Eating For A Healthier Heart

Monday, November 24, 2008

February is Heart Month. Take advantage of easy strategies to reduce your risk.

February is American Heart Month. That’s especially meaningful for the more than 64 million Americans who have cardiovascular disease. If you or a loved one has heart disease, or if you want to prevent it, good news—there are many ways to increase the odds of beating heart disease. For example, what and how much you eat can affect your blood cholesterol level. A high blood cholesterol level is a major risk factor for heart disease.
Two heart-friendly dietary goals are:

1. For those who eat a higher-fat diet, reduce saturated fat and cholesterol.
2. Eat plenty of fruits, vegetables and whole-grain products that contain fiber, especially soluble fiber found in oatmeal, beans and apples.

To turn those goals into action, start with food labels. If you know what to look for, food labels can be a powerful tool to help you forge a heart-friendly lifestyle.

A quick and easy reference on food labels is the American Heart Association’s heart-check mark. This is the distinctive red heart with the white check mark in the center. Healthy Choice products bearing this mark meet the American Heart Association’s and the FDA’s standards for heart-supporting food choices.

Also, you can look for statements on food labels like “diets low in saturated fat and cholesterol may reduce the risk of heart disease.” Statements like these are called health claims. Health claims describe links between what you eat and your risk of diseases like cancer, osteoporosis, heart disease, etc. Only health claims approved by the U.S. Federal Drug Administration (FDA) are allowed on food labels. Here are two health claims about heart disease.

Health claim: Dietary saturated fat and cholesterol and risk of coronary heart disease
Here’s what you might see on a label: “While many factors affect heart disease, diets low in saturated fat and cholesterol may reduce the risk of this disease.”

Health claim: Fruits, vegetables, and grain products that contain fiber, particularly soluble fiber, and risk of coronary heart disease
Here’s what you might see on a label: “Diets low in saturated fat and cholesterol and rich in fruits, vegetables, and grain products that contain some types of dietary fiber, particularly soluble fiber, may reduce the risk of heart disease, a disease associated with many factors.”

You can visit Solutions for a label displaying the heart-check mark.

source : http://www.healthychoice.com

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