Fat, Sugar, Salt, Wine, Caffeine And Healthy Heart

Having a healthy heart really depends a lot on what you eat. A heart-friendly diet doesn't have to be about deprivation, you have to know what you need to avoid and what you can use instead of that.

For each of the things you can't eat, you need to find a replacement, or you won't be able to stick with your heart diet.

1.Fat

The first thing to do is avoiding saturated and trans fat and eat more omega-3 fats. Saturated fat and trans fat clog your arteries making it hard for your heart to breath, and they have also been linked to cancer, aging, obesity and diabetes.

Trans fat is found in almost every processed food, especially in cookies. Saturated fat is found only in animal products. For this reason you should eat less meat and fat dairy products.

As a replacement, you can use soy dairy products and instead of the meat use fish (red fish is loaded with omega-3), soy and soy products like tofu.

Other sources of omega-3, which you want to include in your diet are dried fruits,nuts and seeds.

2.Sugar

Processed sugar (i.e. white sugar) can also harm your heart, because it increases your chance to have diabetes. Diabetes sufferer have a risk of having a heart attack as great as that of a person which already had one. Instead of cookies and cake, replace them with fruits with fiber, like apples and pears.

3.Salt

Salt increases blood pressure. As you know,blood pressure increases the risk of heart attack, stroke and other ischemic events, not to mention heart failure, blindness and several deleterious effects on your brain. Salt is really a big no-no.

And more than half of the people with hypertension don't know they suffer from the condition. Better safe than sorry - cut on the salt.

4.Wine

Red wine may have some effect in protecting your body. However, if you drink more than 2 glasses of 200ml per day it will increase your risk.

Some doctors believe 2 glasses of wine per day protect your heart. In studies people who drink no wine die more of heart attacks than people who drink moderately.

However, a study showed that this happens because people who don't drink wine do so because they already have had a heart disease of some kind. Thus wine does not protect at all. It is up to you to judge.

5.Caffeine

Caffeine is another substance prone to discussion. Some studies show caffeine lowering a heart risk. But the research still has a pro and contra,just like in wine case.

By following the tips above you could prevent yourself from heart disease.