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Watch your diet
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Processed and ready-to-eat foods are convenient, but the preservatives and additives in them are not good for your heart
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DIET THERAPY uses food as agents to prevent illness and speed up recovery in case you are suffering from any ailment. Surveys conducted across the country have shown that heart diseases prevail highest among people. Patients with diseases of the heart and vascular system constitute 10-15 per cent of all hospital admissions in the cities.
The numbers are increasing rapidly as our lifestyles are changing for the worse. Traditional food habits have been replaced by Western imitations. Intake of meat/chicken and ready-to-eat foods has increased, which affects one's health.
Calories or energy intake, in simple terms, refers to the quantity of food we eat. One gram of carbohydrate and protein provides four calories and one gram of fat equals nine calories. A sedentary adult male needs 2,400 calories a day while a female needs 1,900 calories.
If intake of calories is more than what one burns, it gets deposited as fat, which causes weight gain. Being overweight is one of the primary factors of coronary heart disease as it causes the heart to work more. A high-calorie diet increases levels of lipids and triglycerides in the blood. Physical exercise and maintenance of calorie intake are beneficial for the heart.
Foods to avoid:
Nuts and dried fruits
Sweets and desserts
Soft drinks
Deep-fried foods
Alcohol
Fats:
The type and quantity of intake of fats is important for a healthy to keep your heart. Fats provide energy to the human body. The main sources of fats are ghee, butter and oils. Vegetables, fruits and cereals have little or no fat. Consumption of saturated fats like vanaspati, ghee, butter, cream and fleshy foods such as meat and chicken raises cholesterol levels in the blood
Meal patterns
Due to hectic lifestyles, most of us eat a small breakfast or skip the meal entirely, because we are running against time.
Lunch too is small — just a bite of a sandwich — but we land up having a large dinner which contains nearly half the day's energy intake.
When meals are relatively equal in size, blood lipid levels are lower then when meals are not equal. It has been shown that large meals favour the synthesis of cholesterol in the body, which is again, not heart friendly.
I have not touched upon cholesterol and its role in the health of your heart or foods rich in cholesterol.
This is an extensive topic and I shall take it up next time.
LILY MADHOK
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