Ten Heart Healthy Gifts for the Holidays

1. A Personal Water Bottle. Staying hydrated is an important part of keeping your blood pressure low, which in turn, helps out your heart. But if you're shopping for someone who has a hard time drinking all the water that doctors recommend we drink, you can help them out. There are tricks to getting in all your daily recommended dose of water, but one of the most effective things you can do is buy a water bottle that gets rid of the guesswork. If you're looking for a heart healthy gift this holiday season, a water bottle should be at the top of your list.

2. A Garlic Press. Garlic is a heart healthy blood thinner and it's a good idea to get more fresh garlic into our diets. Most people don't eat enough heart healthy garlic because they think it's too much trouble. Luckily, there are ways to add fresh garlic to your diet without all the hassle. A good garlic press that doesn't require you to peel the garlic first is one way to do that, and it makes a great little heart healthy gift for the holidays.

3. Stainless Steel Soap. Another reason that people shy away from heart healthy garlic is because they don't like the smell. The oils get on their fingers and it's hard to wash off. This is where a truly unusual gift can come to the rescue: stainless steel soap. By rubbing it between your hands under running water, it removes stubborn odors like garlic and onions.

4. High Fiber Baked Goods. If you like to bake for the holidays, but you're stumped as to what kind of heart healthy baked goods you can make, worry no more. These days, the heart healthy thing to do is to add more fiber to your diet. You can turn almost any baked good recipe you have into a heart healthy recipe by adding fiber. Gone are the days of grainy fiber that made everything taste like cardboard. Now they have a new product called Fibersure, that dissolves so completely you can put it into a water bottle and not notice it's there. Add it to your cakes and cookies to help counteract all that butter.

5. Pill Container. These days, the health conscious seem always to be experimenting with heart healthy supplements and vitamins. You can make the regimen easier by purchasing a divided pill container for each day of the week. True, it's more of a stocking stuffer than anything else, but it's likely to be appreciated nonetheless.

6. Red Wine. Evidence shows that drinking moderate amounts of red wine may lower the risk of heart disease. (It has also recently been linked to slowing down the onset of Alzheimer's disease.) Choose a nice heart healthy cabernet sauvignon or merlot. If you're shopping for someone who doesn't drink alcohol, you can go ahead and find a few spectacular bottles of gourmet purple grape juice since it contain the same powerful disease-fighting, heart healthy, antioxidants.

7. Pedometer. We all could use to do a bit more walking, but it's hard to keep track of how far we've gone. Some of us are convinced that we walk enough in our office buildings each day. But do we? A pedometer is a simple little gadget that measures how many steps you've taken each day. It helps people meet simple heart healthy goals without a more regimented exercise program. Be sure to find one that doesn't need to be in a particular position to keep accurate count. Nothing will frustrate the special person on your holiday list more than having wildly fluctuating reports of how much they've walked in any given day.

8. Neck Ease. As we all know, stress is not good for the heart. This small heat pack warms up and soothes the tight muscles around the neck, while giving off relaxing scents that relieve pain and relax the body. The special person on your list is sure to thank you, and so are their sore shoulders.

9. Healthy Back Bag. It's hard to get all the exercise your heart needs when you're constantly struggling with sore back muscles. This bag is designed to allow people to carry all that they need while taking pressure off the back. The unique design distributes pressure, alleviates back pain, and helps keep your body in tip-top shape. It'll be a unique, heart healthy holiday gift, and stylish too!

10. Low Fat Gift Basket. Filled to the brim with heart healthy, tasty treats that are low in fat, a gift basket like this one will let your loved one fight the munchies the healthy way.

Whatever gift you choose, have a happy and healthy holiday with plenty of heart.