Heart loves healthy food

Our heart loves healthy diets and good food, as our entire organism. Many ask how they should start improving their heart's health and where to start from. In this article I will explain the following aspects of a heart healthy diet:

• Simple rules on switching to a healthy heart diet
• Good fats, bad fats - face to face with your heart
• Salt - heart's friend or enemy?

It is not easy at all to start a new lifestyle. No one says it is. Starting "eating healthy" means you must forget your usual habits and start doing what others say. And this is a hard task. But think at the benefits you can win. At first you can start with minor changes and continuing this spirit of healthy eating for a healthier heart, you can achieve brilliant results.

Simple rules on switching to a healthy heart diet

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The advantages of eating healthy are considerable. Think at your organism as a white sponge - if your sink it in blue ink, it will become blue, sink it in red ink - it will be red. So we are the result of all we eat and all what we drink.

If you decided to start eating healthier, you must follow some simple rules:

1. Take it slowly and don't hurry achieve all results in one day - give yourself time to accommodate to the new schedule you made. Start gradually, easy, with some simple products, and then go to others and so on. Don't replace all in a single day - your diet may have the exact reversing effect.
2. Go with fresh foods and avoid processed foods, which usually are higher in sugars, salts and fats.
3. Take your time to read labels and be careful in selecting the processed foods if you need to buy them - stick with the products you trust and which you consider are the best for your heart health. I always use to compare supermarkets to a jungle and we are those who choose what to take and what may be poisonous.
4. Substitute some products to others with the same qualities, but healthier. Some examples are garlic bread with grissini (bread sticks), chips with baked potatoes, fatty meat with beans, pizzas with fresh baked pies, ketchups with tomato sausages or fresh blundered tomatoes. Don't avoid products rich in minerals and vitamins - your heart will love this new attitude.

Good fats, bad fats - face to face with your heart

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A healthy diet for your heart means a diet rich in antioxidants, nutrients, vitamins. As heart pumps blood through our vascular system, it distributes nutrients to the tissues and to itself, through coronaries. If we use to consume fatty food, products rich in carbohydrates or trans-fats (fats that have been solidified by the process of hydrogenation, for example margarines) these "bad fats" (LDL - Low Density Lipoproteins), are transported the digestive tract to all the tissues, including myocardium.

The biggest risk in fats excess is that the coronaries may become blocked gradually by the bad fats and cholesterol which deposits on their inner walls.

The bad fats are found mainly in animal products, such as:

• red meat - butter, margarines (solidified fats, trans-fats)
• cheeses, fried products (chips, potatoes, fried meat, barbeques)
• sweets, rich in glucose which after a complex reaction in the liver return in our bloodstream as fats and are deposited if not burned - biscuits, chocolate, candies, pies, cakes

All these fats contribute to raising the cholesterol levels, as cholesterol is a fat also. To avoid the harmful effects on your heart health of these risk factors, you should restrict their intake and substitute them with other, less aggressive products.

Multiple advantages are noted if the daily meals are completed with fruits and vegetables. To make sure your daily supply of fruits and vegetables is completed aim to eat 3 fruits daily either at meals or as snacks. Also, use more vegetables when cooking and get at least 2 salads a day, especially when it's summertime and it is a pity not to enjoy all the wonders of vegetables and fruits around us.

Also, it is believed that fibers help lowering the cholesterol levels, especially the "soluble" fibers, which are found in apples, pears, kidney beans, lentils, strawberries, blackberries and cereals (rye, barley, rice, oats) grain bread and pastas.
Other good sources of fibers are: starchy vegetables, peas, squash, corn, yams, sweet potatoes

Salt - heart's friend or enemy?

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Salt is a very necessary substance to our body - due to Sodium, our organism retains water and all the fluids exchanges in the organism are possible due to Sodium ions, contained in salt. These reactions take place at the kidney levels. But this doesn't mean we should excess salt intake - eating salty food means our organism will need to make bigger efforts to reduce it to the normal concentrations, otherwise we would suffer edemas and other dangerous conditions caused by the super-hydratation.

If the organism fails in controlling the Sodium concentrations, the tissues become more hydrophilic and they retain water in bigger quantities. And not only the tissues, but the blood suffers also - its volume increases as a result of water accumulation and this requires bigger efforts from heart to pump - myocardium (the heart muscle) faces a problem called Hypervolemia - increased blood volume.

Salt, as we see, is not as inoffensive as it might seem. Dietitians think our daily ratio shouldn't contain more than 2.5 g (0.08 ounces) of salt for adults, and this mean we even don't need to salt our food - the required Sodium is contained already in unsalted products we eat. High salt intake is linked to other heart disease, as High Blood Pressure (one of the biggest risk factors for heart attack).

Some solutions in reducing the salt intake are:

• Exclude salty snack foods, bacon, salami, replace them with other products
• Avoid salty chips, salty food, and salted fish. Stick with their unsalted replacements
• Announce your entire family about the risks of too much salt in our alimentation and try to advice them to change their habits of salting food at table or when cooking
• The increased Sodium levels may be decreased by eating products, fruits, vegetables rich in Potassium such as Raisins, Papaya, Brazil nuts, salmon, bananas, broccoli, and peanuts.
• Use herb to add more interest to vegetables and salads. Some examples are dill, mint, tarragon, etc.
• Add spices to your cooking.
• Remember that salt is an absolute contraindication in children under 3 years. Young mothers must notice that salt should be used carefully in child's nutrition

You might be interested in:

• Diet and Recovery in Heart Attack
• Do patients with Acute Myocardial Infarction need Magnesium?

• More...

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