Heart Disease and Your Diet

When you are living with heart disease, the most important things you can do to reverse your risk might be some of the most simple things. You will need to talk to your doctor about losing weight, for instance. Adding just a moderate amount of physical activity to your day can do wonders for your health over the long-term, but heart disease and diet go hand in hand. Like it or not, it is time to take a hard look at the foods you eat and start making some changes for the sake of your well-being. You may be afraid to start a heart-healthy diet. Perhaps you are under the impression that it will take all the joy out of food. Fortunately, this is from the truth.

Traditionally, experts have warned about the dangers of fatty foods when it comes to heart disease. But as we have begun to find in recent years, not all fats are created equal. Some are much worse for you than others. Hydrogenated fats are the worst. These are also called trans fatty acids, or just trans-fats. On a food label, you might see the term "partially hydrogenated" which is just as unhealthy. Unfortunately, trans-fats are found in many widely-available, processed foods. Hydrogenation is a process that takes place in the factory, not in nature. Simply put, stay away from these fats. They have been shown to clog the arteries and are a leading cause of high cholesterol. In fact, a recent study showed that women who replaced only two percent of their calories from trans-fats with natural fats had a drastically lower risk of getting heart disease.

So, the bad news is that you will need to get rid of processed foods, but the good news is that a diet free of processed food can still include some saturated fats. Saturated fats are those that make food so tasty and are found in products made from whole milk, like butter, yogurt, rich cheeses and ice cream. You will also get a big dose of saturated fat in red meat and poultry skins. If you are concerned about heart disease and diet, you should not eat excessive amounts of saturated fats just simply because you have eliminated trans-fats. However, this does mean that good old fashioned butter, in moderate amounts, is better for you than margarine.

Experts recommend that about thirty percent of your daily calories come from fat with only seven percent of those calories from saturated fat. Although this is the official line, there is another school of thought that says that saturated fat is not nearly as harmful as many have supposed. In fact, there is a large body of evidence to suggest that there is virtually no link between heart disease and a diet high in saturated fats. This might suggest that, if you are eating well-balanced meals with plenty of proteins, fruits, vegetables and whole grains, ice cream and bacon are not going to kill you.

When you are planning a heart-healthy diet, it is important to be sensible. Keeping your weight down and engaging in cardiovascular activity is definitely helpful. Eating a well-balanced diet is helpful. But, if you try to eat a very low-fat diet, you might get frustrated if you cannot maintain it. If this is the case, it is important to think about the kinds of fats you do choose to eat.

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