Your diet controls your weight, your nutrition, your overall health, your energy and it may even impact your risk of heart disease. Choosing to consume heart-healthy foods can lower your risk of heart disease, while including some other foods in your diet can increase your risk. Your diet is among a number of other risk factors contributing to heart disease risk such as smoking cigarettes, leading a sedentary lifestyle and suffering from diabetes.
Blood Cholesterol Levels
Dietary choices can increase or decrease your blood cholesterol levels and this can play a role in your risk of heart disease. Consuming high amounts of saturated fat, trans fat, cholesterol and calories can increase your cholesterol levels. This rise in cholesterol can lead to plaque buildup in your arteries, making it harder for your blood to pump through, increasing your risk of suffering from a heart attack or stroke. To maintain your blood cholesterol levels at healthy amounts limit your saturated fat intake to less than 7 percent of your calories, avoid trans fats and keep your cholesterol intake to below 300 mg per day.
Blood Pressure
Your dietary choices can play a role in your blood pressure, which impacts your risk of heart disease. High blood cholesterol levels contribute to a greater risk of heart disease. While diet is not the only factor that contributes to high blood pressure it does have a considerable impact. Sodium intake can raise your blood pressure to unhealthy levels. To avoid raising your blood cholesterol your sodium intake should not exceed 2,300 mg a day and if you have other risk factors for heart disease it can be beneficial to keep your daily sodium intake below 1,500 mg.
Also, drinking more than moderate amounts of alcohol can raise your blood cholesterol levels. To avoid high blood cholesterol, keep your alcohol intake to less than one one drink a day for women and two drinks a day for men.
Blood Triglycerides
Triglyceride levels are less often talked about when it comes to heart disease, but having high triglyceride levels can increase your risk of heart disease. A healthy diet can help you lower your triglyceride levels, reducing your risk of heart disease. Foods rich in refined grains and sugars raise blood triglyceride levels and should be avoided to lower your risk. Also, eating more calories than your body uses can result in raised triglyceride levels because triglycerides are stored fat that results from unused calories.
Weight Gain
According to the American Heart Association, one of the most important factors that helps determine your risk of cardiovascular disease is whether you gain unnecessary weight in your young adulthood. However, being overweight or even obese at anytime in your life increases your risk of heart disease, and diet plays a considerable role in how much you weigh. Including an excessive amount of fat and calories in your diet you will cause you to gain weight, and if this weight gain is not reversed your risk of heart disease will increase. Eating a low-calorie diet and getting plenty of exercise can help you avoid weight gain and lower your heart disease risk.
