Poor Diet = Poor Health
Most likely, when you think about nutrition and heart disease, you think about fat. While it is true that dietary fat and fat-like substances, such as cholesterol in meat and other animal foods, can have the most detrimental effect on your heart and health, the role of diet in the development of heart disease is much more complicated.
Fat is not the only component of food that can end up as fat in your body. When you consume excess calories from any source--including sugar and other carbohydrates--your body converts those extra calories into a storage form of fat known as triglycerides. Triglycerides travel through your blood to be deposited in fat cells. Like cholesterol, the level of triglycerides in your blood is a key factor in determining your risk for heart disease.
When your diet contains too much of a good thing like fat or calories, you are not leaving room for the truly good stuff--vitamins, minerals, fiber and other disease--fighting substances found only in fresh fruits, vegetables, whole-grains and legumes and seafood.
The Result: Blocked Arteries
Picture your arteries as hollow tubes or hoses through which your blood flows. Eventually fat, cholesterol and other substances that travel with your blood cells start to wear away the smooth inner lining of your arteries, leaving tiny nicks and scrapes as they go. This process actually begins in childhood.
As you get older, these same substances moving through your blood start sticking to the damaged artery lining, filling in spaces created by all those tiny scratches and tears, and building up on each other to form a hardened, waxy type of plaque. When this happens, artery walls become thick and inflexible.
The build-up of plaque narrows artery passageways, increasing your blood pressure and making it more difficult for blood to flow freely through your heart. Without enough blood, your heart does not get enough oxygen. This condition, known as coronary atherosclerosis, can lead to various forms of heart disease.
If the passageway narrows to the point that the flow of blood is completely blocked or if a piece of plaque breaks off and causes blockage, you are likely to have a heart attack. Plaque can also crack, causing a blood clot to form in the artery wall. Clots that break off and travel are another cause of heart attack and also stroke.
Your Diet, Revisited
One of the most important lifestyle changes you can make to control and even reverse atherosclerosis and other indicators of heart disease is to follow a heart-healthy diet, one that is strict, balanced and low in total fat and cholesterol. Your goal is to get to and stay at a healthy weight, which will help you maintain normal blood pressure and normal blood levels of cholesterol and triglycerides.
A heart-healthy diet is high in fiber and consists mostly of fresh fruits, vegetables, whole-grain foods, legumes, fish, poultry and lean meats. Use olive oil or canola oil in place of butter in cooking, and limit salt to 1 tsp. a day or less. Limit alcohol to one drink a day for women and two drinks a day for men.
