February is American Heart Month. It’s an important time at Let’s Dish!, and of course, an important time at Food For Thought, the Let’s Dish! blog.

Heart disease is this country’s #1 killer, claiming over 900,000 American lives annually. Fortunately, and thanks in a large part to the great work of the American Heart Association (AHA), US heart disease death rates are down around 20% versus a decade ago. But millions of Americans live every day with heart disease. And who among us hasn’t been touched by the disease, through a relative, colleague, neighbor or friend?

Sadly, heart disease will never go away entirely. But there are so many things we can do to decrease the risk. The AHA is a fantastic resource for ideas on about how to lead a heart healthy lifestyle. One tip that hits home for us at Let’s Dish! is to watch what you eat, specifically, to look for meals that have 10g of fat or less per serving. These ‘heart healthy’ meals are always part of the menu at Let’s Dish!, but the February menu (which starts today - we couldn’t wait!!) has heart health as its centerpiece. And no, it’s not “Flaxen Wasa Bread with a Side of Dry Barley Nuggets.” Quite the contrary, our food experts have created heart healthy meals your family will love. We’ve got Lemon and Dill Salmon, Montreal Chicken with Homemade Potato Chips and 11 other meals that meet the AHA’s standards for living heart healthy. Who would have guessed heart healthy could be so delicious?

But our commitment to heart health doesn’t stop with the menu. Come into our stores this month and you’ll find some great information provided by our friends at the AHA. You’ll have the chance to sign up for their Go Red campaign, and not only get a free Red Dress Pin to show your support, but also find out how to evaluate your own risk factors for heart disease. It’s information no American should be without.

Of course, we’ll be blogging about heart health all month long. We’ll tell you what it means for a meal to be ‘heart healthy’; you’ll hear from Let’s Dish! employees and customers who have first-hand experience with heart disease. You find recipes and health tips. And we’re proud to feature this month guest blogger Catherine Joiner, an AHA nutritionist who will offer some of her favorite tips for - and debunk the biggest myths about - eating heart healthy.

Please click over to our blog often this month, and - if the spirit moves you - chime in with a comment. Learning just a little about heart disease - and what we can do to prevent it - is something all of us at Let’s Dish! have pledged to do during American Heart Month. We hope you will do the same.