Best Heart Foods

May 30, 2011 · Posted in cholesterol · Comment 

In today’s Western society it’s much easier, and not to mention quicker, to spend a few bucks at the McDonald ‘s across the street than it is to make a satisfying dinner. In a world of Big Macs, KFC and Häagen-Dazs ice cream, who really wants to eat their spinach and celery sticks? As a result, however, our fat-filled diets have brought about an epidemic of heart disease , which has become North America’s No. 1 killer. Fortunately, over the years scientists and nutritionists have studied the foods that are good for the heart, and some of these might come as a surprise. So, here’s a list of the best heart foods that you should include in your diet, and maybe it will help you avoid a trip to the doctor’s. Oats Oats belong to a larger category of foods referred to as whole grains. Whole grains contain the entire kernel as opposed to refined grains that have been processed to remove the bran and the germ. While this process allows certain grains to last longer on store shelves, it also removes much of the good stuff like B vitamins , vitamin E , fiber, and antioxidants. Oats, in particular, as found in your morning oatmeal, contain a soluble fiber known as beta-glucan that decreases the total cholesterol in your blood as well as your low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol. This is important because it is the LDL or “bad” cholesterol that’s responsible for heart attacks. Some studies that required people’s diets to be supplemented with oat bran showed a decrease in total cholesterol by as much as 18% while others have found a drop in LDL cholesterol by as much as 9%. In addition, whole grains have a low glycemic index, which is a measure of how high a food raises your blood sugar level. Foods with a low glycemic index have a clear health advantage, particularly in helping to prevent diabetes (a major risk factor for coronary heart disease). Next time you reach for that cereal bar for breakfast, maybe you should reconsider and make a bowl of oatmeal. Red wine Want to have your cake and eat it too? Then drink red wine. In moderation (4 to 8 ounces/day), red wine is cardio-protective. This effect comes from antioxidants found in red wine, particularly resveratrol. This compound found in grape extracts has several beneficial effects on the heart, including reducing LDL as well as total blood cholesterol. Moreover, resveratrol, as well as other polyphenols found in red wine, have been shown to reduce blood clots by inhibiting a component found in blood known as platelets. Similar to the action of aspirin, which is one of the mainstay therapies in heart attack prevention, red wine helps to prevent platelets from clumping together, which is a key event in coronary artery blockage. Our guide to the best heart foods continues…

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Healthy Heart Foods

December 17, 2010 · Posted in diets to lower cholesterol · Comment 

Which foods can you eat which will improve your chances of cardiovascular wellbeing and a longer life? Certain whole foods are known for their ability to support heart health. Read on to find out which heart healthy foods you need to keep in your refrigerator and eat more regularly.

There are many foods that we can make a regular part of our healthy diet that can help protect our heart. A healthy diet is one that is low in saturated and trans fats, refined sugars and sodium and adding a bowl of oat bran to a diet that is high in fat and sodium is not going to solve the problem. A healthy diet is one that is an ongoing diet of heart healthy foods and nutrients.

Everyday, thousands of people are put on prescription medication for high blood pressure, high cholesterol or atherosclerosis because heart disease is the leading cause of death in Americans over the age of 45. The process seems to begin with an injury in an artery’s lining caused by high blood pressure, smoking or an amino acid called homocystein which is generated by the breakdown of protein in the body.

You should be eating foods such as red grapes, cranberries, tomatoes, and onions. These foods contain very powerful antioxidants and flavonoids and carotenoids. These nutrients decrease inflammation and take damaging radicals from your body through urination.

Do these habits support you to build and nurture your important relationships? Are you using work as an excuse – to avoid being with, and communicating with those important people? Can you establish boundaries for yourself in regard to your work – to ensure ample high-quality relationship time? Set reasonable expectations for what you will accomplish each day. Plan for success.

A large percentage of the US population believes that a healthy diet must be boring and bland. This is certainly not the case because healthy eating food choices include a wide variety of delicious options. These ingredients are used in healthy food recipes to create tasty dishes that are every bit as refined, savory and appealing as those richer, less healthy menu offerings served at 5 star restaurants anywhere in the world.

If there is not enough vitamin C in our system to produce collagen, an unhealthy substitute is used instead – cholesterol! If this continues, cholesterol builds up and the arteries harden (atherosclerosis) constricting blood flow. This can also lead to angina and a possible heart attack or stroke. Furthermore, vitamin C helps detoxify blood and prevents blood from sticking and clotting. Some good juicer recipes food sources include oranges, kiwi fruit, blueberries, blackberries, strawberries, apples, broccoli, cucumber and carrots.

Eating for a healthy heart isn’t complicated, and it is not about making radical, short-term changes to your diet. It really is about making a life-style change. Eating for a healthy heart is an important initial step to lowering the threat of developing heart problems. Coronary disease will take more lives than the next seven main causes of death. Discover why eating for a healthy heart, seriously, isn’t as rigid as you thought, however it is essential to a happy healthier life.

Do enjoy fresh or frozen fruits and vegetables in salads, smoothies and drinks like mango lassi. Yield not to the temptation to make cherry pie, cobbler, ice-cream or any dish that will destroy the healthy nutrients like vitamin C in fresh fruit. Do not choose recipes with added sugar and more than 2 tablespoons of saturated fat like cream, sour cream and mayonnaise when trying new dishes. Excess saturated fat is documented to put stress on the working of your heart and circulatory system.

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Healthy Lifestyle to Lower Cholesterol

May 21, 2010 · Posted in cholesterol · Comment 

Achieving lower cholesterol is one of the best ways to protect yourself from heart attack and stroke. The more natural and cost effective way to lower cholesterol is to eat foods low in cholesterol. Using herbs to lower cholesterol is safe and effective.

One of the best things that you can to do lower cholesterol is to quit smoking and decrease the amount of fatty foods in your diet. For most people, the best way to lower cholesterol is to reduce their intake of saturated fats and to increase physical activity.

The Hypercet Blood Pressure Formula is a proprietary blend of five essential elements for healthy blood pressure. The Hypercet Cholesterol Formula is designed to help maintain healthy cholesterol levels and to assist normal body functions for optimum health. “Often the only treatment needed to lower cholesterol is thyroid medication.

Diet and exercise are imperative

To lower cholesterol naturally, diet and exercise are imperative. Diets rich in beans, peas, rice bran, barley, oat bran, whole grains, citrus fruits and apple pulp can help lower cholesterol levels, especially when additionally cutting back on animal products and fats. Diet can be a very effective tool for lowering blood pressure.

To keep your cholesterol low, your total fat intake shouldn’t be more than 25% to 33% of your diet –and most of those fats should be the good kind, like vegetable fats(mono unsaturated fats and polyunsaturated fats), and omega-3 fatty acids, foundmostly in fish. He began including steel-cut oatmeal, eggplant, roasted soybeans, whole-wheat pasta and Brussels sprouts in his diet. Even better, the story includes a link to two favorite recipes from his cholesterol-lowering diet.

Exercise decreases the bad LDL-cholesterol

Surely, you’ve already asked you these questions: Those higher cholesterol is treating with herbs, good food, exercises or drugs. Exercise decreases

the bad LDL-cholesterol and increases the”good” HDL-cholesterol.

Exercise, not smoking and a high-fiber diet low in cholesterol and fat will improve your cholesterol count. Exercise itself doesn’t directly lower cholesterol, but will strengthen the heart and entire circulatory system. Exercise can apparently help keep a fat person healthy and maintain lower cholesterol levels, keep bad cholesterol levels down, without massive dietary changes,

nor having to lose weight.

Simply out of habit, not caring what foods to eat that lower your cholesterol and not giving your body regular easy-going exercises, the accumulation reaches a point where undesirable consequences as symptoms begin to show up.

Healthy Lifestyle

Healthy lifestyle and diet is key to prevention of high cholesterol levels. Lower cholesterol is important to living a long and healthy life, one that is free from heart disease or stroke. You should also maintain a healthy lifestyle through diet, exercise, and weight maintenance.

As you know, there are populations that have lived healthy lives on all meat diets and populations that have lived healthy lives on all vegetable diets. Some people’s bodies are simply genetically predisposed to make a lot of cholesterol; it doesn’t matter whether they eat a perfect diet or are a healthy weight.

Just as you wouldn’t bet all your money on a single stock, Jenkins says you shouldn’t bet your health on a single kind of healthy food.

Natural way to lower cholesterol

Natural way to lower cholesterol is to have low cholesterol diet and exercise regularly. Or you can choose a natural means where the only side effect is better health. And since your cholesterol naturally rises as you get older, it seems to sneak up on you without warning.

The good news is, you can lower you cholesterol naturally by taking responsibility over your body and your health and award yourself with a complete lifestyle makeover. There are natural herbs, vitamins and minerals that can help lower LDL cholesterol and raise HDL cholesterol in the body.

Supplements lower cholesterol naturally

Research also shows that improvement results can be dramatic if you were to strongly consider the combined use of regular exercises and the regular use of nutritional supplements, which are clinically proven to lower cholesterol naturally with no side effects.

Remember that the approach with drugs and / or dietary supplements is to supplement and not to replace a healthy diet and exercise. The most effective way to lower cholesterol when all of this does not work sufficiently, is with drugs and / or herbal dietary supplements. However, there are quite a number of supplements that have been clinically proven to lower cholesterol.

Conclusion

To lower cholesterol is one of your greatest health challenges, cholesterol induced strokes are not a pretty sight. A significant way to lower

cholesterol is to include adequate amounts of healthy fiber in your diet.

Another important element to a persons lifestyle that can be enhanced when wondering how to lower cholesterol is by establishing an exercise program or increasing an exercise program. As such one way to lower cholesterol is to avoid foods that contain high cholesterol or at least minimize their consumption, that is animal and dairy products. The most popular and well known food that can actually lower cholesterol is eating adequate amounts of oatmeal every day.
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