Matters of the heart

Tips for Keeping your heart healthy!
We train because we want to look good on the outside, come on admitted, we're all little vain creatures! but its also important to be healthy on the inside. And being heart healthy should be top of your fitness list as without our hearts, well, we would die.  And we don't want that at this point in our fit lives. So if you're partial to some fatty KFC or McDs or even some Hell pizza or packet of bikkies or two, then perhaps you should change your habits so you can live more healthily without clogging up your arteries which may lead to heart attack or other heart conditions:

* Choose lean meats and poultry without skin and prepare them without added saturated and trans fat.

* Eat at least two servings of fish each week. Fish can be fatty or lean, but it's still low in saturated fat. Recent research shows that eating oily fish containing omega-3 fatty acids (for example, salmon, trout and herring) may help lower your risk of death from coronary artery disease.  Prepare fish baked, broiled, grilled or boiled rather than breaded and fried.

* Select fat-free and low-fat dairy products.   

* Cut back on foods containing partially hydrogenated vegetable oils to reduce trans fat in your diet.

* Cut back on foods high in dietary cholesterol.

* Cut back on beverages and foods with added sugars. Many snack foods and beverages have added sugars. Cut back on added sugars to lower your total calorie intake and help control your weight. These foods also tend to be low in vitamins and minerals, and the calories add up quickly. Drinking calorie-containing beverages may not make you feel full. This could tempt you to eat and drink more than you need and gain weight.

Examples of added sugars are sucrose, glucose, fructose, maltose, dextrose, corn syrups, high-fructose corn syrup, concentrated fruit juice and honey. Read the ingredient list. Choose items that don't have added sugars in their first four listed ingredients.

* Choose and prepare foods with little or no salt.  Foods low in salt lower your risk for high blood pressure and may help you control it.  Aim to consume less than 2,300 mg of salt or sodium per day.   Limit high-sodium condiments and foods such as soy sauce, steak sauce, Worcestershire sauce, flavored seasoning salts, pickles and olives.

* Cholesterol, fiber and oat bran
Fiber is classified as either soluble or insoluble. When regularly eaten as part of a diet low in saturated fat and cholesterol, soluble fiber has been shown to help lower blood cholesterol and may also help reduce the risk of diabetes and colon and rectal cancer. The more calories you require to meet your daily needs, the more dietary fiber you need.  Try to eat at least 14 grams of fiber per 1,000 calories you consume.  If you find it hard to eat lots of fibre, try sprinkling some Fibresure on your food.

* Don't smoke!!!!  you've seen the ads on tv and what smoking does to your lungs and its effects on others around you.  Give up now!!!

* Blood is about 78 percent water.  

* Blood takes about 20 seconds to circulate throughout the entire vascular system.