What Are the Top 4 Food Items That Will Keep Your Heart in Tip-Top Shape?

By : Thomas B. Chuong


If there's one disease which is considered to be the number one killer in the US, that is none other than heart disease. When you combine together the fact that a lot of people are leading a sedentary lifestyle and that they are hardly exerting an effort to have a healthy diet, it is no wonder why the traitorous disease involving heart attacks and strokes have become a major health scare in the nation.

So what are you supposed to do to counteract this effect? Basically you do need to learn as much as you can about the risk factors, causes and how heart disease can be prevented. Perhaps the best way to start learning about these things is to enumerate the top 4 food items that will help keep your heart in tip-top shape.

1. Eggs

Contrary to popular belief, including a healthy number of eggs in your weekly diet is not bad for your heart at all. There is actually a difference between the cholesterol contained in the foods that you eat and the cholesterol level in your blood.

There's a study released by the British Medical Journal which showed that eating one egg everyday for an entire week, when combined with a low-fat and high-fiber diet, is a good diet which actually helped fight off fat and maintain a good level of cholesterol in the blood.

2. Onions

The next time that you prepare your salad, make sure to put a lot of raw onion slices in it. Just like garlic, onions are found to contain compounds which help prevent blood clotting. These two kitchen staples also improve a person's cholesterol levels and helps lower blood pressure.


3. Fish and fish oil

If you've ever seen an advertisement for a tuna product, you might remember seeing the term Omega-3 - which is considered to be a healthy fatty acid which benefits the heart. This is something that can be found in fish and fish oils. In addition to maintaining the health of your heart, fish and fish oils also help prevent blood clotting.

4. Foods rich in fiber

Fiber is a good absorber of cholesterol and it's a great way to improve the health of your heart. So you need to include a lot of oats, chickpeas, legumes and grapefruit on your diet.

Remember that your heart is one of the most important parts of your body that you should never take for granted. The next time that you go grocery shopping, include these top 4 foods in your shopping cart to ensure that you will have a happy, healthy heart.

Thomas B. Chuong is currently writing about topics related to home improvement & decor, personal fitness, and home & garden. Find out more by visiting these sites Futon, and Trampoline.

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Control Cholesterol Naturally

By : P. Mehta


Blood Cholesterol is produced by our body for several purposes.In some people it is produced more than is required by our body,especially when the diet contains saturated fats. Saturated fats in the diet force the body to make too much cholesterol. The cholesterolmay become high when our diet is rich in saturated fats that are found only in animal products. Plant foods do not contain any cholesterol, but the animal foods are loaded with cholesterol and fats. Most of the fast foods are very rich in fats, monounsaturated fats. If youeat lot of meats and fast foods, then the chances are that you have high cholesterol. You should get your blood cholesterol checked. Remember that without your blood cholesterol report, you can not know if you have high cholesterol.

Blood cholesterol can be both good and bad. There are two types of cholesterol: LDL (low density lipoprotein) cholesterol & HDL (high density lipoprotein) cholesterol. The LDL cholesterol is knownas "bad cholesterol" because it gets deposited on the walls of thearteries as plaque, and restricting the flow of the blood. The HDL cholesterol, known as the "good cholesterol" helps remove the plaquefrom the arteries. Both the types of cholesterol are produced by ourbody for certain functions and are always present in our blood. The problem arises when the cholesterol is produced more than is required by our body. The following are the desirable levels of cholesterol in adults:

Total Cholesterol: below 200 mg/dlLDL cholesterol: less than 130 mg/dLHDL cholesterol: more than 35mg/dL

HDL cholesterol of less than 35mg/dL is a risk factor for heart disease, even if your total cholesterol is within limits. Both LDL and HDL cholesterol can be improved with regular exercise and eating low fat cholesterol friendly foods.

To take better care of your heart and reducing your risk for heart attack, you must understand the complete facts about cholesterol and howto control cholesterol.

Note that you do not always need to take medication to lower cholesterol. There are several natural heart friendly foods that are good for controlling cholesterol without any medication. Good eating habits and some exercise can control your cholesterol and triglycerides naturally.


Copyright 2004 P. Mehta http://www.fatfreekitchen.com


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How to Treat Elevated Cholesterol

By : Michael Lawstock


Have you just found that your cholesterol levels are high? If you think this is not something serious that you need not worry about, you are wrong. The problems created because of excessive cholesterol in your blood is indeed very dangerous as it can lead to serious heart diseases. What this cholesterol actually does is get deposited in your arteries and go ahead and block them. This reduces the flow of blood to your heart thereby leading to heart attack in the end.

The only way you can fight against elevated cholesterol is to start using natural supplements like Cholestasys. The best part is that it does not contain any chemical constituents and hence does not cause any side effects. A close inspection of the ingredients will give you enough details in this regard and hence will make convince you that it is indeed an all natural product.

The components of cholestasys are many to number. A partial list of the ingredients include Goggul, Niacin which lowers the bad cholesterol and brings up the good cholesterol in your blood, Policosanol which is a sugar cane extract, herbs like Cayanne, Garlic etc. this list in itself is a witness to the fact that it is an all natural product without any mixtures and will hence clear your problems.

There are other products that help you in the same manner and they include Cholesto-rite, OC-MAX, Cholest-Natural etc. Though these products do help in lowering the cholesterol content in your blood, Cholestasys is the most prominent one because it helps in not only controlling cholesterol, but also provide you with increased energy levels, a good supply of blood to the heart etc. More than anything else the ratio at which the natural ingredients are blended in cholestasys is what works miracles.

For a healthy heart, healthy body and healthy soul, make sure you opt for cholestasys. This is an all natural product that creates unbelievable results in your body for which I can stand a guarantee.

To read honest customer submitted reviews of Cholestasys go to Cholestasys or Visit http://www.cholestasysreview.org

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Cholesterol Levels and Ratios - Are Cholesterol Numbers Confusing You?

By : Beverly OMalley


Cholesterol levels are being tested all over the world in order to determine risk factors for heart disease, yet many people are confused by their cholesterol numbers and how they are expressed. Part of this confusion may stem from the fact that literature originating in the United States gives cholesterol levels in units that are different from those used in Canada, Europe, and a good portion of the rest of the developed world. So when you are looking for information to help you understand your test results, on the internet and elsewhere, you might not understand the numbers that are reported in the American literature because they might look quite different from the cholesterol numbers on your lab report.

The United States reports cholesterol levels in mg/dL (milligrams per decilitre) of blood. The rest of the world is using the measurement called mmol (or millimoles per litre). Without going back to basic chemistry from high school, let's just say that they are different measurements. So is it any wonder that these two ways of expressing your cholesterol numbers are so different?

Here is how the two different systems of measurement stack up for desirable cholesterol numbers.

As expressed in the system of measurement used in the United States

* Total cholesterol = less than 200 mg/dL
* LDL = less than 100-129 mg/dL (below 100 is best)
* HDL = more than 40 mg/dL (greater than 60 is considered protective against heart disease)

However, as expressed in the SI units (International System of Measurement) that most of the world is using the numbers are stated differently. (You can remember which letters refer to the good and the bad stuff by remembering it this way...H stands for healthy and L stands for lousy.)

* Total cholesterol = less than 5.2 mmol/L
* LDL = in the range of than 2.6 - 3.3 mmol/L (less than 2.6 is best)
* HDL = in the range of more than 1 to 1.5 mmol/L (higher is better) mmol/L

Can you see the difference in how the cholesterol numbers are expressed? The difference of course is in the units that are being measured. Think of it like metric and imperial measures. Your weight in pounds might be a three digit number but in kilograms it could be a two digit number. Same weight different measurements.

Understanding the Cholesterol Ratio

When used to determine if you have cholesterol risk factors for heart disease it is not the specific levels that are analyzed but rather the ratio of HDL in your total lipid profile. This number is called the cholesterol ratio and it gives an indication of how much of your total cholesterol is the "good" stuff.

The reason this is important is because the HDL is so beneficial, if it is present is sufficient quantities it has a protective effect and the LDL in your system cannot do as much damage. So even if your LDL is higher than the desired levels, if the HDL is high as well and the ratio comes within the desired range then the risk of heart disease is less.

The goal is to keep the cholesterol ratio below 5:1; the optimum ratio is 3.5. The cholesterol ratio comes in at the same number no matter which system of measurement is used. The cholesterol ratio is obtained by dividing the total cholesterol number by the value given for the HDL. For example, if a you have a total cholesterol of 240 mg/dL and an HDL of 60 mg/dL, the ratio is 4. Using the SI system of measurement if the total cholesterol is 7.20 mmol/L and the HDL is 1.8 mmol/L the ratio is still 4.

You can see how this is a better way of understanding the cholesterol risk factors for heart disease and expressing it this way can prevent confusion that might result from not being familiar with the units that are used. This information is also helpful for understanding why the strategies recommended for cholesterol imbalances work. Some of the best strategies are the ones that raise the HDL levels. In particular, exercise has been found to be one of the best ways to improve the cholesterol ratio because it raises HDL levels. By contrast smoking has been found to lower HDL levels so no exercise and smoking is a recipe for low HDL levels, a poor cholesterol ratio, and a higher risk for heart disease.

Cholesterol is found in every cell of the body and is essential for the maintenance of good health. Low cholesterol levels have been associated with poor health so the goal is not to eliminate or reduce cholesterol entirely but to obtain the desirable levels of each type so that the protective benefits of the HDL can work for you in maintaining good health.

So don't get mixed up when trying to understand your cholesterol levels. No matter what way the numbers are expressed the message is the same. You want to have enough of the good stuff and not so much of the bad stuff in order to reduce your risk factors for heart disease.

Beverly Hansen OMalley is a health promotion specialist and likes to write about health related topics that help people in their daily lives. She is the the owner of http://www.registered-nurse-canada.com where she explores the uniqueness of the nursing profession in Canada including comparison of the nursing entrance tests for the US and Canada, comparison of registered nurse salaries across the country and what it means to have a nursing license.

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