talk with your doctor.

Related reading from our Wellness Hub

• Best Time to Take Fish Oil: A Simple Omega-3 Routine With Meals
• EPA vs. DHA: How the Two Omega-3s Differ and Why Labels List Both
• What Does Beetroot Do for Blood Pressure and Circulation?
• Daily Gut Health Habits: Foods, Fiber, and Where a Probiotic Fits

Sources

• American Heart Association: Life's Essential 8
• American Heart Association: Fish and Omega-3 Fatty Acids
• U.S. Department of Health and Human Services: Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans
• National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute: DASH Eating Plan
• NIH Office of Dietary Supplements: Omega-3 Fatty Acids Fact Sheet
• CDC: About Sleep

Individual results vary.

These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.