The best-rated recipe on this site: six of seven ingredients sit in the Top 20 of the ranking for the goal heart. Ten minutes of work in the evening, overnight in the fridge – the bowl comes to Top 20 overall.
Open the recipe straight in the Food Secrets app. The app reads the ingredients, links each one to the nutrient database and recalculates the rank for your goal.
Ingredients for 2 servings
- Blueberries150 g
- Chia seeds30 g
- Cocoa powder, unsweetened1 tbsp
- Pumpkin seeds20 g
- Hemp seeds, hulled15 g
- Peppermint, fresh5 g
- Plain yogurt150 g
Calculated without sugar. If you want it sweeter, the options are below – each with exactly what it costs.
Method
- Stir the chia seeds and cocoa powder together dry in a bowl. Mixing the powder with the seeds first prevents the lumps that otherwise form in the yogurt.
- Add the yogurt and stir hard until no dry patches remain. If the mixture is too stiff, loosen it with 2–3 tbsp water or milk.
- Leave for five minutes and stir again. The chia seeds settle in that time; the second stir is the one that really breaks up the lumps.
- Cover and refrigerate overnight, at least four hours.
- In the morning, toast the pumpkin seeds in a dry pan for 2 minutes, until they start to pop. Let them cool, or they go soft in the yogurt.
- Divide the pudding between two bowls. Scatter the blueberries, toasted pumpkin seeds and hemp seeds on top, tear the mint leaves roughly and add them.
Why this bowl helps the heart
Every ingredient carries its band from the Food Secrets heart ranking. A band is stable – a place number changes with every data release, and the app shows you the exact figure.
- Top 10BlueberriesAnthocyanins. Number 1 of the heart ranking, and the reason they take the lead role here.
- Top 10Chia seedsALA omega-3 and soluble fibre that forms a gel in the gut – the same gel makes the pudding.
- Top 10Cocoa powderFlavanols. Unsweetened cocoa powder, not chocolate – the difference is the sugar.
- Top 10Pumpkin seedsMagnesium, which is involved in normal heart function.
- Top 10PeppermintThe outlier upwards: fresh mint sits further forward in this ranking than any berry except the blueberry.
- Top 20Hemp seedsA favourable ratio of omega-3 to omega-6 that is rare among seeds.
- Top 250Plain yogurtIt carries the texture and supplies the lactic acid bacteria, but it is not the reason for the rank.
Averaged and weighted by category, the bowl lands in the Top 20. Of all eleven goals in the app, heart is the one it scores best for – blood pressure follows close behind.
For more enjoyment – and what it costs
Unsweetened cocoa with plain yogurt is bitter. It does not have to stay that way. All three options are calculated, and all three stay in the leading group:
- Raspberries, 80 g – the best choice. Sweetness and acidity, without sugar. The bowl moves to Top 50, and heart remains its best goal. Of all the additions the only one that manages that.
- Dark chocolate, 20 g chopped – for Sunday. Surprisingly cheap: Top 50, because chocolate with a high cocoa content brings the same flavanols. The best goal shifts to blood pressure.
- A banana, sliced – for children. Turns the pudding into a dessert everyone eats. Top 50, best goal blood pressure.
Even with banana the bowl still sits inside the best five percent of more than a thousand foods. A breakfast you look forward to gets eaten – and that is what counts.
Variations
- Vegan: swap the yogurt for a soy yogurt alternative. The rank stays practically the same, because the yogurt is the weakest ingredient in the bowl anyway.
- Even stronger for the heart: replace half the blueberries with aronia. Aronia sits in the Top 20 of the heart ranking and tastes considerably sharper.
- More filling: stir in 30 g oats. Turns it into a full breakfast, but it costs a few places.
Ingredients onto the shopping list, recipe into the week plan – in one step.
Frequently asked questions about this recipe
Are frozen blueberries just as good?
Yes, and often better. Berries for freezing are picked ripe and frozen within hours, while fresh stock spends days in transit. The anthocyanins survive freezing well. Let them thaw in the pudding and the juice colours the bowl.
Why cocoa powder and not chocolate?
Because the flavanols are in the cocoa and the sugar is in the chocolate. Unsweetened cocoa powder sits in the Top 10 of the heart ranking. Dark chocolate with a high cocoa content is still a good addition – see above, it costs only a few places.
Which foods are best for the heart?
At the front of the Food Secrets heart ranking are blueberries, oregano, peppermint, cranberries, chia seeds and pumpkin seeds, followed by cocoa, aronia and hemp seeds. Oily fish such as sardine and salmon follows shortly after. More on this under nutrition against heart attack.
How long does the pudding keep?
Three days in the fridge, covered. Berries, seeds and mint go on just before eating – toasted pumpkin seeds turn soft in yogurt within an hour.
What does “Top 20” mean at Food Secrets?
The app rates more than a thousand foods against over 25 scientific metrics and gives each one a rank per goal. “Top 20” means: averaged across all ingredients, this recipe sits among the best twenty for the goal heart. We print bands rather than place numbers, because the database keeps growing.
More healthy recipes and food rankings
- Nutrition against heart attack: app and food list – the groundwork and the full ranking of heart-healthy foods.
- Recipe generator: import and analyse healthy recipes – read in any recipe from the web, calculate the nutrients and build the shopping list automatically.
- All healthy recipes by goal – recipes for the heart, inflammation, immune system, blood sugar and other health goals.
- Foods and body systems – which foods act on the heart, circulation, nerves and digestion.
The bands on this page are a snapshot of the Food Secrets ranking. The database keeps growing, which is why we name ranges rather than place numbers – the app works out the current value at any time. The information provided is for general education and does not replace medical advice or treatment.
