Unhealthy foods most people think are healthy

Do you know what foods are unhealthy? When examining your diet, it can be difficult to determine what foods are healthy or not.

The most common unhealthy foods include highly-processed items “such as fast foods and snack foods,” says Vilma Andari, M.S. “Highly-processed foods tend to be low in nutrients (vitamins, minerals and antioxidants) and high on empty calories due to the content of refined flours, sodium and sugar.”

Examples of processed foods include:

• Chips
• Cookies
• Cakes
• Sugar cereals

What makes food unhealthy?

“The preparation method and the types of ingredients the food contains make it unhealthy,” says Andari. “Sodium, sugar and fat (saturated fat and trans-fat) are key ingredients one should always monitor when eating out and shopping at the grocery store. The American Heart Association recommends keeping the consumption of saturated fat to less than 7 percent and the consumption of trans-fat to less than 1 percent of an individual’s daily calories.”

Avoid sodium, added sugar

According to the American Heart Association’s 2013 heart disease prevention guidelines, women are smart to shy away from eating foods that contain high levels of sodium and added sugar.

For optimal heart health, the American Heart Association recommends you consume:

• No more than 1,500 milligrams of sodium per day.
• No more than 6 teaspoons or 100 calories of sugar a day for women.

Unfortunately, the average American eats more than double their recommended sodium and sugar intake, consuming 3,600 milligrams of sodium and 22 teaspoons of sugar daily.

How to avoid unhealthy food

Andari offers several pieces of advice for how to stay away from food that is bad for you:

1. Choose processed foods carefully.
2. Avoid sodium from the six most common salty foods (bread and rolls; cold cuts and cured meats; pizza; burritos and tacos; soup; sandwiches).
3. Read food labels and stay away from items that have sugar added, excess sodium and fat.
4. Plan ahead and prepare healthy snacks and meals at home made from whole, fresh foods.
5. Choose lean meats with less than 10 percent fat.
6. Don’t skip meals (this can contribute to snacking on unhealthy foods when hungry).

We are what we eat, but we do not think that what we eat is not healthy, then we wonder why we are fattening, why we have high cholesterol, why we have cancer?

Today's food is very processed, most of it no longer contains fiber, protein, healthy sugars.

Try not to eat food that you can eat while walking.

Top 10 cancer causing food

Today's food contains many toxic substances, including BPA, but also genetic changes that our body is unable to recognize and eliminate. These changes lead to changes in the body's cells, causing cancer.

What Is Cholesterol?

I. What is cholesterol?

Cholesterol  is a fat-like complex, most manufactured by the liver. Our bodies need a certain amount of cholesterol to maintain normal function, but too much is harmful. Every cell in the body contains cholesterol. It is the manufacture of important hormones and vitamins essential substances. Cholesterol and lipoproteins need to be transported to various parts of the body. There are two lipoprotein cholesterol transport, namely low-density lipoprotein (LDL) and high density lipoprotein (HDL).

Low-density lipoprotein cholesterol is the culprit causing blood clots, is considered “bad” cholesterol. As for the high-density lipoprotein cholesterol, as cholesterol within the blood vessels to remove, it is considered “good” cholesterol.

II. Where cholesterol come from?

Body’s cells, especially liver cells, can produce cholesterol to maintain normal function, such as the manufacture of hormones and vitamins and so on.

In addition, cholesterol can be absorbed from food. Cholesterol content in different foods, such as Westerners like to eat animal foods, like whole milk, eggs and food oils, are of high cholesterol food. Fat, especially saturated fat, cholesterol levels can lead to even more enhanced. Usually saturated fat from animal food more than poultry and fish. On the other hand, from plant foods are mostly unsaturated fatty acids.

III. What is the relationship of cholesterol and heart disease?

When the body than the body needs cholesterol, it will accumulate in the blood vessel wall, causing blood vessels gradually harden and narrow, but on the surface, the body for a long time does not have any symptoms.

After years and years, deposition of cholesterol in the blood vessel walls, blocking blood vessels becoming more serious, will make the blood flow to vital organs slowly reduced. Therefore, when organs from the blood can not get enough oxygen and nutrients, will be very easy to necrotic.

If the supply of nutrient blood vessels blocking the heart, it is easy to cause coronary heart disease, including angina, myocardial ischemia, myocardial infarction; If the supply of nutrients the brain blood vessel blockage, will be a stroke.

IV. Heart disease common?

Heart disease is the world’s major diseases leading to death one, but if compliance with physician instructions, good diet, exercise control, the risk of heart disease can be greatly reduced.

1.            To prevent high blood pressure

2.            Is the movement to maintain

3.            A regular exercise schedule

4.            To maintain the concentration of cholesterol in moderate

High cholesterol is not uncommon, integrated all over the world statistics show that about fifteen to twenty-five percent of the people, cholesterol concentration above 240mg/dl, in other words, they get the opportunity to greatly increase coronary heart disease.

Therefore, high cholesterol, said health is a red light, are greatly increased risk of coronary heart disease. But the frightening thing is, even if high cholesterol, most people have no symptoms. Therefore, regular check-ups and keep the concentration of cholesterol in the moderate concentration of cholesterol is very important.

V. Normal cholesterol levels, reference values

Normal reference value of cholesterol is about 110 ~ 200mg/dl, if the 200 ~ 239 mg / dl are at high risk are close to the edge, and cholesterol concentration greater than 240 mg / dl, compared with high-risk range.

Cholesterol Level Recommendations
< 200 mg/dl <200 mg / dl Belongs to the ideal range
200~ 239 mg/dl 200 ~ 239 mg / dl Close to the edge of high risk, ask physicians about the diet instructions. Recommended cholesterol levels checked once a year. Has been suffering from a heart attack or if there are two or more risk factors, then it should belong to the high risk range.
> 240 mg/dl A high-risk range, three to six weeks, remember to check again to physicians. If still so, physicians need to do to comply with instructions.

VI. Easily lead to heart disease risk factors

    Hypertension
    Weight seriously overweight (overweight more than thirty percent)
    Smoking (more than ten per day)
    High-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) is too low
    Someone in the family had suffered from coronary heart disease before age 55
    Diabetes
    Suffered from heart disease or vascular disease
    Men

VII. How to control cholesterol?

Lower cholesterol levels, can reduce fat deposition in the vessel wall, thereby reducing the risk of heart attack. According to the study, adults with high cholesterol, cholesterol levels, reduced by 1%, 2% lower risk of coronary heart disease.

Here are several ways to help you lower your cholesterol:

    Maintain a proper diet
    Weight control
    Proper exercise

VIII. How to maintain through diet moderate cholesterol levels?

Diet on cholesterol levels remain moderate, and increase heart health, it is very important. Only foods of animal origin contain cholesterol, such as beef, eggs, cheese and other dairy products, cholesterol in food causes the body to increase cholesterol, saturated fat, which is mainly caused by coronary heart disease. American Heart Association recommends that the heat obtained from the fatty foods, daily intake should not exceed 30% of total calories, while the daily intake of cholesterol should not exceed 300mg.

IX. Should be avoided to the types of fat foods?

Fat can be divided into three categories: saturated, polyunsaturated, monounsaturated fat. Avoid eating saturated fat, use monounsaturated fat, or multiple. Moderate consumption of multiple or monounsaturated fat, help to reduce the concentration of cholesterol in the body. A variety of foods contain different types of fat, so must know what kind of food, the highest content of saturated fat.

Saturated fat Oil, whether animal or vegetable oils, where the normal room temperature into a solid contains a high amount of saturated fat. Common are meat fat, butter, cream margarine and non-dairy products, coconut oil, “hydrogenated” or “partially hydrogenated” oil and so on.

Unsaturated fat Unsaturated fats come mainly from plants, can basically be divided into polyunsaturated and monounsaturated fat categories.

Polyunsaturated fat Polyunsaturated fat in the normal room temperature liquid. Are: safflower seed oil, cotton oil, sunflower seed oil, soybean oil, corn oil, nuts and seeds, fish fat, this fat calorie intake calories a day should not exceed ten percent.

Monounsaturated fat This type of fat in normal room temperature, but also in liquid form, the intake of calories a day should not exceed ten percent of total. Generally include: olive oil, peanut oil, Canoia oil.

X. Conclusion

If the cholesterol level higher than the normal reference range, periodically check the concentration of cholesterol, and consult a physician diet and life habits of the instructions actually make food, life control, for example, both the amount of fat intake, the type must be restrained to maintain the ideal weight, controlling blood pressure, continuous abstinence, etc., so that it can be suffering from vascular obstruction, greatly reduce the chance of coronary heart disease.

You can find recepies from American Heart Association here.

Heart Attack Causes

Heart Attack Causes

There are few different things that heart attack causes have in common. The primary one, however, is that all these causes put unnecessary strain and stress on the body and the heart. In order to limit your potential for a heart attack it is important to know what the causes are. If you know what causes a heart attack you can develop a plan to eliminate these causes from your life. It may be difficult to eliminate all of the heart attack causes from your life because there are factors at work that you have no control over, such as genetics. However, there are some causes that you can strive to minimize or even eliminate.

One of the most common heart attack causes is stress. If you are a constant worrier who doesn’t get much sleep then you are at a greater risk of having a heart attack. When you are stressed out your body goes into overdrive. This puts unnecessary strain on the heart muscle. Over time, this constant strain on the heart will gradually weaken it. In turn, you may have a heart attack. Good ways to deal with stress include doing something that you enjoy that also has a benefit for the heart. This could include things such as taking a long walk or jumping in the pool to go for a swim. The idea is to take your mind off of what is stressing so that your heart can get a workout in a good way.

Obesity is also one of the major heart attack causes. Becoming obese is directly related to your diet in most cases. If you are putting bad foods into your body you will likely see your weight climb. When this happens you are putting extra pressure on your heart. Your heart must work faster and harder in an effort to carry all of the excess weight around. A poor diet will also contribute to plaque buildup in your arteries. If you have substantial buildup in your arteries then eventually it will stop the blood flow to your heart. Once this happens you will have a heart attack.

Heart attack causes are often things that can be avoided if you decide to take care of yourself both mentally and physically. Making an effort to live more of a stress free lifestyle while also eating healthier can reduce your risk of a heart attack in no time flat.

Congestive heart failure diet

Congestive heart failure diet should be focused on avoiding salt, lipids (especially animal fats) and alcohol. Enjoying the food we eat is very important, but in time, patients with congestive heart failure will learn to like foods with lower amounts of salt. Salt is one of the most feared “enemies” for patients with heart disease, because it favors water retention and increases heart labor, edema (water retention in the tissues) and worsens heart failure symptoms.

Why is it so important to know and respect  the congestive heart failure diet?

Congestive heart failure diet is important to be respected in order to increase quality of life and slow down the disease evolution. Everyone who reads the sentence above may wonder how can congestive heart failure diet increase the quality of life, when we suppose to give up on so many daily “pleasures”. It is hard to imagine that after a so called “normal” life, when we could eat everything we wanted, one day we have to change our life and eating style completely with a congestive heart failure diet plan . Many patients are tempted to skip these rules, thinking that their physician wouldn’t notice or that a few exceptions from time to time wouldn’t harm anyone.
A congestive heart failure diet that includes avoiding lipids is a fact well known by everyone, but also by few respected. We read in many articles that there are good and bad fats and that fats will increase body weight, however, many patients with heart disease don’t respect congestive heart failure diet and gain weight even after their physician recommended they should lose weight. Once the patients become overweight, the risk of developing diabetes, atherosclerosis and therefore hypertension, coronary disease (which determines chest pain, a very often symptom among patients with coronary disease), heart attacks or strokes increases. Good fats are a source of omega-3 fatty acids, found mostly in cold-water fish, nuts, oils and seeds, and also in dark leafy greens, flaxseed oils and some vegetable oils. Omega-3 fatty acid is an “essential fatty acid,” which cannot be synthesized by our bodies, the only source for this is food. Congestive heart failure diet should contain Omega-3 fatty acids, because these essential acids can lower blood pressure, combat LDL (bad) cholesterol, also it is thought to play a role in brain protection.
Congestive heart failure diet should definitely exclude alcohol, although this is not a type of food it is often used for different, most of them groundless reasons, like routine, entourage acceptance, digestion, pain relieve. Chronic alcohol consumption can determine a type of dilated cardiomyopathy which in time will lead to congestive heart failure. However, small amounts of wine it is considered to have a favorable impact, due to its antioxidant features.
A correct congestive heart failure diet should also contain limited amounts of foods rich in sugar or carbohydrates (the main source of energy for the body, transformed into blood sugar, mostly glucose, the body’s basic fuel and also the main source of calories) like: cookies, chocolate, candies, biscuits, sweet fruits like banana, pears, strawberries, sugar as such, honey, milk, popcorn, green peas, sweet potatoes etc.

Please consult your medic about a congestive heart failure diet, and don’t eat random.