Tag Archives: omega-3 fatty acids

Health Advantages of Following a Low-Fat Diet

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Choosing a low-fat diet is another way to reduce weight. During the last few decades it has been shown that reducing the amount of saturated fat in your diet is one of the best things you can do for your health.

You will significantly increase your risk of heart disease, diabetes, high blood pressure, certain types of cancer, and many other conditions when you consume fatty foods. Today, 66% of Americans are overweight or obese and the rate of obesity has more than doubled to 32%, with most of the increase occurred during the past 20 years.

The key to losing weight is: reducing the total calorie intake. And the easiest way to do that is to eat less fat. One gram of fat delivers
9 calories, which is more than twice as many as the same amount of
protein or carbohydrate. Also, our body likes fat. It’s easier to store calories from fat than from other sources.

Danish researchers found that those who reduced the amount of fat in their diets from 39% to 28% of total calories and increased their carbohydrates intake were able to lose an average of 9 pounds
in just 12 weeks. In addition, people who followed lower-fat diets were able to keep the weight off long after the study ended.

Another advantage of reducing fat from your diet is that it can increase your general sense of well-being, according to research. In a study of more than 550 women, researchers at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle, found that when the women cut their daily fat intake in half – from 40% to 20% of total calories – they felt more vigorous, less anxious, and less depressed than they had when they were eating their former diets.

Heart Health
Fat in your diet often goes to your arteries. There is a direct link between the amount of fat in your diet and your risk for heart disease. This is particularly true of saturated fat. The dangerous type that clog your arteries, can we find mainly in meats, full-fat dairy products, and snack foods. Eating a diet low in saturated fat is the best way to lower this risk, according to research.

There is no need to go on an extreme low fat diet to get the benefits. Even reducing the amount of saturated fat in your diet just a little bit can lead to a reduction in cholesterol levels.

Cancer Protection
When you make the switch to a low fat diet, you get protection against many diseases, including cancer.
Researchers at the University of Benin in Nigeria found that when laboratory animals were fed high-fat diets, they began producing enzymes that led to cancerous changes in their colons in just
three weeks.

You can also apply in real live what works in the laboratory. In a study of 450 women, researchers in the department of epidemiology and public health at Yale University School of Medicine found that cutting just
10 grams of saturated fat a day – the equivalent of switching from two glasses of whole milk to the same amount of fat-free milk – could reduce the risk of ovarian cancer by 20%.

A low-fat diet is protective not only because of what it doesn’t contain but also because of what it does. The result of cutting back on fats is that you generally eat more fruits, vegetables, whole grains
and legumes. all of which have been shown to keep us healthier, says Jo Ann Manson, MD, professor of women’s health at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston.

Good for the Eyes
Finally, eating a low-fat diet may also protect you against macular degeneration, the leading cause of vision loss in older adults.
In a survey of more than 2000 people, researchers from the University of Wisconsin in Madison found that those who reported getting the most saturated fat increased the risk of getting macular degeneration by 80%.

Starting your Low-fat Diet
If you want to start reducing the amount of fat in your diet, to know where to begin is not always easy.
Firstly, you have to find out how much fat you’re actually getting each day. Ideally, you should get between 25% and 30% of your total calories from fat.

For example, suppose you normally get 2000 calories per day.
When you’re following a low-fat diet, no more than 600 of your total calories should come from fat. This will adds up to 67 gr of fat per day.

Don’t let lowering your fat intake to 30% discourage you! This is a reasonable amount of fat to go into your diet. According to Lalita Kaul, PhD, a national spokesperson for the American Dietetic Association and professor of nutrition at the Medical School of Howard University
in Washington D.C. Eating low fat means: avoiding fried foods, forgoing rich, fatty restaurant meals for home-cooked fare, and searching for tasty low-fat recipes with which to replace some of your higher-fat favorites. Reach for a Lean Cuisine meal or a Lean Pocket when
you’re looking for at-home convenience.

Keeping track of your daily fat intake by reading food labels is probably the easiest way.
They are based on a 2000-calorie diet. So you can look at foods which are 30% or below.
Look for a spread that says “zero trans fat” on the label, to avoid partially hydrogenated oils.
Also avoid cookies and other baked goods and snack foods that contain trans fats.

Trans fats are now required to be listed on nutrition labels along with total and saturated fat.
If you are dining out or buy foods that don’t have labels, you can buy a nutrition reference guide in a bookstore or supermarket.

As mentioned before, the most dangerous type of fat to watch out for is saturated fat, which is found in animal foods like meat, butter, cheese and eggs, and some plant sources such as coconut oil, palm oil, tropical oils and cocoa butter.The same foods that are high in saturated fat are also high in cholesterol. So when you decrease one, you automatically decrease the other.

The American Heart Association recommends that we should get less than 7% of our total calories from saturated fat,partly by choosing fat free or low-fat milk and leaner cuts of meat, like sirloin or top round.

Enjoy the Good Fats in Moderation
Generally, you should reduce all kind of fats in your diet. Although monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fat are not bad,you should eat them in moderation, because they contain as many calories as bad fats. They are found in vegetable and seed oils, such as olive,sesame,
and safflower oils, and in nuts and seeds. They have been shown to actually lower cholesterol and may help prevent it from sticking to artery walls.

The fat found in fish, omega-3 fatty acids, has been shown to reduce clotting and inflammation in the arteries, which can significantly reduce the risk of heart disease and stroke.
You don’t have to eat a lot of fish to get the benefits. When you’re following a low fat diet, having two fish meals a week will go a long way toward keeping your arteries in the swim.

Following a Low-Fat Diet for Good Health

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The subject of my last article was: low-carb diets. Another way to reduce weight is to follow a low-fat diet. It has been proven during the last few decades that reducing the amount of saturated fat in your body is one of the best things you can do for your health.

Fatty foods will significantly increase your risk of heart disease, diabetes, high blood pressure, certain types of cancer, and many other conditions. Today,66% of Americans are overweight or obese and the rate of obesity has more than doubled to 32%, with most of the increase did happen during the past
20 years.

Reducing the total calorie intake is the key to losing weight. And to eat less fat is the easiest way to do that. One gram of fat delivers 9 calories, which is more than twice as many as the same amount of protein or carbohydrate. Also, our body likes fat. It’s easier to store calories from fat than from other sources.

In one study, Danish researchers found that those who reduced the amount of fat in their diets from 39% to 28% of total calories and increased their intake of carbohydrates were able to lose an average of 9 pounds in just 12 weeks. In addition, people who stuck to lower-fat diets were able to keep the weight off long after the study ended.

According to research, another advantage of reducing fat from your diet is that it can increase your general sense of well-being. In a study of more than 550 women, researchers at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle, found that when the women cut their daily fat intake in half from 40% to 20% of total calories – they felt more vigorous, less anxious, and less depressed than they had when they were eating their former diets.

Heart Health
Fat in your diet often goes to your arteries. There is a direct link between the amount of fat in your diet and your risk for heart disease. This is particularly true of saturated fat. The dangerous type that can clog your arteries and we find mainly in meats, full-fat dairy products,, and snack foods. Research has shown that eating a diet low in saturated fat is the best way to lower this risk.

You don’t have to go on an extremely low fat diet to get the benefits. Even reducing the amount of saturated fat in your diet just a little bit can lead to a reduction in cholesterol levels.

Cancer Protection
Making the switch to a low-fat diet offers great protection against many diseases, including cancer. Researchers at the University of Benin in Nigeria found that when laboratory animals were fed high-fat diets, they began producing enzymes that led to cancerous changes in their colons in just three weeks.

What works in the laboratory can also be applied in real life.In a study of 450 women, researchers in the department of epidemiology and public health at Yale University School of Medicine found that cutting just 10 grams off saturated fat a day – the equivalent of switching from two glasses of whole milk to the same amount of fat-free milk – could reduce the risk of ovarian cancer by 20%.

A low-fat diet is protective not only because of what it doesn’t contain but also because of what it does. When you cut back on fats, you generally eat more fruits, vegetables, whole grains and legumes. all of which have been shown to keep us healthier, says JoAnn Manson, MD, professor of women’s health at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston.

Good for the Eyes
To close it of, eating a low-fat diet may also protect you against macular degeneration. Which is the leading cause of vision loss in older adults. In a survey of more than 2000 people, researchers from the University of Wisconsin in Madison found that those who reported getting the most saturated fat had 80% higher risk of getting macular degeneration than those getting the least.

Starting your Low-fat Diet
If you want to start reducing the amount of fat in your diet, it’s not always easy to know where to begin. Firstly, you have to find out how much fat you’re actually getting each day. Ideally, you should get between 25% and 30% of your total calories from fat.

For example, suppose you normally get 2000 calories per day. When you’re following a low-fat diet, no more than 600 of your total calories should come from fat. This will adds up to 67 grams of fat per day.

Don’t let lowering your fat intake to 30% discourage you! This is a reasonable amount of fat to go into your diet. According to Lalita Kaul, PhD, a national spokesperson for the American Dietetic Association and professor of nutrition at the Medical School of Howard University in Washington D.C. Eating low fat means: avoiding fried foods, forgoing rich, fatty restaurant meals for home-cooked fare, and searching for tasty low-fat recipes with which to replace
some of your higher-fat favorites. Reach for a Lean Cuisine meal or a Lean Pocket when you’re looking for at-home convenience.

Probably the easiest way to keep track of your daily fat intake is reading food labels.They are based on a 2000-calorie diet. So you can look at foods which are 30% or below. To avoid partially hydrogenated oils, look for a spread that says “zero trans fat” on the label. And avoid cookies and other baked goods and snack foods that contain trans fats.Trans fats are now required to be listed on nutrition labels along with total and saturated fat.If you are dining out or buy foods that don’t have labels, you can buy a nutrition reference guide in a bookstore or supermarket.

As mentioned before, the most dangerous type of fat to watch out for is saturated fat, which is found in animal foods like meat, butter, cheese and eggs, and some plant sources such as coconut oil, palm oil, tropical oils and cocoa butter.The same foods that are high in saturated fat are also high in cholesterol. So when you decrease one, you automatically decrease the other.

The American Heart Association recommends that we should get less than 7% of our total calories from saturated fat,partly by choosing fat free or low-fat milk and leaner cuts of meat, like sirloin or top round.

Enjoy the Good Fats in Moderation
Generally, you should reduce all kind of fats in your diet. Although monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fat are not bad,you should eat them in moderation, because they contain as many calories as bad fats. They are found in vegetable and seed oils, such as olive,sesame, and safflower oils, and in nuts and seeds. They have been shown to actually lower cholesterol and may help prevent it from sticking to artery walls.

The fat found in fish, omega-3 fatty acids, has been shown to reduce clotting and inflammation in the arteries, which can significantly reduce the risk of heart disease and stroke. You don’t have to eat a lot of fish to get the benefits.
When you’re following a low fat diet, having two fish meals a week will go a long way toward keeping your arteries in the swim.

Soy Foods – Controls Your Weight

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This highly versatile food is loaded with beneficial nutrients, like fiber, omega-3 fatty acids,
low-fat protein, and a series of important vitamins and minerals. Also, it’s low in saturated fat,cholesterol and calories. When you take soy you get many of the health benefits you usually find only in fruits and vegetables. Soy can lower your risk of heart disease, and because it contains less fat and calories than meat, it can also help to control your weight.
Once hidden in Asian supermarkets and health food stores, soy is decidedly mainstream.
Sales of soy foods in the United States have skyrocketed – from $300 million in 1992 to $3.9 billion by 2004.

The new bottom line on soy? Choose it if you are looking for new alternatives to high-fat
mainstream protein products like meat and cheeses.
Skip it, if you never loved the taste of it.
And if you are at risk for breast and prostate cancer, be cautious ( the jury’s still out on
whether plant hormones in soy might stimulate tumor cells).Here’s what you need to know.

Soy foods faced big setbacks in 2005, when a US government panel decided that there was
protect bones from osteoporosis. In response, the National Institute of Health said it would
stop paying for new soy studies. That fall, soy producers withdrew a petition that asked
the FDA to permit food labels to claim that soy protein helps prevent cancer.
Behind these changes were new studies that put soy foods in perspective.

Modest cholesterol benefits
An American Heart Association review of soy research concluded that a daily dose of soy
might cut cholesterol by just 3%. The panel said the slight drop was probably due to the
fiber in soy and low fat, not to estrogen – like isoflavones in the beans.

No significant help for hot flashes
Out of eight randomized controlled trials of soy foods, only one found a significant reduction in the frequency of hot flashes, according to a report from the Oregon State University’s Linus Pauling Institute. While three out of five studies of soy isoflavone extracts found that isoflavones did help, they only cooled hot flashes by about 10% to 20%. And soy didn’t
improve vaginal dryness at all.

Doubt about cancer protection
While eating soy foods in childhood may help protect against breast cancer in adulthood,
studies have found that eating soy as an adult didn’t seem to help at all, according to Linus
Pauling Institute experts. Researchers had thought that the plant estrogens – called isoflavones- in soy could protect against breast cancer, triggered by more potent human estrogens, but studies showed that it doesn’t seem to help.

Soy Safety
Experts advice to be careful with soy products – especially for women who’ve had breast
cancer or are at risk. Because the isoflavones, which researchers worry, could have an impact on estrogen-fueled breast cancers.According to soy experts from the National Cancer Institute there is not enough evidence to say whether soy foods or supplements increase risk for developing breast cancer, or having a recurrence. Prostate cancer survivors
should be cautious too, say Tufts University cancer experts.
Even if you like soy and have no cancer risk you shouldn’t have more than 50 to 70 milligrams of isoflavones per day. That’s the equivalent of 1 to 2 (8-ounce) cups of soy milk or 6 to 9 ounces of tofu

Good reasons to Try Soy
For most people, soy foods like tofu, tempeh, and other meat replacements made with soy,
can be a healthy replacement for higher fat content meats and cheeses. “There are lots of reasons to add soy to your diet just from a basic nutritional perspective,” says prominent
soy researcher Mark Messina, PhD, of Loma LInda University in California.
For example, a half-cup of tofu provides about 20 grams of protein, or 40% of the Daily
Value (DV). The same half cup supplies about 258 milligrams of calcium, or more than 25%
of the DV, and 13 milligrams of iron, or 87% of the Recommended Dietary Allowance (RDA)
for women and 130% of the RDA for men.

While soy foods are moderately high in fat, most of the fat is polyunsaturated.
Soy foods contain little of the artery-clogging saturated fat found in meat and many dairy foods, says Dr. Mesina.

How to Eat Tofu
You can eat tofu anyway you like. It has little taste of its own but it takes on the flavor
of whatever you cook it with. You can use it in soups, vegetable dishes or desserts.
There are two main types of tofu.

Firm Tofu
It has most of the water removed, making it more solid.
Soft (or silken) tofu
It contains more water, giving it a soft, creamy texture.
It is often used for salad dressings and desserts.

Rinse both types with cold water before using.
Keep it submerged in fresh water or frozen.
Remove excess water which will help the tofu to maintain its shape during preparation.

Tempeh
These are chunky, tender cakes, made from fermented soybeans, that have been laced
with mold, giving them their distinctive smoky, nutty flavor.
You can grill tempeh or add it to spaghetti sauce.

The Mediterranean Diet – A Model for Good Health

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When the heart disease rate in the United States was skyrocketing during the early 1960s, people in Greece had some of the lowest heart disease rates in the world. But the most remarkable fact about this is that they were enjoying this robust good health even though their diet racked up nearly 40% of its calories from fat plus they generally washed down their meals with a glass or two of wine.

Scientist searched the shores of the Mediterranean Sea and they discovered that it was not only the Greece people who were living longer but also in neighboring nations like France, Italy and Spain. Clearly, these folks were onto something, but what?

Here is what Christopher Gardner, PhD, assistant professor of medicine at the Stanford Prevention research Center in Stanford, California has to say about it:
“For one thing, the traditional Mediterranean diet includes a lot of vegetables and legumes, along with fruits,
fresh whole-grain breads, dates, and nuts. Meats like lamb and chicken are consumed infrequently and in small portions,
and the main source of fat in the diet is monounsaturated fat from olives and olive oil, rather than the saturated fat
from animal foods.
In addition, physical activity is a big part of their daily routine”, he adds.

But just how healthy is the traditional Mediterranean diet? In one study French researchers looked at 600 men
who recently had a heart attack.
They put half of the men on a traditional Mediterranean diet and half of them on a low-fat, low cholesterol diet
that people with heart disease are typically told to follow. Those who followed the traditional Mediterranean diet
had a 70% lower rate of recurrent heart problems than those following the prudent low-fat diet.

Other studies showed similar results. When researchers examined the diets and disease rates of people
in seven different countries, they found that, while heart disease accounts for 46% of deaths of middle-aged men
in America, only 4% of men on Creta, an island in the Mediterranean Sea,had similar problems.
In fact, the death rate from all causes in Creta during this 15 year study was lower than that of the other countries

In 2006, researchers reviewed 35 experimental studies of the Mediterranean diet and found that the diet had
a positive effect on cholesterol and insulin resistance. Researchers also found that the diet also lowers
the risk of metabolic syndrome, heart attack and heart disease, and the risk of cancer
in obese patients and patients who have had a heart attack.

One study found that, in addition to the health benefits. people find it easier
to stick to a Mediterranean diet compared with a low fat diet.
A group of 772 older adults in Spain who had diabetes or three or more
risk factors for heart disease were assigned to one of three groups.
Two groups followed a Mediterranean diet, and the third followed a low-
fat diet. In addition to the Mediterranean diet contributing to lower blood
pressure, cholesterol and blood sugar levels after three months, it also made
it easier for the study participants to maintain the diet, researchers say.

The Fat Factor
The most important factor in the Mediterranean diet is that it uses fat
from olive oil, with total fat intake of 25 to 35 percent of total calories.
Even though people in Mediterranean countries eat as much fat as we do
(or more), they eat relatively little meat. Red meat is eaten only a few times
a month, while fish and poultry are eaten every week.

This means that they consume only minuscule amounts of artery-clogging
saturated fat. “The big difference comes from limiting saturated fat and
replacing it with monounsaturated fat, like olive oil,” Dr Gardner says.
Besides olive oil being a monounsaturated fat, it also contains antioxidant
compounds that help prevent chemical changes in the body that can cause
the dangerous low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol to stick to the
lining of artery walls.
Sweet desserts made with sugar and saturated fat are consumed no more
than few times a week.

The second-most common source of fats in the Mediterranean diet is nuts
and seeds. Nuts contain alpha-linolenic acid, which the body converts to
the same kind of heart-healthy fats we find in fish ( which is also part of
the Mediterranean diet). Studies have proved that people who eat the most
of these fatty-acids are the ones least likely to get heart disease.

The fish that people in the Mediterranean eat contains omega-3 fatty acids,
which have been shown to reduce clotting and inflammation in the arteries,
and thus significantly reducing the risk of heart disease and stroke.
The American Heart Association reports that epidemiological and clinical
trials have shown that cardiovascular disease incidence decreases when
people consume omega-3 fatty acids, especially when it comes from fish
and plant foods as apposed to supplements.

Physical activity
People in Mediterranean countries also take plenty of exercise, in the form
of walking, hard physical labor, and generally stay active.
So even though they take a lot of calories from fat, they’re usually able to
keep their weight under control.

Five-a-Day Protection
The folks at the American Heart Association would be delighted if they
could get us to eat the five servings (or more) of fruits and vegetables
that people in the Mediterranean region eat every day.
The Mediterranean diet emphasizes seasonally fresh and locally grown
fruits and vegetables over highly processed foods that don’t contain
as many micro nutrients and antioxidants.
Studies have shown that people who eat the most fruit and vegetables
have fewer problems with heart disease. Presumably this is due to the
antioxidant vitamins and healing compounds in these foods.

In addition, fruits, vegetables and beans, which are another Mediterranean
staple, are among the best sources of folate, a B vitamin that may work
hard in the fight against heart disease, says D. Gardner.
Folate helps decrease levels of an amino acid called homosysteine.
There is a link between too much homosysteine and heart disease.
Research has shown that healthy people who have high levels of
homosysteine have about 14 times more change of having heart disease

High Fiber
On top of all that, the Mediterranean diet is extremely high in fiber.
High-fiber foods not only help to keep your weight down by filling you up
without a lot of fat and calories, they also help block the absorption of
certain fats and cholesterol. This means that some of these harmful
substances are flushed away before they can make it into the bloodstream.
How powerful the effects of fiber are shows a study of nearly 44,000 men,
aged between 40 and 75, who added just 10 grams of fiber a day to their
diet decreased their risk of heart disease by almost 30 percent.

A Drink for Good Health
Another factor that contribute to a healthy heart is the fact that wine,
and especially red wine, is also included in a typical Mediterranean diet.
Whine contains compounds called phenols that help prevent LDL
cholesterol from sticking to artery walls. It also keeps platelets in blood
from sticking together and causing clots. “In moderation, wine can be
a nice addition to a healthy diet,” says Robert M. Russell, MD, director
and senior scientist at the Jean Mayer USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging at Tufts University in Boston.

Final Thoughts
Although the Mediterranean diet is most renowned for its role in helping
to keep the heart healthy, it also appears to reduce the risks of other
health threats, among them cancer of the breast and colon.
Studies show that compared with women elsewhere in the world, women
in some Mediterranean countries half half the risk (or less) of getting breast
cancer. This could be due to their low intake of saturated fat and high intake
of monounsaturated fats, fruits and vegetables.

Indeed, Italian researchers have found that people in the Mediterranean region
who follow the traditional diet – that is, those who eat lots of fruits and
vegetables and not much fat and protein – are less likely to get cancer than
those who eat more modern, less-healthful diets.

“The message here is simple,” says Dr. Gardner. “For optimal health,
choose a plant-based diet, which is naturally high in vitamins, minerals, fiber,
and antioxidants, and low in fat, cholesterol, and sodium.”

The Many Health Benefits of Flaxseed

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Flaxseed has been used for many years for making linen. It’s also known as linseed, one
of the ingredients in paint. The closest it came to being food was its use for livestock feed.
It’s only about a decade ago that science discovered the many health benefits of flaxseed.

Flaxseed is a rich plant source of omega-3 fatty acids. Apart from supporting good vision,
omega-3 also fight weight gain by increasing metabolic rate and they protect against
cancer growth. Flaxseed contains a different type of omega-3 than fish. This type reduces
the incidence of blood clotting, which can increase the risk of heart disease and stroke.
In addition, the omega-3 also appears to help prevent atherosclerosis, increase good HDL
cholesterol, lower levels of dangerous LDL cholesterol, and reduce inflammation.
They may also help to reduce depression.

Apart from omega-3, flaxseed is also a rich source of compounds called lignans.
While many plant foods contain lignans, flaxseed contains by far the most, at least 75 times
more than any other plant food. For example, you have to eat 60 cups of fresh broccoli
or 100 slices of whole-wheat bread to get the same amount of lignans in ¼ cup of flaxseed.
Lignans are important because of their powerful antioxidant properties to help blocking the cell-damaging effects of free radicals.
Food rich in lignans can lower the risk of heart disease. A Finnish study of almost 2,000 men found that those men with the highest lignan intake were significantly less likely to die from heart disease than those with the lowest intake.

Flaxseed also shows some potential of reversing kidney damage caused by lupus.
A condition by which the immune system produces harmful substances that attack and
damage healthy tissues.
When researchers at the University of Western Ontario gave flaxseed to nine people with
lupus related kidney disease, they discovered that several kidney functions, including
the ability to filter waste, quickly improved. The researchers believe that the lignans and
omega-3 in flaxseed fight inflammation in the tiny, very fragile arteries that supply blood
to the kidneys, helping reduce the artery-clogging process that can lead to kidney damage.

Apart from the health benefits of the lignans in flaxseeds to protect your heart, they also
fight cancer in your body. Lignans subdue cancerous changes once’s they have occurred,making them less likely to run out of control and develop into full-blown cancer.
Studies at the University of Toronto shows some promise for battling certain types of
cancer, in particular preventing typical female cancers, like breast- and ovarian cancer.

Two additional properties of the omega-3 in flaxseed, apart from its cancer-fighting power,
is the ability of limiting the body’s production of chemicals called prostaglandins.
The importance of prostaglandins is that they speed up tumor growth in large amounts.

To top it all up, flaxseed is also very high in fiber. Three table spoons of seeds contains
three grams of fiber, which is about twelve percent of the Daily Value.
The important role of fiber in your diet is the ability to block the harmful effects of
compounds that over time may cause changes in the intestine that can lead to cancer.

Whole flaxseed provide little benefit. Flaxseed is the one food that provide more
nutritional benefits when processed. So instead, buy the cracked or milled forms, which
readily give up the nutritious goodness packed inside.
Don’t buy the oil. Most of the lignans in flaxseed are found in the non-oil part of the seed.
While the oil may contain some lignans, it doesn’t provide as much as the other healthful
compounds found in the seeds, such as fiber, protein and minerals.

Healthy for Life with a Healthy Heart

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Only about 50 years ago, doctors didn’t know what was good for our hearts.
Little attention was paid to diet and even smoking was acceptable by some.

But after almost 50 years, scientists came up with some simple and straight forward answers. Regular exercise is important, of course, and so is staying away from cigarettes.

But by far the most important factor is to have a healthy diet. Eating the right foods is
the most effective way to lower cholesterol and high blood pressure, two of the biggest enemies against a healthy heart.

The Bad Fats
Often we take the wrong foods, in particular fats. There are good fats and bad fats.
The bad fats are saturated fats, found in red meat, and butter, It’s incredible dangerous
for the heart. Study after study has shown that the more saturated fat people eat,
the higher their risks for heart disease.
Foods high in saturated fat raise levels of artery-clogging low-density lipoprotein (LDL cholesterol. Foods high in saturated fat are often high in cholesterol as well.

The American Heart Foundation recommends that we limit our intake of saturated fat
to less than 7% of our calories each day. For example, if you get 2,000 calories a day,
your upper daily limit for saturated fat is 14 grams.
That means: in addition to eating fruits, vegetables, and other low-fat foods, you could have 3 ounces of extra-lean ground beef which contains 5 grams of saturated fat), a serving
of macaroni and cheese (6 grams), and a half-cup of low-fat frozen yogurt (3 grams).

Another problem fat, called trans fatty acids, has been shown to dramatically increase
the amount of cholesterol in the bloodstream. Trans fatty acids are made when manufacturers add hydrogen to vegetable oils to turn the liquid oils into solid fats like margarine and shortening. Ironically, they meant to be a healthy alternative to the saturated fat in butter.
But it appears that trans fatty acids may be even more harmful than saturated fats.
Trans fats raise the bad (LDL) cholesterol and lower the good (HDL) cholesterol,
increasing the risk of cardiovascular disease, heart attack and stroke.

It’s not only margarine and fried foods that may be a problem. Many cookies, cakes, and
other snack foods contain “partially hydrogenated oil,” which is also high in trans fatty acids.
Because of the health risk, the American Heart Association recommends you limit your
daily intake to less than 1% of your total calories.

Some Better Fats
Some fats are relatively healthful. You can easily recognize them by looking at the “un”
as in polyunsaturated and monounsaturated fats. While theses type of fats are still high in
calories, in small amounts, they play several beneficial roles.
Polyunsaturated fats (found in soy, corn, safflower, sesame, and sunflower oils, as well as
nuts and seeds ) help your body to get rid of newly formed cholesterol, therefore, they
keep cholesterol levels down and reduce cholesterol deposits on artery walls.

Monounsaturated fats also appear to help lower cholesterol levels as long as the rest of
the diet is very low in saturated fats. Although they are a good substitute for saturated fats,
both polyunsaturated and monounsaturated fats should be used in moderation, because
their high calorie counts can lead to weight gain. No more than 30% of your calories
should come from fat.

Nuts are particularly good sources of these healthful fats. In a study of Seventh-Day
Adventists, researchers found that those who consumed nuts at least four times a week
had almost half the risk of fatal heart attacks of those who rately ate them.

Although the American Heart Association recommends less than 30% of calories from fat,
many health-care professionals, recommend even less.
They tell people to aim for getting about 20 to 25% of total calories from fat, most of which
should be in the form of monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fat.

There is yet another kind of healthy fat, perhaps the king of healthy fats, called omega-3
fatty acids. This is found in most fish (but in particularly in oily, cold-water fish) and also
in flaxseed and certain dark greens. Omega-3 can help to prevent clots from forming in the
arteries. In addition, they help lower triglycerides, a type of blood fat that, in large amounts, may raise the risk for heart disease.

Studies show that eating fish twice a week, in particularly salmon, because it contains
high levels of omega-3, can help to keep your arteries clear and your heart working well.
In a stuy done at the Harvard School of Public Health, scientists found that the death rate
from heart disease was 36% lower among people who ate fish twice a week compared
with people who ate little or no seafood. The study, which was published in the American
Medical Association, also showed that overall mortality was 17% lower omong the regular
seafood eaters.