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Diet, Obesity & Heart Disease

Remember your heart never gets a rest; it has to keep pumping 24 hours a day, 7 days a week etc. So think how much harder it has to work if you are overweight. Obesity can put a great strain on an already very hard working organ.

Obesity increases a person's risk of illness and death due to

  • Diabetes,
  • Stroke, coronary artery disease,
  • Hypertension,
  • High cholesterol,
  • Kidney and gallbladder disorders.

It may also increase the risk for some types of cancer and is also a risk factor for the development of osteoarthritis and sleep apnoea.

Genetic factors play a part in the development of obesity -- children of obese parents are 10 times more likely to be obese than children with parents of normal weight!

Rates of obesity are climbing. The percentage of children and adolescents who are obese has doubled within the last 20 years. (It’s a demographic time bomb just waiting to go off)!

The basic nutritional needs of most people are approximately 2,000 calories a day for women and 2,500 for men. However, very active people, such as professional athletes or manual labourers may need 4,000 calories or more. Pregnant women and nursing mothers require about 300-500 more calories/day than women who are not pregnant or nursing.

The body can't store protein or carbohydrates, so excess intake is converted to fat for storage. (One pound of fat represents about 3,500 excess calories.)

A sensible healthy eating pattern is needed, which is a diet low in fat, low in sugar and high in fibre.

Achieving and maintaining a health body weight

Carrying extra weight puts an additional strain on the heart, so aiming for a healthy eating plan is the best way to reduce it. This is usually a low fat, low sugar, high fibre diet. You can still allow yourself occasional treats, but try to be sensible most of the time. Losing weight also helps lower blood pressure therefore further reducing the strain on your heart.

A healthy eating plan will help to reduce your weight as well as help reduce blood fat levels such as Cholesterol and Triglycerides. These are fats which build up in the blood vessels, narrowing them so the heart has to work harder to pump the blood around the body.

Cholesterol

Cholesterol is made from saturated fat in the diet; these are animal fats i.e. in meat (beef, pork, lamb etc) and dairy products (milk, butter, cheese etc.)

Certain foods also contain natural cholesterol; such as eggs, offal (liver kidney etc) and shellfish (prawns, fish roe etc). It's best to limit intake of these to 2-3 eggs a week and no more than one portion of either shellfish or offal weekly.

Triglycerides

Triglycerides come from too much sugar or sugary foods in the diet. Any sugar, taken in your diet but not needed by the body, at the time as energy, is stored as Triglycerides. You should try and limit your sugar intake as outlined in “Decrease Sugar Intake”. Alcohol can also affect Triglycerides, and increased intake can cause an increase in Triglycerides.

Reduce your fat intake by:

  • Using unsaturated spreads to suits your taste e.g. Olive/Rapeseed Oil spread etc sparingly.
  • Decrease your fried food intake. Grill, stew, bake or casserole instead. Try not to add fat but if used, use unsaturated fats such as Olive or Rapeseed Oil.
  • Limit your snacks. Crisps and savoury snacks contain large amounts of fat, so keep these to occasional treats.
  • Use low fat dairy products i.e. semi-skimmed milk, low fat cheese and diet yoghurts.
  • Keep chocolate, cakes and biscuits as treats as they are high in both fat and sugar.
  • Increase oily fish intake to 2-3 portions weekly. This includes tuna, salmon, pilchards, sardines and herring. Remember to get fish tinned in brine or tomato sauce (not tinned in oil, as it is the oil that is within the fish that is good for you, not the oil that it is tinned in)!

Decrease your sugar intake

  • Replace sugar with sweeteners.
  • Choose sugar free puddings i.e. diet yoghurt, fruit (fresh or tinned in fruit juice), sugar free whips and sugar free jelly.
  • Keep sweets, chocolates cakes and biscuits to occasional treats, snack on plain biscuits (rich tea, morning coffee), fruit or diet yoghurt instead.
  • Choose diet or sugar free fizzy drinks and squashes.

Increase your fibre intake

  • Try and eat 5 portions of fruit and vegetables daily.
  • Use wholemeal/fibre enriched bread.
  • Use wholegrain cereals (weetabix, shredded wheat, bran flakes and oats/porridge).
  • Potatoes (boiled or baked), brown rice and wholemeal pasta are good sources of fibre.

Salt

Salt raises your blood pressure by encouraging more fluid into the blood stream. It gives the heart more work by pumping the extra volume around the body.

Limit salt by:

  • Only add salt whilst cooking and not at the table. (Or vice-versa)
  • Always taste your food before adding salt.
  • Use herbs and spices to season food such as pepper, garlic, sage, thyme or lemon juice etc before reaching for the salt.
  • Limit your intake of salty foods such as crisps, bacon, cheese and processed foods.

Remember to enjoy your food!

Eating a diet low in fat and sugar and high in fibre, fruit and vegetables is one of the factors, which helps look after your heart and general health.

Changing your eating habits is not easy, but improving your regular routine can help your heart and your health, so it' is very worthwhile and tends to be less traumatic than you think!

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