Beat Heart Disease with Nutrition

By: Colleen Loveland, M.S., R.D., L.D., C.D.E.

This health tip, taken from our CooperHealth Magazine, gives a personal testimony on the power of nutrition in preventing heart disease.

Lorraine Rose knows that not taking care of your heart can take a toll on your health and the lives of your loved ones. The 51-year-old comes from a large family—10 siblings—and a larger family history of heart disease. In fact, in just one year, her brother Joe, age 58, and her sister Rachel, age 64, died suddenly from heart problems. The others have heart issues, too, ranging from managing hypertension to waiting for a heart transplant. 

“My father had multiple heart attacks, triple bypass surgery, and eventually died of heart complications,” says Rose. “He tried too late to make lifestyle changes to improve his health.
As I’ve watched the health of my other siblings decline and the untimely deaths of two of them, I thought I had better make a serious change.”

From Contemplation to Action
Then came the turning point that motivated Rose—who had gained weight, noticed her heart often raced, and was getting more headaches—to stop thinking about living a healthier life and take action. 

“I went to the dentist for a regular teeth cleaning,” Rose says. “After taking my blood pressure three times, my dentist told me she wouldn’t touch me until I saw a physician. I was shocked.” 

Rose met with Cooper Clinic physician Riva Rahl, M.D., who immediately put her on medication for high blood pressure. Dr. Rahl also told Rose that simple lifestyle changes could help lower her elevated cholesterol and triglyceride levels—all early indicators for heart disease. To help her learn how to achieve this by eating heart-healthy, Rose sought the advice of a registered dietitian in the Cooper Clinic Nutrition Department, and they met weekly. 

“I knew my eating habits needed improving because my husband and I were all about convenience, which doesn’t mean we made the best food choices,” says Rose.

Decoding a Heart-Healthy Diet
Adopting a heart-healthy diet means selecting foods that are low in saturated and trans fats, cholesterol, and salt. Remember these numbers to cap your fat intake.

• Men should eat no more than 60 to 70 grams of total fat a day.
• Women should eat no more than 40 to 50 grams of total fat a day.
• Both men and women need to limit saturated fat to less than 10 to 17 grams a day.

The most common sources of saturated fat are bacon, sausage, butter, cream, ice cream, whole-milk dairy products, full-fat cheeses, and cream- and fat-based foods like dressings and gravy. 

Eating heart-healthy also means choosing more fruits, vegetables, and whole grains to increase your fiber intake. Foods that are rich in omega-3 fats can also lower risk for heart disease. Try getting these healthy fats from coldwater, fatty fish, such as salmon, fresh tuna steaks, halibut, or canned light tuna, or from walnuts, soybeans, flaxseeds, soy nuts, or canola oil. Limiting sugar and alcohol is an effective way to lower triglyceride levels in the blood.

More Tips from the Experts
Here are some additional recommendations from the American Heart Association.
• Choose lean meats and poultry without skin and prepare them without added saturated and trans fat.
• Select fat-free, 1 percent fat, and low-fat dairy products.
• Cut back on foods containing partially hydrogenated vegetable oils to reduce trans fat in your diet.
• Cut back on foods high in dietary cholesterol. Aim to eat less than 300 milligrams (mg) of cholesterol each day.
• Cut back on beverages and foods with added sugars.
• Choose and prepare foods with little or no salt. Aim to eat less than 2,300 mg of sodium per day.
• If you drink alcohol, drink in moderation. That means one drink per day if you’re a woman and two drinks per day if you’re a man.
• Always keep an eye on your portion sizes.

Get Inspired by Rose’s Success
By following these nutrition guidelines and exercising on most days, Rose’s total cholesterol dropped from 173 mg/dl to 146 mg/dl, and her triglycerides dropped from 155 mg/dl to 120 mg/dl in just two months. And she lost weight in the process. 

“One of the biggest changes I made that has made a huge impact is reading food labels,” Rose says. “Initially, it took me twice as long to buy groceries because I looked at total calories, fat, saturated fat, and fiber. Once I learned some tricks such as limiting total fat to no more than 3 grams of fat per 100 calories, it made life a lot easier. Now I can zip around the grocery store, and my home is stocked full with healthy choices.” 

Rose says her biggest inspiration to lead a healthy life is her two grown children. 

“They are healthy now, but I warn them about our family history,” she says. “I tell them to start good nutrition and exercise habits while they are young to prevent ending up like my siblings.” 

That’s good advice we can all take to heart.

Article from CooperHealth - Winter 2009. 

Posted via email from WellCare