Prevent Heart Disease With a Heart Healthy Diet

If you are like most Americans, it is very likely that you are in desperate need of a heart healthy diet. Over the past several decades, the diet eaten by the average American has gotten progressively worse. Not surprisingly, as our diets have become less healthy, incident rates of heart disease have risen precipitously. The good news? There are plenty of steps that can be taken to implement a heart healthy diet and avoid heart disease.

Where to Start

Reforming one's eating habits is, admittedly, not an easy task. It is however, a task that is well worth the effort. In your transition to a heart healthy diet, the best place to start is with fats and cholesterol.

Nowadays, it is not uncommon for a single meal to contain well over half of the daily recommended intake of either of these nutritional components. Our focus on convenient foods that are ready right away has placed nutritional value at the bottom of our collective list of priorities when selecting food.

Of all of the changes that a person can make on their road to a heart healthy diet, limiting your intake of saturated and trans fats provides the largest benefit. Keeping these two dietary components in check helps to reduce your blood cholesterol and, in turn, lowers your risk of developing heart disease. When choosing foods based upon their fat content, be wary of butter, cream-based sauces, and hydrogenated margarine. As a rule, keeping your fat intake under 25% of your total daily calories can work wonders on keeping your heart healthy and strong.

Keeping it Going

While lowering your intake of saturated and trans fats is perhaps the most significant change a person can make in transitioning to a heart healthy diet, there are several other changes that can also make a big difference.

On your next trip to the grocery store, keep your eyes peeled for products that are made with whole grains. Not only are whole grains a great source of fiber, they also play a key role in regulating blood pressure. In short, these unrefined grains are a powerful ingredient in your heart healthy diet. Instead of grabbing a loaf of white bread, opt for the whole-grain bread instead. Another great way to integrate whole grains into your diet is via oatmeal. This tasty treat can be combined with berries for an even yummier snack.

Eat Your Vegetables (and Fruits too)

Remember mom's famous words? For children, they can be a source of disdain, or even terror. As an adult, however, it is important to understand that your mother was right - eating your vegetables IS an important part of staying healthy. For this reason, your heart healthy diet will never be complete if it does not include regular servings of fruits and vegetables.

Amanda Paul is the writer and content manager for BistroMD, one of the nation's industry leaders in home delivery of delicious meals designed for a lighter, healthier you.

In addition to content management, Amanda is also editor of the company's weekly newsletters and is the head of SEO marketing.

Amanda earned her B.A. in Communication from Florida Gulf Coast University in 2009, as well as a Minor in Journalism.

Original article

Prevent Heart Disease With a Good Diet

Heart diseases are a worldwide problem and there are many causes that may develop such a disease. We can consider a heart disease if blood vessels are blocked or narrowed so that the transportation to the heart of the nutriments and oxygen is affected. With a healthy diet you can reduce the risks of developing a heart disease.

The most important cause that helps a heart disease to develop is an unhealthy diet, because in time fat and other substances will build up on the arteries wall, narrowing them, so that the blood flow will be affected and heart won't have enough oxygen and nutriments and eventually it will lead to a heart attack.

Prevent and treat a heart disease with a healthy diet.

If you want to take actions and prevent a heart disease, this is what your daily diet should contain:

1) Fiber
There are two types of fiber: soluble (this can lower in time your LDL and raise your HDL) and insoluble(this helps regular bowel movements but has no effect on cholesterol). When you eat food which contains fat your liver will eliminate bile into intestines which will help breaking down the fat. It is recommended to eat soluble fiber because this will help you eliminate bile released by liver instead of returning it into the blood flow which will have as a result lower amounts of cholesterol into the blood.

2) Try to reduce the amounts of saturated and trans fat from your food
These types of substances are considered toxins because can cause cholesterol to build up on the arteries and blood vessels wall which eventually will end up narrowing the path of blood flow and will have as a result bad circulation of oxygenated blood and nutriments through our organism which will increase the pressure on the heart, because now it needs to pump harder to push the blood in our entire organism. After a period of time the heart won't be able to supply with blood all the cells and will result a heart disease. Doctor's recommendation is to reduce from what you eat foods based on animal fat and try to eat more cold water fish because this is the main source for omega 3 and omega 6.

3). Try to drink up to half of your body weight of water or juices in ounces
AS an example let's say you weight 180 pounds, this means that you'll have to drink 90 ounces of water or juices or teas to prevent your cells to become dehydrated.

I invite you to read carefully this article. For more information's about this subject just visit Symptoms For Heart Disease. If you want to read about most common heart disease visit: Heart Attack

Original article

Chocolate Health Benefits May Prevent A Stroke

Just two bars of chocolate per week is all it takes, according to some new research out of Sweden, for a woman to bring down her stroke and possibly prevent a stroke. This latest work builds on earlier findings in both men and women, but also provides us with some new information on stroke type and chocolate health benefits.

A team of researchers from Sweden examined 33,372 subjects taking part in a large study who were from 49 to 83 years old, for a period of ten years that ended in 2008.

The participants completed questionnaires about how regularly they ate chocolate along with 95 other foods throughout the previous year. The subjects were broken into 8 categories depending on how much chocolate they ate. The categories ranged from an astonishing "never" to a far more reasonable "3 or more each day."

Throughout the follow-up period, 1,549 strokes took place, and of that number, 1,200 were brought on by clots or another disturbance of the blood vessels. Burst vessels caused another 224, and the reason for the last 125 was not specified. But even after making an adjustment for stroke risk factors, the team saw that chocolate was protective. This may be because it helps to lower blood pressure, a major risk factor for stroke.

Stroke protection began at over 45 grams (almost 1.5 ounces) of chocolate a week, the group that ate the largest volume chocolate got the greatest benefit, cutting their stroke risk by 20%. The average intake in this group was almost 2.3 ounces of chocolate per week. And while earlier studies have shown a link between chocolate eating and stroke risk, this project uncovered a small difference in the protection in terms of the type of stroke.

The subjects who consumed the highest volume of chocolate had a greater protection from strokes due to hemorrhage than those brought on by obstructions like blood clots. No one is sure why this difference in protection might be.

Chocolate, besides tasting divine, is loaded with beneficial flavonoids that are a natural part of the cocoa and act as antioxidants once inside the body. They help protect our cells from free radical damage that can be especially troublesome for the cardiovascular system.

An intriguing quirk of nature means chocolate has eight times the antioxidants that are a natural part of strawberries.

Also important, the study used Swedish milk chocolate and this variety has around 30% cocoa solids, while the milk chocolate usually found in the U.S. probably has much less than this amount. Dark chocolate naturally has higher amounts of cocoa and is lower in sugar, lower in fat and has fewer calories as well.

What's more, only 1/3 of the fat in dark chocolate is known to be bad for you.

This is just another bit of research that finds chocolate health benefits, but before you tuck in, make a wise and informed choice in order to get the benefits (without the nasty calories, adding pounds) to your body. Many experts recommend chocolate with a minimum 70% cocoa, based on earlier research that found the higher concentration of cocoa lowers the risk of heart disease and may prevent a stroke.

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Original article