The leading cause of death in Louisiana is heart disease. It is also the leading cause of death in the country. The CDC reported 696,962 deaths in 2020 that were caused by heart disease. Common types of heart diseases include heart failure, coronary heart disease, congenital heart disease, stroke, and heart attacks. You may already be aware of the heart benefits associated with cardiovascular exercise or “cardio”, as we more commonly refer to it. What you may not know is, even more than cardiovascular exercise, nutrition can play a role in heart health prevention. A consistent healthy diet could lower risk of heart disease by 31%. Heart health and nutrition are extremely close in correlation. This correlation should heavily influence the foods you choose to fuel your body.
Heart Disease Risk Factors and Conditions
There are several conditions that can lead you to the road of heart disease. Too often, it’s shown that road can lead to death. These conditions include obesity, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and diabetes. When looking at conditions and heart disease, there are several food-related risk factors. Knowing that these risks and conditions can be a direct result of a poor diet, it’s important to understand how nutrition can both increase and decrease the chances of your life being affected by heart disease.
Prevention Starts in the Kitchen
To prevent, it takes eating with intent. Low-saturated fat, high-fibred foods can substantially reduce the risks. Instead of saturated fats and trans fats, choose monosaturated and polyunsaturated fats from nuts, olive oil, seeds, avocados, soy, and fatty fish.
Most people are overconsuming the amount of recommended salt and sugar in their diets. Over consumption of salt can cause high blood pressure. A surplus of sugar in the body can lead to high cholesterol, high blood pressure, obesity, and diabetes. There is a plethora of heart healthy diets to choose from. Heart healthy diets that can be found all share an emphasis on higher intakes of fruits, vegetables, whole grains, nuts, fish, poultry, and vegetable oils. They also encourage lower intakes of red and processed meats and sugar sweetened beverages.
It’s never too early to increase your odds of living your life with a strong and healthy heart. There is a lot of action you can take to keep your heart in good health. Get a plan in place and find the resources you need to guide you in making healthier food choices. Lane Nutrition Services is happy to work with you on a nutrition strategy that will aid you in your heart disease prevention mission. Lane Regional Medical Center also provides Cardiology services. Lane Regional makes it easy for patients and ensures you have the resources you need all in one place.
