Heart Matters.I seem to have a few minutes at the computer today and thought I’d pass on some of what I found in a leaflet at the GP surgery last week.
It is a little book called Heart Matters and it’s produced free of charge by the British Heart Foundation. Apparently Heart disease is now the biggest killer in Scotland, scary thought.
www.bhf.org.uk
4 easy steps to protecting your heart
1. Don’t overeat; Mother used to say finish what is on your plate and for people of my age who grew up with this philosophy stopping when you are full rather than when the plate is empty can be very, very difficult. But it must be done, most us of load more than we need on to our plates in the first place.
2. Choose more fruit and veg; This one is quite easy for most of us ‘cos we DO enjoy our fresh food while those around us munch away on take a way fries, curry and processed pre-prepared food. But even I have my days when coffee and biscuits take over from a decent meal. When time is short temptation is high.
3. Limit the fat; I thought this one was easy because I don’t eat meat and I only have low fat milk and yoghurt. Then I read the ingredients of what I thought were wholesome snacks, cereal bars and whole wheat biscuits. You may have guessed by now biscuits are my downfall, I was horrified to read how many grams of the bad, bad fats are in every biscuit.
4. Go easy on the salt; Another one I thought was easy. I never add salt to my food and I don’t cook with salt. Then I began to think about my favourite meal, a huge bowl of wholesome veggie soup. Read the ingredients of the veggie stock cube and see how much salt is added. Even with out the veggie stock cube I do add salt to my soups, they just don’t taste the same with out. I thought it was ok’ cos I was adding sea salt or rock salt…………..apparently it’s all the same, salt is salt as far as diet is concerned. Salt intake should be less than 6 gm per day.
All of the above is especially difficult when eating out. The booklet suggests asking the kitchen how the food is prepared and asking for smaller portions if it is a restaurant known for the large size of its portions.
And after the 4 diet tips there was a bit on exercise…………………think I probably get less exercise than most others but no matter how little a person can do any exercise is better than none.
I kept this little book and took it home with me, most of what it contains is common sense and stuff we all do any way. But to have it all written down and to be reminded of the prevalence of heart disease is probably a good thing.
Great tips! thank you Loretta Happy decorating
ReplyDeletegood advice loretta-
ReplyDeletetry knorr touch of taste...liquid veg stock....salt is not so high on the list.....but that may be because its liquid....knorr took over touch of taste from benidict....n its not so good now...gggrrr
ReplyDeletesoups made with tinned tomatoes [although a lot of these contain salt] give a flavour that dosnt need as much salt.....also canned tomatoes/ passatta without citric acid as well as no extra salt.... asda do one in the "world section"...i dont know y they put citric acid in canned tomatoes it not necessary...its makes stuff too sharp....then u need sugar...my prob at moment.
how about nains oatmeal crackers spread with jam....not dunk-able though....hey u just gota make your own.....i've had to give up....nothing with my tea or cwaffe anymore.
ground almonds in bickies make up for some of the fat n flour you'd get in a shop bought bickie....n macaroons ...yup now were talking....i cant have those though either
Thank you Loretta. I did two very simple things to reduce my blood pressure and cholesterol, I don't use salt with packaged or frozen food, taste other foods before adding salt, and I have removed as much trans-fat food from my diet as I can. My cholesterol is down to 135 and my blood pressure is 130/68. Not bad considering that a year ago I was considered high risk for a heart attack.
ReplyDeleteThanks for this - it is all good information. Americans tend to rely too much on pills and too little on avoiding food that is bad for us.
ReplyDeleteVery good advice indeed.
ReplyDeleteI'm not an overweight person but I have to watch cholesterol, that runs in the my family. For the most part I look after myself, have a sensible amount of all the food groups in the 'food pyramid'. Like you, I have a snack meal at times, because one can't always be doing the meat'n'three vege thing in the kitchen. I stewed some apricots last night, was given a bag of them. I like fruit, can't eat a lot of it though because many fruits are high in fructose and I have malabsorption problems with that, as you know.
ReplyDeleteIncidentally, I had gluten-free macaroni and cheese last night, I couldn't handle cooking anything else except my apricots.
all common sense things that most of us don't seem to adhere to,,ty for sharing this loretta
ReplyDelete