Eating healthy does not mean giving up everything you enjoy. Changing the sort of food that you have eaten all life may not be easy, but it is important in reducing the risk of developing heart diseases. In continuation of eating for a healthy heart 1, this is the highlight on the remaining groups of foods so that you can know how to include all in your daily healthy balanced meals.

Group 3 - Fats and oil: There are two types of fats and oil, saturated and the unsaturated fats. They all contain the same amount of calories and are composed of fatty acids. At room temperature saturated fats are solid while unsaturated fats tend to be liquid. Example are:

Meat fat - (beef, pork, lard. Mutton, dripping).

Dairy fat - (cheese, butter, cream)

Plant fat - (palm oil, coconut oil)

Processed fat - (cakes, biscuits. Pies, snacks, margarine)

Saturated fats increase blood cholesterol and LDL-C levels rise is linked with risks of heart diseases. So it os highly required that you reduce your intake of saturated fatty acids.

Unsaturated fats are found mainly in vegetable. It is sub-divided into monounsaturated and polyunsaturated. The monounsaturated fat is oleic acid, the main constituent of olive oil. This oleic acid is known to protect the heart by reducing the artery clogging LDL-C and then makes the blood platelets less sticky and less likely to form blood clots. Other major source of monounsaturated fats are canola oil, nuts, and peanut oil. Research showed that eating nuts can significantly lower the amount of bad cholesterol (LDL-C) in the blood.

The polyunsaturated fats have two families, the Omega-6 and Omega-3. Omega-6 fatty acids are found mainly in vegetable source such as sunflower, sesame seeds, corn, safflower margarine and soy oil. While Omega-3 are found in oily fish such as trout, salmon, sardine, mullet, tuna, anchovies, herring, mackerel, also in green leafy vegetable,canola, soya , rapeseed and walnut oil. It is advised to consume more of Omega-3 because fish oil is a very rich source of eicosapentanoic acid (EPA) and decosahexanoic acid (DHA) which helps maintain a healthy heart. They have shown to:

Reduce blood pressure

Reduce thrombosis (blood clot) by thinning the blood

Reduce blood triglyceride levels.

So as you enjoy fish in your meals, try to include one portion of oily fish.

Group 4 - Proteins: are made up of amino acids and is required for the repair and maintenance of all body tissues, in fact it’s called the building block of life. The major dietary sources of protein are all type of fish, meat, eggs, milk, cheese, beans, peas, lentil, nuts, and cereal grains. Different food contain different type of protein, so it is important to eat a variety of protein source to ensure you are getting enough from each.

Group 5 – Vitamin and minerals: these are essential part of your diet. They are the anti-oxidant that your body need to fight off diseases. We have the fat soluble vitamins

(vitamins. A, D, E,& K) while the water-soluble vitamins are all the eight B vitamins, vitamin C and folic acid. The main anti-oxidant are vitamin C, vitamin A in form of beta-carotene, and vitamin E. This helps the heart by reducing the oxidation of LDL-C, thereby reducing the build up of fatty deposits in the arterial walls. Sources are all kinds of fruits, vegetables, corn, olive and vegetable oils,cottonseed, apricots, sweet potatoes. Most often folic acid and the B vitamins are readily available from our balanced diet. The good source includes leafy green vegetables like spinach and broccoli, cereals, rice, milk, eggs, fish, citrus fruits, potatoes, berries.

Finally drinking enough water helps to flush out the unwanted materials in the body. By making good choices in your meal and eating well, you can reduce the risk of developing heart diseases. Enjoy! you deserve the good health .

To learn more about eating for a healthy heart Call 1-800-AHA-USA1 (1-800-242-8721) or visit http://www.americanheart.org

Knowledge is power, so Learn and Live!

The key to healthy and enjoyable meal is having a basic understanding of nutrition.The knowledge of food gives you control and allow you to make good choices about how you eat, as opposed to what the food manufacturers would like you to eat.
The availability of wide variety of foods now in the market, has given us a good range of choices than before. The question is are you making the best of it?
The science of nutrition has grown progressively over the last two decades and now provides us with a firm foundation on how to make recommendations for a healthy eating.
It is now very clear to us that a poor nutrition will increase the risk of heart and other various diseases, while good nutrition can substantially reduce these risks.

Because different food contain many different types of nutrient in various proportions, no single food can provide you with all the nutrient you need for a balanced diet. This why variety in your diet is very important because it allows you to obtain different nutrient from a wide range of sources. This can be best achieved by choosing food from these five main food groups daily.

Group 1 - Carbohydrates: Is a dietary source of glucose that is very important to our body and they come in two main forms – simple and complex sugar.
The simple sugar are the simplest form of carbohydrate and comes as one or two molecule combination, i.e.:
Monosaccharides (one molecule sugar) - glucose, galactose and fructose.
Disaccharides (two molecule sugar) - lactose, maltose and sucrose.
Glucose , the one we call blood sugar is found mainly in all fruits and vegetables. Fructose been the sweetest known natural sugar, is found in honey and some sweet fruits.
The diasaccharides which are monosaccharides linked together always contain at least one molecule of glucose. Lactose which is made up of glucose and galactose is mainly found in milk sugar. Maltose is found in malted milk drinks and it’s made up of two glucose molecules. While sucrose, our familiar white packet sugar is made up of glucose and fructose.
Simple sugar stimulates the release of insulin and, since insulin is related to hunger, you’ll tend to feel hungry again in less time than with a complex sugar
Although the consumption of white sugar may have fallen dramatically in the U.S. and U.K, still other source of sugar such as candies, chocolates and confectioneries continues to make a large contribution to our daily diet. In fact, it's quite difficult to find any processed food that doesn’t contain at least some amount of sugar.
The complex sugar, on the other hand, are made up of glucose but unlike the simple sugar, they do not dissolve in water and need cooking before it could be digested. Examples are flour, pastas, beans, bread and potatoes.
believe this, sugar is not as evil as we are meant to believe, in fact it is very essential for a balance diet and for a healthy meal, but caution and moderation is required.

Group 2 - Dietary fiber: or roughage is a form of carbohydrate. It forms the cell wall of plant foods. It is the part of our food that is not digested by our body. Fiber comes in two forms, the soluble and the insoluble fiber. The soluble fiber is are found in oatmeal, lentil, peas, beans, citrus fruits, apples, bananas and some vegetables. They dissolve in water and form gel in the stomach and helps lower level of blood cholesterol, especially the bad cholesterol.
The insoluble fiber helps to promoted soft bulky stool. You get this type of dietary fiber from whole grain meal, nuts, breakfast cereals, bran products and brown rice. Eat more of wholemeal bread which contains twice as much fiber as which bread.

Generally increase your consumption of fiber, particularly soluble fiber. And if you must drink alcoholic beverage, consume in moderation. Lower or if necessary avoid foods high in cholesterol e.g eggs, liver, kidney,red meat. Choose complex sugar over simple sugar. Reduce salt intake because salt is linked to development of blood pressure and drink plenty of water. Eat to live and live to eat. Enjoy!

To learn more about eating for a healthy heart Call 1-800-AHA-USA1 (1-800-242-8721) or visit http://www.americanheart.org

Knowledge is power, so Learn and Live!

You must have heard of the term ‘blood lipids’? which is a medical name given to all the fatty substance in the blood, including cholesterol. Cholesterol is a soft, fat-like, waxy substance found in the bloodstream and in all body's cells. It is produced by the body, and is important for the body to function properly. In fact, the body makes about 80%, the rest 20% comes from dietary sources. Without cholesterol, our bodies would be unable to function properly. About half of American adults have high level of cholesterol and about 1 in 5 has a high-risk zone level.

Cholesterol is particularly important in the formation of brain cells, nerve tissue, and the spinal cord. It help to produce bile that metabolize fat soluble vitamins such as A, D, E, and K. But too much cholesterol in the blood is a major risk for coronary heart disease and stroke.

As we all know, fat deposits in the arterial wall is the major cause of Coronary Artery Disease (CAD). The deposits of fats in the arteries makes the wall narrower and so reduces blood flow to the heart muscles (myocardium). The arteries can become clogged and narrow, and blood flow reduced. If this plaque ruptures, a blood clot may form here or a piece may break off and travel in the bloodstream. If a blood clot blocks the blood flow to your heart, it causes a heart attack. If a blood clot blocks an artery leading to the brain, a stroke results. This whole process is more likely to happen to a person with a high level of bad blood cholesterol in the blood.

But Cholesterol is difficult to measure because the level in the blood includes several different types, and put simply, there are good and bad cholesterol in our body. There is enough evidence to show that the risk of Coronary heart disease rises as total cholesterol level increases.

First let’s get to know the different types of cholesterol to determine which one is actually a threat to our health. Blood cholesterol is referred to as total cholesterol (TC) and there are two types:

High Density Lipoprotein Cholesterol (HDL-C) often called the good cholesterol helps to protect against heart diseases. This type of cholesterol transfers the fatty deposits away from the arteries and they are usually low in hyperinsulinism which is dangerous to the heart.

Low-density Lipoproein Cholesterol (LDL-C) is a bad form of cholesterol which deposits blood fats in the arteries and therefore are associated with increase risk of heart attack. Triglycerides are another common type of fat in the body. They’re a good energy source that our body also makes mostly. High levels of blood triglycerides are often found in people who are overweight, have high cholesterol levels, heart problems,and diabetes.

So, we no know that a measure of cholesterol by itself does not count since if the cholesterol level is high, it may be due to high HDL-C (good one) or high LDL-C (bad one). So a breakdown of the type of cholesterol have to be measured.

There is enough evidence to show that the risk of heart disease rises as total cholesterol (TC) and LDL-C levels increases. And because HDL-C is the good cholesterol, it is expected that high level of it will help lower the risk of coronary heart disease. So high level of HDL-C appears to neutralize the potential adverse effect of raised total cholesterol level in our blood.

Blood cholesterol level are measured by blood test and the ideal total is less than 5.0mmol/L. for instance, in the Framingham Heart study, people with a total cholesterol level of about 6.5mmol/L had a heart attack risk two or three times higher than people with level less than 5mmol/L.

Your genetic make up is partly responsible for determining your blood cholesterol level. Some families carry genes for raised level of various kind of blood fats. But in all, diet plays the most important role in determining cholesterol levels in the body.

Animal and dairy fats like beef, pork, eggs, cheese, some vegetable oil raises blood cholesterol, do the first step of preventing heart diseases significantly in both men and women is to reduce the amount of saturated or animal fats contents in meals. But rather, replace animal and dairy fats with vegetable fats which are low-saturated and may lower
blood cholesterol. Eat more of fruits,wholegrain meal, and fresh vegetables. Do physical activities at least 30 minutes on most or all days of the week.

Many people who have angina or a heart attack have high lipid level which are partly as a result of diet and partly genetic. By good and careful dieting plan, you can reduce blood cholesterol levels by 10-20%. For greater lowering of cholesterol, drugs are usually necessary. Drugs like Statins, Resins and Fibrates are very useful. See your doctor for effective treatment plan.

To learn more about cholesterol and heart diseases Call 1-800-AHA-USA1 (1-800-242-8721) or visit http://www.americanheart.org

Knowledge is power, so Learn and Live!