This news is translated from reliable sites with original links embedded in the written words – Morning Star

Keeping your heart healthy is something you can work on every day.

What you eat, how much you move, whether you smoke, and controlling your cholesterol and blood pressure are five things that can have a big impact on your heart.

Morning Star magazine offers you practical advice on living a heart-healthy lifestyle.

Heart-healthy eating tips

A heart-healthy eating pattern is not a restrictive diet. Instead, it is a pattern or group of foods, chosen regularly, over time.

This optimal combination is outlined in the Heart Foundation’s Heart-Healthy Eating Pattern recommendations, and includes vegetables, fruits, whole grains, proteins, healthy fats, and using herbs/spices instead of salt.

This eating pattern is naturally low in unhealthy fats, salt, and added sugar and high in healthy fats, proteins, and vegetables, along with whole grains, fiber, and antioxidants.

The Heart Foundation recommends that people with existing heart disease, including those recovering from a heart attack, or who have risk factors such as high blood pressure and cholesterol, follow a heart-healthy eating pattern with some key changes.

Key Nutrition and Heart Disease Recommendations

Get more active

Regular physical activity reduces your risk of having a heart attack or developing heart disease. Staying active helps control common heart disease risk factors, including:

High blood pressure , high cholesterol , and being overweight .

Regular physical activity can also help strengthen your bones and muscles. It can help you feel more energetic, happy, and relaxed.

Start with realistic goals:

Start with small, realistic goals and work your way up to 30-60 minutes of moderate-intensity physical activity (such as brisk walking) on ​​most days of the week.

Choose activities you enjoy:

When you enjoy being active, you’re more likely to do it more often.

Be social:

Stay motivated by getting active with a group of friends or family, or even your dog.

Sit less:

Adults who sit less throughout the day have a lower risk of dying prematurely, especially from heart disease.

Find out more about being active and walking from the Heart Foundation as a way to stay active.

Quit smoking

The first step to quitting smoking is understanding the risks associated with smoking.

Smoking damages the blood vessels leading to your heart, brain and other parts of your body. This makes you four times more likely to die from a heart attack or stroke, and three times more likely to die from sudden cardiac death.

Quitting smoking isn’t always easy. It can take persistence. You can do it with planning, practice and help.

Contact us for support by emailing:

info@morningstars.com.au

Quit smoking for your loved ones:

To protect the health of your family and friends, stop smoking in your home, car and other enclosed spaces.

When you quit smoking, your risk of heart attack and stroke drops almost immediately.

Understanding and monitoring your cholesterol levels

Eat a heart-healthy diet, including healthy fats and fibre

A heart-healthy eating pattern can help you balance your cholesterol levels by including the following foods:

Foods high in fibre and phytonutrients (from plant foods including vegetables, fruits, whole grains and beans/legumes).

Unsaturated fats (from foods including nuts, seeds and olive oil).

Omega-3s (from foods including fish, nuts and seeds).

Choosing these healthy foods regularly helps to ‘crowd out’ less healthy options such as foods high in saturated fats and trans fats (including ready-to-eat foods, fried foods, biscuits, pastries and processed meats).

((Eating too much saturated and trans fat can raise your blood cholesterol levels.))

Including foods high in fibre can help lower your LDL cholesterol levels, while including healthy unsaturated fats instead of unhealthy saturated fats can balance your cholesterol levels (lowering LDL and increasing HDL).

The Heart Foundation includes the optimal mix of healthy foods in its Heart Healthy Eating Information, recipes and meal plans.

Cholesterol levels:

The key to managing your cholesterol is knowing your blood cholesterol levels. If you are 45 years or older (30 years or older for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people), you should see your doctor for a heart health check.

Understanding and monitoring your blood pressure:

Blood pressure is: the pressure of blood against the walls of your arteries as your heart pumps it around your body. It is a vital part of how your heart and blood circulation work.

High blood pressure over a long period of time is a major risk factor for heart disease. As you get older, your chances of developing persistent high blood pressure increase.

Be active
Regular physical activity helps control high blood pressure and reduces your chances of having a heart attack or developing heart disease.

Cut salt and eat a heart-healthy diet.

A diet high in salt and low in foods such as vegetables, fruits and whole grains can lead to high blood pressure.

Eating more than 5 grams (1 teaspoon) of salt a day increases your risk of heart disease and stroke.

A heart-healthy eating pattern includes foods linked to good blood pressure, including

For vegetables, fruits, whole grains, beans, legumes, fish, and unflavored dairy products.

Note about measuring blood pressure:

You can’t feel high blood pressure. That’s why it’s important to check it and learn how to manage it.