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While a heart healthy diet recommends limiting dietary cholesterol, some researchers assert that dietary fat is a larger factor in your body’s cholesterol levels because it can increase your total cholesterol and LDL levels. There are two types of cholesterol: HDL and LDL. A high level of HDL decreases your risk of heart disease while a high level of LDL increases the risk of heart disease. To put it simply, you want high levels of HDL and low levels of LDL. To distinguish between the two types of cholesterol I find it helpful to refer to HDL as “healthy cholesterol” and LDL as “lousy cholesterol.”
Saturated Fats
The AHA recommends that we limit saturated fat to 8 to 10 percent of our total daily calories because these fats can increase both your total and your LDL cholesterol levels. Saturated fats are found in meat, poultry, full-fat dairy products and tropical oils.
Physical inactivity is also one of things that contribute heavily to the risk factors of Cardiovascular Disease. To learn more about the importance of Exercise, click on the luink below.
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Healthy Eating Guidelines are intended to promote overall health while reducing the risk of developing nutrition-related diseases like cancer and heart disease. They are directed at all healthy individuals over the age of 14. There is nothing difficult about healthy eating. It is simply a common-sense approach to food that is easy to live with, once you get used to it. Researchers from the University of London investigated 8 previous studies conducted in America, Europe and Japan involving more than 250,000 individuals. They found that people eating at least 5 servings of fruits and vegetables a day can reduce their risk of stroke by 25 percent compared to those eating only 3 servings daily. Eating between 3 and 5 servings of fruits and vegetables was found to lessen the risk by 11 percent. Fruits and vegetables are loaded with antioxidants, fiber, folate and potassium and they are low in fat and calories. The author suggested that the benefits may be due to the potassium content in produce as it is known that potassium can lower blood pressure. By increasing fruit and vegetable consumption from 3 to 5 servings per day, you would increase your potassium intake by about 50 percent. Obesity is a well-documented health crisisall over the world. Recent statistics show that 30 percent of all adults are obese.Obesity impacts more than just your pant size – it also increases your risk of many chronic diseases including heart disease, which accounts for one million deaths in the United States each year. Obesity not only increases your risk for heart disease, it also increases your risk for the risk factors associated with heart disease, including high cholesterol. The American Heart Association (AHA) recommends a “heart healthy” diet to help keep blood cholesterol low and decrease your risk of developing heart disease. A heart healthy diet recommends:
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