Cardiologist’s company commits to improving first responders’ heart health

If you want to eat better to help your heart health, consider a walnut bar, a lemon bar, or just plain oatmeal.

That’s what Dr. Elizabeth Klodas, a local cardiologist, strongly suggests.

For many years, Klodas has led a crusade to get people to eat healthier to ensure a healthier heart and cardiovascular system. She is so committed to the concept that, starting roughly 20 years ago, she and a group of private investors gradually designed and launched Step One Foods, which manufactures and sells food designed for better heart health.

“I realized years ago that good nutrition goes a very long way in ensuring a healthy heart,” she said. “Of the major factors which cause unhealthy hearts, a majority of them, such as obesity, are directly related to poor eating habits.”

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Klodas is the founder of the Preventive Cardiology Clinic located in Edina. Step One Foods, however, is headquartered in Eden Prairie at 7625 Golden Triangle Drive.

The Step One Foods products – which include walnut, lemon, and other flavors of bars and oatmeal, as well as smoothie and pancake mixes – incorporate fiber, plant sterols, antioxidants, and omega-3 fatty acids.

“It’s easy to follow this approach,” Klodas claims. “For the most part, it takes an average of two servings a day.” She said that, over the years, the results from people who follow this nutritional approach have been “astonishing.”

Trials with new products are conducted in partnership with the Mayo Clinic. On its website, Step One Foods references a clinical trial of its products performed at Mayo Clinic and the University of Manitoba. The results showed that 80% of participants lowered their LDL (bad) cholesterol in 30 days. The full clinical trial report is available on request via the Step One Foods website.

Earlier in 2024, Step One Foods committed to the White House Challenge to End Hunger and Build Healthy Communities. The challenge asked for commitments to advance the goal of ending hunger and reducing diet-related diseases by 2030. In the federal list of commitment makers, Step One Foods’ commitment is described as “Step One Foods commits to expand the Step One Healthy Hearts for Heroes Program across the U.S. to all two million first responders.”

In 2021, the American Heart Association reported in its journal on a study that indicated myocardial infarction (heart attack) as the leading cause of in-the-line-of-duty deaths among firefighters.

Healthy Hearts for Heroes is a worksite nutrition program. In late 2014, Step One Foods conducted a voluntary study by offering its products to members of the St. Louis Park Fire Department to consume two times per day. According to Klodas’s description of the study results, participants improved their cardiovascular health risks, including lowered LDL (bad) cholesterol and improved HDL (good) cholesterol levels.

Step One Foods is currently in preliminary discussions with the City of Eden Prairie regarding participation in the program.

The first Step One Foods products were introduced 10 years ago, and Klodas calls business “great. We are selling about one million servings a month.” Step One Foods purchases are made online; there are no retail outlets. “We put together the ingredients for each item, and they are manufactured and packaged at two locations – one in St. Peter and the other in Canada,” she said. Klodas received her medical training in Canada with advanced education in the U.S.

“I have a passion for this,” she admits. “What we advocate is continually researching nutrition as it relates to healthy hearts and creating products that address that,” she said.