‘Beans, beans, good for your heart’ goes the old schoolyard song, but beans are just one of many ingredients proven to promote heart health.

Simone Barton, from local heart health centre Core, is looking to teach people about the wealth of heart-friendly food options available to them.

And the good news is they won’t break the bank or require any more time than it takes to wait on fast food to be delivered — plus they actually taste good.

As part of February’s Heart Month, Ms Barton will be leading a ‘Simply Delicious Cooking Series’ at Core on February 14 and 21.

She said the goal was to “remove the veil” and dispel the myths about what healthy cooking is.

“It’s about using clean flavours and taking it back old school to where it’s not about grabbing a box out of the refrigerator laden with sodium and sugar.

“Instead we are trying to show people how they can do the same dish with a few little tweaks in the recipe so that it’s more healthy.

“Once people understand that all we are doing is removing the fat and sugar and showing them a different way to achieve those same results, it makes it doable.”

Seeing that every Bermudian loves their macaroni and cheese, Ms Barton has come up with a recipe using summer squash. The result is a delicious pasta dish that looks really cheesy, but isn’t.

“It’s a great option because we eat as much with out eyes as we do with our taste buds,” she explained.

Parents can also learn how to add more vegetables into their family’s meals, just as she did while raising her own children.

Ms Barton said: “My children grew up saying they hated mushrooms, but what they didn’t realise was they were eating mushrooms all along in everything from rice to stews.

“The same thing happened with lots of different kinds of squash, I just threw it in things where they didn’t realise it was there.

“I would put a lot of vegetables in a Bolognese sauce and they didn’t even know it was heavily laden with carrots, so there are definitely ways to give your kids what they need, rather than just what they want.”

She said it was crucial for people on the Island to start changing they way they ate, considering the number of chronic health issues plaguing our shores. “As Bermuda develops we are becoming a country that is imploding with health issues,” she said.

“Heart issues are 95 percent preventable and diabetes is now running rampant, whereas it once used to be an adult disease, but now we are seeing more and more children with it.”

She believes the island needs to get ‘back to the basics” when it comes to what we are eating.

At the cooking series, Ms Barton will be sharing recipes from the Bermuda Heart Foundation’s cookbook ‘Simply Delicious’, produced with help from Butterfield & Vallis and ConAgra Foods.

The recipe book came after professionals were continually hearing from people who had no idea what foods to cook.

“It started off as a simple premise — let’s show people how to eat healthy things with simple ingredients,” she said.

“We wanted it to be a collection of recipes where everyone gets together and chips in their own healthy recipes, so that it was more interactive and people would be more engaged. But what we got back was amazing. We had one person submit a recipe that contained Cheese Whiz and a pound of butter.

“And the more we looked at the recipes being submitted, the more we realised how far off many people were from the reality.

“After that it kind of made sense that we were putting together this cookbook and giving everyone a basic idea of how and what to eat to be heart healthy.”

Ms Barton plans to shop before the demonstration at a local grocery store, before coming back to the Core kitchen to show people how to prepare a breakfast, lunch and dinner menu first hand. The best part is they also get to sample the food, she said.

“I plan to show people that healthy eating is easy and tastes good, but unless they can feel it, taste it and experience it for themselves they are not going to believe you.”

Ms Barton hopes people will leave the cooking series with more knowledge about heart healthy eating and enough confidence to tackle cooking on their own at home.

To attend the Simply Delicious Cooking Series, taking place on the next two Fridays, you have to register by calling 232-2673.