What you eat can make a big difference to your health. Eating the right diet may lower your risk for heart disease, stroke, heart attack, high blood pressure, high cholesterol and obesity. Even making just a few changes to your diet can make a difference.
Heart Disease Diet
A heart disease diet is a low-fat diet. Limit fat calories to no more than 35 percent of total calories, getting less than 10 percent of those calories from saturated fat. Substitute unsaturated fats for saturated fats, and avoid trans fats altogether. Fruits, vegetables and whole grains, along with small amounts of low-fat protein sources, should make up the main part of your diet. Limit salt and alcohol.
Benefits
Following a low-fat heart disease diet may do more than limit your risk for heart disease, it may also lower your risk for type 2 diabetes, cancer and osteoporosis, according to Medline Plus.
Research
Following a very low-fat heart disease diet may not actually lower your risk of heart disease, according to a study by Barbara V. Howard, Ph.D. published in 2006 in the "Journal of the American Medical Association." In the study, participants who ate five servings of fruits and vegetables and six servings of grains each day while limiting their fat intake to 20 percent did not have significantly less heart disease risk than participants who only received education materials about healthy diets over the eight year follow-up period.
Considerations
Diet is not the only risk factor for heart disease. Getting older, a family history of heart disease, obesity, diabetes, smoking, high levels of stress, being inactive, high blood pressure and high cholesterol all increase your heart disease risk.
Expert Insight
Howard notes that diet alone can not prevent heart disease, but recommends following federal diet recommendations, which include eating more fruits, vegetables and whole grains and limiting saturated and trans fats. Cardiologist Dr. Peter Libby of Harvard Medical School suggests that concentrating more on getting heart-healthy monounsaturated fats than on limiting total fat might offer more protection, according to a 2006 article by Gina Kolata in the "New York Times."
References
- Medline Plus: Heart Disease and Diet
- Mayo Clinic: Heart-Healthy Diet: 8 Steps to Prevent Heart Disease
- New York Times: Study Finds Low-Fat Diet Won't Stop Cancer or Heart Disease
- "Journal of the American Medical Association"; This Article • Abstract • PDF • Send to a friend • Save in My Folder • Save to citation manager • Permissions Citing Articles • Citation map • Citing articles on HighWire • Citing articles on Web of Science (210) • Contact me when this article is cited Related Content • Related letters • Related articles • Similar articles in JAMA Topic Collections • Nutritional and Metabolic Disorders • Lipids and Lipid Disorders • Cardiovascular System • Women's Health • Women's Health, Other • Randomized Controlled Trial • Cardiovascular Disease/ Myocardial Infarction • Alert me on articles by topic Social Bookmarking Add to CiteULike Add to Connotea Add to Delicious Add to Digg Add to Facebook Add to Reddit Add to Technorati Add to Twitter What's this? Low-Fat Dietary Pattern and Risk of Cardiovascular Disease; Barbara V. Howard, Ph.D.; 2006
- University of Maryland Medical Center: Risk Factors for Heart Disease
