The heart diet

Here's How we shold know a bit more about heart problem .. and how to go about,,

tropical Fruits

1. Lower the amount of saturated fat in your diet. Instead, include servings of fruit, vegetables and whole grains in your daily meals.

2. Eat less cholesterol. High diet cholesterol leads to raised blood levels with all its dangerous consequences. Egg white and food from plant sources don't have cholesterol.

3. Choose foods rich in fiber and starch to make up 50% of your calorie requirements. Breads, cereals, pasta, grains, fruits and vegetables come under this category.

4. Choose heart healthy foods from different categories.

5. Check food labels for 'low fat', 'low saturated fat', 'fat-free' and 'low calorie' labels.

6. Limit sodium intake, especially as common table salt.

7. Proteins should make up around 15% of your calorie needs.

8. Feature vegetables, pasta and grains at dinner rather than meat.

9. If you drink alcohol, do so in moderation - no more two beers or glasses of wine daily.

10. Don't eat more than you must to maintain your ideal body weight.

11. Choose the number and size of portions to help you reach and stay at your ideal body weight.

12. A low fat breakfast and five servings of fruits and vegetables a day is healthy.

13. Eat out the heart healthy way by choosing restaurants that have low fat, low cholesterol menu items.

14. Select broiled, baked, steamed or poached poultry, fish or meat rather than fried.

15. Order low fat deserts like fruit juice, low fat yoghurt or fruit ice.


Bruschetta




Common symptoms of heart desease

Chest Pain or Chest Discomfort

Few symptoms are more alarming than chest pain. In the minds of many people, chest pain equals heart pain. And while many other conditions can cause chest pain, cardiac disease is so common - and so dangerous - that the symptom of chest pain should never be dismissed out of hand as being insignificant.

"Chest pain" is an imprecise term. It is often used to describe any pain, pressure, squeezing, choking, numbness or any other discomfort in the chest, neck, or upper abdomen, and is often associated with pain in the jaw, head, or arms. It can last from less than a second to days or weeks, can occur frequently or rarely, and can occur sporadically or predictably. This description of chest pain is obviously very vague, and as you might expect, many medical conditions aside from heart disease can produce symptoms like this.



You need to gather the following information:

• whether you smoke or not

• your total and HDL cholesterol levels

• your blood pressure

• whether you have evidence of diabetes or metabolic syndrome

• whether you are overweight for your age and height

• your family history

With this information, you can place yourself into one of three categories: low, intermediate, or high.

With this information, to be in the low risk category, all of the following must be present:

• nonsmoker

• total cholesterol < 200 mg/dL, HDL cholesterol > 40 mg/dL

• systolic BP < 120, diastolic BP < 80

• no evidence of diabetes

• not overweight

• no family history of premature vascular disease

You are in the high risk category if you have any of the following:

• known coronary artery disease or other vascular disease

• type 2 diabetes

• over age 65 with multiple (more than one) risk factors

And you are in the intermediate risk group if you don't fit into either the low or high risk groups.

Low risk patientscan be managed without any further intervention, except for routine coaching on maintaining a healthy lifestyle. About 35% of U.S. adults fall into this category.

High risk patientsshould immediately be placed on appropriate treatments proven to reduce the risk of heart attack and death, such as statin drugs, beta blockers, aspirin, and/or ACE inhibitors. About 25% of U.S. adults are in this category. Click here for more on what to do if you are in the high risk category.

Intermediate risk patients, in addition to taking steps to modify the risk factors keeping them out of the low risk category, should have non-invasive tests to measure whether or not they already have evidence of coronary artery disease, such as stress/thallium testing or electron beam tomography (EECP). Roughly 40% of U.S. adults are in the intermediate risk category.

Heart-Healthy Suggestions .... diet

The plan involves a low-fat, high-fiber diet that puts food into three categories: foods to choose most often, foods to eat in moderation, and foods to choose least often.

Don't count calories. Instead, keep track of fat and sugar, which cause problems for the heart.

Choose a diet high in fruits, vegetables, beans and whole grains not high in animal proteins.

Try to replace white foods such as sugar, white rice and white flour with whole grains like brown rice and whole-wheat flour.

Try to use hydrogenated and partially hydrogenated oils less often. They preserve food but could add to your cholesterol levels.

Take three grams a day of fish oil. Rich in omega-3 fatty acids, it can reduce sudden cardiac death by 50–80 percent. It can also reduce incidences of breast cancer and prostate cancer. Conversely, women (but not men) may try flax seed oil.

Everybody should know his or her cholesterol level. The goal should be to get the total cholesterol number under 150, and the LDL (or the "bad" cholesterol) under 95.

Smoking contributes to a much greater risk of heart disease. If you smoke and take birth control pills, you quadruple your risk.