Tips on changing your diet to make them heart-healthy

The heart is such an important organ in the body that everything possible should be done to keep it working optimally all the time. The life and wellbeing of the individual depends on the good working condition of the heart always.

Also, because of this importance, every human being and medical practitioners should have an untainted knowledge of the heart and how it functions.

Today, researchers in the United States (U.S.) have found out that heart disease is the No. 1 killer of both men and women in that country. Hearing of such from a country like America, it is scary. That not withstanding there is hope.

Men and women all over the world have subjected everything that GOD gave them into all kinds of research and investigations, putting these things through various kinds of stress to the extent that we now begin to see the untoward side of these stresses.

Simple knowledge like the structure, function and ways of enhancing what GOD has given to mankind is lacking in most cases.

The simple statement that says, “You are what you eat,” must be our guiding statement when it comes to our life the structure and functioning of our body systems. As I have explained in the past, the human body, including the cells, tissues and organs is a collection of chemicals. These chemicals known as nutrients come from the food we eat. This food that the human being eats, is digested and broken down into nutrients in the gastrointestinal tract.

The nutrients are the chemicals that can be absorbed through the walls of the intestines into the blood circulation. The chemicals are carried in the blood to areas of the body that may have need of them as a result of deficiencies due to whatever cause.

For so long, different kinds of sicknesses have afflicted the human being and different explanations and names have been given.

Also, in an attempt to treat, several different methods have been used with good results and not so good ones. Concerning what to eat, man has eaten a lot of things and for various reasons but not many ate to replace depleted nutrients in order to get well. There is hope, as I said earlier.

There is an outpouring of knowledge all over the world and people are going to change their lifestyle, eating habits and what they eat as they begin to understand that they are what they eat. As this happens, there is no doubt in my mind that life expectancy will be extended as a result of improved health of the people.

The lifestyle of eating the heart-healthy food is known as the Whole Foods Lifestyle. This is based on a lifestyle of eating plenty of fresh fruits and vegetables. Other components of the whole foods are whole grains such as oatmeal and wheat, with fish and plant sources of omega 3 fatty acids.

Salmon is one of the best sources from fish. Others among the fishes are tuna, mackerel and Titus. Plant sources of omega 3 include flaxseed oil and fish liver oil.

Omega 3 fatty acids is so important in the health of the heart in that it helps to reduce plaques in the walls of the arteries.

Nuts and seeds are also very important to the health of the heart. All these components of the whole foods lifestyle must be eaten unprocessed and raw. Only in a few cases may you steam your vegetables before eating them.

Changing your diet so as to improve your health at any time and to prevent whatever disease, should never be sudden and total.

If you have to change all the food you have been eating in the last 40 years or so, suddenly and totally, I am sure your system will revolt. The idea is that the change should be gradual.

According to the groupings of the heart healthy foods I discussed sometime ago, the sources of the food you should eat to keep your heart healthy are vegetables, fruits, grains/nuts, fish, legumes and green tea.

In practical terms, you need to eat more of nuts and seeds like walnuts, flaxseeds and its oil, almonds and avocados and cold water fish which are very good sources of omega 3 fatty acid.

Your proteins can be sourced from skinless poultry, fish, egg white and calcium from skimmed milk and other plant sources. You will get sufficient nutrients like vitamins, minerals, antioxidants and the phytonutrients by eating a variety of the vegetables, fruits, nuts and grains. There are a number of them, make sure you eat different ones daily and weekly, as you can afford.

All the vegetables, fruits, whole grains and legumes are very rich sources of fiber and you can never go wrong eating these foods.

Certain foods are particularly efficient in lowering cholesterol in circulation and they are found in the vegetables, fruits, fish, beans, nuts and seeds. They include oatmeal, walnut, olive oil, fish and the phytosterol in flaxseed and wheat gem.