Heart Healthy Diets

If you're reading this, you're one of a growing number of adults who are taking steps to improve their health and fitness through better nutrition and exercise. 

So many of you either are trying to lower their cholesterol, or have several risk factors that have been identified that put you at greater risk for heart disease.

Because of this, this article will summarize the risk factors and review the positive diet changes actions you can make to reduce your chances of developing heart disease or having a heart attack.

First the Numbers
The 3rd Report of the National Cholesterol Education Program Expert Panel provides a classification of blood cholesterol levels in adults as follows:

LDL Cholesterol
<100                   Optimal
100-129              Near optimal/above Optimal
130-159              Borderline High
160-189              High
> or equal to190  Very High

Total Cholesterol
<200                   Desirable
200-239              Borderline High
> or equal to 240 High

HDL Cholesterol
<40                     Low
> or equal to 60   High

(The entire report can be viewed at this site:http://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/guidelines
/cholesterol/atp3xsum.pdf )

These blood values apply to adults of all ages, male or female, regardless of body size or physical condition. Do you know your numbers?

Some Factors to Consider
Beside the blood values, and whether a person has existing coronary heart disease or atherosclerosis, there are some other major risk factors that help determine the importance of lowering blood cholesterol levels. These include:

-cigarette smoking
-high blood pressure
-family history of early heart disease
-age (men older than 44 years, women older than 54 years)

On top of these major risk factors, some additional life-habit risk factors and "emerging" risk factors have been identified. They include obesity and physical inactivity. Anyone who has high blood cholesterol levels needs to find out why as there are other causes (such as diabetes, hypothyroidism, liver disease, medications, etc.)  

Heart Smart Diets

If you have several risk factors and your LDL level is 130 mg/dl or more, it's a good idea to get serious about following a more therapeutic diet for good heart health. Those of you who have high cholesterol or heart disease are given a nutrition plan that meets the diet goals for a cholesterol lowering diet (more aggressive dietary cholesterol, total fat, and saturated fat goals). Others are given a *heart healthy diet (to help prevent high blood cholesterol levels and heart disease - still low in fat, salt, sugar, etc). 

All of the diets our registered dietitians provide members are planned to provide the right amount of vitamins, minerals, and other nutrients needed for good health, no matter what calorie level you are given. To keep all of this in good balance, I really have to emphasize that all aspects of your diet plan are important. Choosing the right type of carbohydrate foods and the right amounts can help regulate blood sugar levels and provide fiber, and important B vitamins. Choosing the right type of fats by following your eating guidelines will help give your diet the right amount of monounsaturated, polyunsaturated, and saturated fats. This is an integral part of the plan, so do take the "limit" category seriously! 

Weight Gain and Heart Healthy? 
If you're on a lower calorie diet for weight loss, getting high quality protein is important to preserve your muscle mass and help you lose fat instead. But for heart health, your protein foods need to be those foods that are low in saturated fat. Choosing lean protein foods is really important for this reason. That's why your plan emphasizes very low fat animal foods (or low fat non-animal protein foods for vegetarian diets).

On the other hand, those who are trying to gain weight and muscle mass who are following a strenuous fitness plan do need more protein per pound of body weight than the average adult. The trick is not to have too much animal protein and therefore too much cholesterol to be heart healthy, and still meet your protein requirement. Your nutrition plan considers your increased needs and balances this with a heart healthy plan. Whether your goal is to lose weight or gain muscle, the heart healthy rules apply.... it can be done!  

Access a health care professional for your heart healthy today... 
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