Oatmeal, A Heart Health Champion #83

"3 grams of soluble fiber from oatmeal daily, in a diet low in saturated fat and cholesterol, may reduce the risk of heart disease."  "Whole grain and sodium free."  These are health messages directly from oatmeal packages.  Yes, I believe oatmeal has been one of the major factors in my heart rehab and recovery.  How you may ask?  My weight has dramatically reduced.  I eat oatmeal at least once daily sometimes twice.  It has contributed to my weight loss by being a healthy food replacing unhealthy fatty foods I was eating previously.  And I find oatmeal filling and satisfying. Along with weight loss oatmeal has helped me successfully reduce my total and LDL cholesterol levels.  So I continue to recommend and suggest, oatmeal should be a daily regular part of your new eating healthy lifestyle.

Oatmeal contains a special fiber know as beta-glucan.  This fiber has been shown to reduce cholesterol up to 23%, helping to significantly reduce the risk of heart disease.   It also contains a unique and powerful antioxidant, avenanthamides, which prevent free radicals from damaging cholesterol and maintains the health of the blood vessel arterial walls.  Oatmeal has been found to be especially helpful for women with high blood pressure, or high cholesterol levels.   Eating oatmeal daily has been found to be beneficial to diabetes patients.  The soluble fiber helps regulate blood sugar levels. There are several non health benefits to having oatmeal regularly.  It is convenient to prepare, is inexpensive, it is tasty, easy to keep on hand and doesn't easily spoil or lose freshness.  I use the old standard one minute whole grain oatmeal (Quaker brand).  Do not use instant. You will lose some of the health benefits. I make my own oatmeal.  I prefer a thin consistency, sort of soupy rather than thick.  Contrary to suggested containers mixture ratio I use 70% water to 30% oats.  I add nothing else to it.  No salt, absolutely no milk or butter.

Some things to you may want to consider when thinking about how serious you are of starting to exercise on a regular basis.  Depending on what stage of rehab you are, exercising is going to strengthen your heart and cardiovascular system.  It will help your circulation and improves your body's use of oxygen.   You will begin to look fit, healthy, and you will feel good about yourself.  What are some good exercises for you?  Brisk walking, swimming, cycling are all good activities and exercises that strengthen and maintain a strong cardiovascular system.   For the surviving heart attack victim and heart patient, these are all too strenuous for those in the initial stages of recovery.  As we have repeated many times, who better than your cardiologist to point you in the right direction when seeking initial advice on your exercise and exertion capabilities.   Activities as cycling, and swimming you very well could be doing sooner than you would think.  Walking is one of the best to start with, gradually increasing your speed and distance, and endurance.  Exercises that increase your circulation and heart rate should be approached in the same manner as walking, with gradual easy to obtain increases.  It is kind of like knowing that how much weight you can lift, is not what you are attempting to accomplish.  How many times, how often, and being consistent without over exerting yourself are the initial goals you should work towards.   When I started it was small baby steps.  I did not try to get strong physically, I worked on endurance and stamina.  Being able to not physically exhaust myself so easily was my initial goal.  You know looking back I have forgotten how easily I would just exhaust myself while doing so little.  I would go to the store with Cindy,  just to get out of the house and be doing something.  After just a short period of time of following her, I would have to go find somewhere to sit down and rest.

In finishing I would like to briefly go back to omega-3 fatty acid health benefits.  According to WebMD, medical studies have shown heart attack survivors who increase their levels of omega-3 and reduce cholesterol have a reduced risk of death from further heart attacks.  In addition to most fish other sources of omega-3 are soybeans, broccoli and spinach.

HDL Cholesterol #82

One thing I need to correct are a couple of facts about sodium.  First I incorrectly wrote one tablespoon of table salt contained the daily limit of sodium, when it should have been one teaspoon.   Cindy was kind enough to correct my error on that.  I next need to correctly state Cindy and I use a salt which is one third less sodium than regular table salt.  It is a form of salt which is called "Diamond Crystal Salt Sense"  One teaspoon containing 1500mg of sodium compared to 2300 mg for regular table salt.

To finish up on cholesterol, a natural function of your liver is to produce the amount of cholesterol needed by your body.  Your other source of cholesterol is from the food you consume.  Other factors to be considered as causes or sources of high cholesterol levels are:  A diet high in saturated fats.  A low level of physical activity, lack of exercise, and being overweight.  The aging process. As you get older it is natural for cholesterol levels to increase.  Which leaves you as someone with high cholesterol to consider, and be selective in the foods you eat in regards to the cholesterol content, and how your food is prepared.  You also can eat more foods that contain HDL, good cholesterol.  Fish as an example.  Remember good cholesterol also acts as a cleansing agent, helping remove and lower bad LDL cholesterol.   We always seem to get back to the key three elements for heart patients to be cardiovascular healthy.  Regular exercise, eating healthy foods, reducing and controlling your weight.

I do not watch much TV other than my college basketball team and NASCAR racing.  But I do watch and pay attention to programs and news concerning cardiovascular  health and living a healthy lifestyle.  You would be surprised by how much I see and hear about how heart patients, and heart attack survivors, are discussing the same lifestyle changes that we have discussed in this blog.  Last night I was watching a national news program and they had on a guy who had survived a major heart attack and he was explaining how he had changed his lifestyle and had lost 50 pounds.   They ask him how he did it.  He said " I eat a lot of fruit, and even more than a lot of oatmeal."  That guy had to be one of our readers. Thank you Quaker Oats, you can send me a royalty check for spreading your heart healthy message worldwide....Would you believe one of their attorneys sent me an e-mail to caution me about being cautious about how I present their product?  Oatmeal remains my favorite overall heart healthy food. 

We will discuss more health benefits of oatmeal later on.  To finish up here, let's go into which foods are good sources for HDL cholesterol.  Well, oatmeal for one and certain fish.  Salmon, tuna, trout, sardines, herring, shellfish are great HDL sources.  Walnuts, almonds, pecans, and purple skinned fruits as grapes and berries are some more.  And many beans, such as, navy, red,  pinto, kidney, and soy products.

Next more on eating healthy and how exercising helps.

Rehab And Cholesterol #81

Let me ask you something.  What are your rehab goals or plans as a heart patient?  You know when we had heart attacks and surgery we certainly must have been in pretty much health's dire straits. Most of us were not healthy, or we would not have ended up with heart disease.  So it is almost like after having surgery we had our cardiovascular systems cleaned and repaired as best our doctors could. From that time forward our health was back in our control.  It is now up to us to continue to improve our health. What you were eating prior had a big part in creating your heart problems.  So that should tell you something needing to be changed. Weight control is another.  Most of us were overweight and had to address it.  But that is not true for everyone having heart attacks and heart disease.  You can certainly be slim and trim, but eating unhealthy and have serious cholesterol problems leading to heart disease and heart attack.  So without having any hard statistics it is almost certain most or the great majority of heart patients need to make a serious commitment to lifestyle changes.  That is if you expect to make a full recovery and get back to being a healthy person.  Do you know what happens to most people when they get to be our age?  I am not talking about having a heart attack.  I mean normally people become a little less active. They probably have a little more idle time, and eat a little more than they use too.  It is normal when you get older to more easily gain weight.  I don't know all of the reasons why, but you do tend to gain weight easily, spread out some in a lot of places, and your waist line grows.  Cindy and I were cleaning out some old things from our home and came across some pictures of me from 10 or 15 years ago.  I could not believe that was me.  Did I really look like that?  Was I that big? No way. This doesn't happen daily but more than once I have had people ask me how I stay so fit looking.....for your age is usually added to that.  I will tell you when you have been through the sacrifices we have made in rehabbing it sure makes you feel good when asked that question.  If you have to lower your cholesterol levels. Losing weight, and eating healthy, will help lower those LDL levels. Eating the right type of foods will raise your HDL levels.

What is cholesterol? It is a fat (lipid) produced by the liver and obtained through the foods you eat.  It is needed for normal body functions.  Cholesterol produces hormones within your body, it converts sunshine to needed vitamin D.  It also produces substances which help digest food and insulates nerve fibers.   Cholesterol is carried through the blood stream by lipoproteins, of which there are three main types.  Low density (LDL), high density (HDL), and triglycerides.  High cholesterol levels mean you have too much cholesterol in your blood stream. Too much LDL leads to a build up or blockage  in your arteries.  HDL cholesterol carries cholesterol from other parts of your body back to the liver, which removes LDL cholesterol from the body.  Therefore HDL is the good,  or desirable cholesterol.  It can reduce your LDL levels through the liver.   So what have we learned?  That like other substances that are natural to our bodies and are meant to be regulated by body function, too much in total, or of the bad LDL can lead to heart disease.  Which is what happened to a lot of us.  Eating very lean meat in moderation, that is a personal decision for you.  Eating hot dogs, fried hamburgers, sausage, no, no, no. Fatty steaks, chops, pork, bacon, ham, no, no, no.  Big cholesterol problem and weight gain issues.

Tuna, Spinach, And More Exercise #80

If you are a follower of  this blog regularly you know how much credit I give daily exercise as being important to my improved cardiovascular health and heart patient recovery.   I had gotten out of my workout routine and then got back into it about 6 weeks ago.  And I can tell a big difference, in the form of improvement in strength, lower blood pressure, and just overall being in better spirit.  When I say I had gotten out of my routine, I don't mean I had stopped exercising.  It's when I was having back problems, and was not doing a full workout daily.  I was having to skip several exercises because of the back pain.  Plus other things were happening and I was not able to work out at the same time daily.  It might be morning, mid-day, nights, afternoon, just whenever I could, and for me that just worked as well.  I am a very firm believer that part of being successful in a regular workout routine is to have a structured time each day you exercise.  If you jump around and don't dedicate a specific time, it becomes too easy to begin to skip exercising every now and then. 

Cindy and I have been eating a lot more uncooked spinach in salads.  Spinach is a great food for you to eat, especially those of you trying to lower your cholesterol levels.  Sometimes if I feel like having a little snack, I will take some fresh spinach, wash it and eat as I would any fruit.  It is one way to increase the amount of green vegetables I am eating.  Spinach is very high in Vitamin K, vitamin A and folate.  Spinach is also very good for your total nervous system and eyesight.  Vitamin A produces retinol a substance needed by the retina for low light and color vision.   Spinach helps keep your blood vessels healthy and assist in lowering your blood pressure.

I do not eat as much fish as I should.  I do try to eat tuna at least once a week.  Mostly I have tuna added to a salad.  I sort of prefer it that way, and normally it will be for a healthy lunch.  I must admit I force myself to eat tuna, or any fish, for the health benefits.  Of all the foods I have studied for cardiovascular health benefits fish are a vital food. Tuna provides us with essential omega-3 fatty acids. Why essential?  They are needed by our body for good health, but can not be produced by our bodies.  They must be obtained through the food we consume.  Omega-3 helps prevent erratic heart rhythms, decreases the risk of blood clots within the arteries, and increases the good cholesterol, HDL, levels.  They also reduce inflammation in your arteries.   I have not read enough on fish and omega-3 fatty acids to make any fish recommendations other than tuna and salmon.

Yesterday and today's workouts were the kind that you really feel good afterwards.  I hope those of you not exercising yet, will give it a try and make it part of your rehab. 

Next time we are going to talk about rehab, exercise and cholesterol.

Grapes And Exercising #79

If I am going to write a heart health and healthy food blog, I am going to have to practice what I preach, or write, would be a more appropriate way to put it.  Also to let you know when I cross the line.   Well, you remember me bragging about Cindy's pecan pie making, and my birthday coming up and how I preached about sometimes you eat something then ask yourself why did I do that?  Well, I ask myself why did I do that twice after she made me a hot pecan pie for my birthday.  That's right, once wasn't enough, I went for one more large slice the day after my birthday.  I can do without all that fast food, burgers, fries, any of  that sort of food but don't tempt me with a hot pecan pie, I will have absolutely no will power.   The remainder of it went down the disposal.

I never finished up on bananas, other than saying they are one of the fruits I eat daily.  Known as a  high energy fruit, bananas are high in potassium, and vitamin C.  In addition to their cardiovascular benefits bananas are also an effective stomach antacid and good for your digestive system.

Grapes are another fruit regular in my daily diet.  Full of health benefits, grapes are high in phytonutrients, manganese, and vitamin K.   Phytonutrients are nutrients found in foods which protect our bodies from disease.  Manganese protects your body cells from free radical damage, maintain healthy blood sugar levels, and helps synthesize fatty acids and cholesterol.  Vitamin K helps prevent calcification of your arteries, and provides protection against liver and prostrate cancers.  I also will mention, I read where grapes should be thoroughly washed before eating.  I know, we wash all fruit before eating, but apparently grapes are highly susceptible to insects,  disease, and are sprayed frequently with various chemicals by the growers.

My exercises and workouts are going great.  My endurance and strength is improving.   I have added the assisted chin up to my regular workout.  I had a trainer work with me on it, and he instructed me on how to properly adjust it.  My leg lifts and horizontal bar pull ups are helping my posture, and for some reason the treadmill doesn't seem nearly as boring.  Today, while waiting to use an abdominal machine
being used by someone else, their phone rang in their pocket.  They stopped, answered, and proceeded to sit on the machine and talk as if they were lounging in their favorite chair at home.  I waited for a while then ask if I could use the machine, they nodded, continued on the phone and moved so I could use it.  Makes me wonder why someone would be so out of touch as to sit on exercise equipment in a busy fitness center and talk on the telephone while folks are waiting for their turn on that equipment. 

Today is kind of a boring gloomy day, and I am looking forward to working out tomorrow.

Cholesterol, Red Meat and Processed Meats #78

We went over healthy foods, weight loss, and changing our eating habits to a healthier lifestyle in our last post.  I also told you we would discuss eating processed and red meats.

If you have been following this blog, you know my beliefs on eating red meats. These are my opinions only, based on what I believe about eating healthy foods and its importance for your body to function as nature intended.    I believe that when mankind was created, his physical make up and body function, was based on eating the fruits and vegetable plant foods nature provided for him.   This is not a spiritual thing and I am not attempting to indicate such.   This is what I believe about being healthy and eating foods that provide the natural substances and in the levels needed by our bodies.  To continue, I further believe over a long period of time, for whatever reasons, mankind evolved himself to eating meat from animals.  From that I conclude our bodies were not designed to absorb, use, or need all of the fats, nutrients, and proteins we get from eating red meat.  Nor are our bodies meant to utilize the manufactured substances added to those foods.   That is my position for those of you who did not know.  

I ate red meat and processed meat my entire life prior to having a heart attack.   And I liked eating it, and ate a lot of it. More than I should have, and along the way, the fats I consumed through eating red meat were a major contributor to me having clogged arteries, which led to having a heart attack.   I believe red meats also contain chemicals in the form of preservatives, which are harmful to your body and could lead to forms of cancer.  Processed meats, bacon, salami, hot dogs, sausage, bologna, deli meats, luncheon meats are all high in sodium, saturated fats, chemical preservatives, are bad for your blood pressure, cholesterol levels, and lead to heart disease.   I have written in detail about this earlier and won't bore you with repetition at this time.   You will need to decide what you want to do about reducing the amount of red meats you eat.   For the sake of clarity, when I say red meats, I am including processed meats.  Continuing eating red meat will reduce the amount of weight you will lose, and it will definitely increase your LDL cholesterol and triglycerides.    It is a lot to ask to stop eating red meat.  It is a major, major commitment.    It was very easy for me.  No really it was.  I was ready, had given it a lot of thought, knew it was damaging my health and would eventually lead to a heart attack or cancer.  Read my 1-3 earliest postings.  So good luck, I think you can continue eating red meat in moderation and improve your heart health from where you are now.  How red meat is prepared, or cooked, and avoiding processed meats will be of importance. Continued regular exercise, weight control, and practicing eating healthy will be your key to regaining your health.  So I am not condemning eating red meat.  I am only practicing what I think is best for my health.  Cindy and I will on occasion have red meat that may or may not be in soup or chili she makes.   I do think heart patients should absolutely stay away from processed meat and this includes all fast food red meat burgers.

What are total cholesterol levels you should know?  Total cholesterol level 240 and above is considered high risk of potential heart attack.  200-239 is borderline high, and below 200 is a desirable level.  Cholesterol is found only in foods of animal origin.  Meats, fats, dairy, eggs, poultry, and fish you consume.  Plant foods contain no harmful cholesterol, such as fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, grains.  Most fish contain good cholesterol from omega 3 fats.  Lean meats contain less harmful cholesterol than fatty red meats, and chicken or turkey with skin.  Turkey or chicken breast without the skin is very low in cholesterol and provides you with needed protein.

A word of caution here from me.  A cholesterol level of less than 240 doesn't mean you are safe from having a heart attack, and below 200 no worry of heart attack.  For a few years, up until I had a heart attack, I stayed in the 185-220 cholesterol level.  You have to consider your lifestyle has a lot to do with it.  I was not exercising, carried a lot of stress, was overweight, and did not eat anywhere close to healthy.   So you need to factor all of these when considering how much meat, what kind, and how it is prepared that you eat.

More healthy foods next.

Healthy Menu For Heart Attack Survivors #77

Let's talk some about losing weight and being a heart patient.  At what stage you are in heart surgery recovery, and your current weight status, is something which probably will affect your goals. First is weight loss. Your cardiologist has probably discussed this and your cholesterol levels with you.  I know one of my first conversations with my cardiologist, after being released from the hospital and sent home, was asking what I had to do to avoid having another heart attack, or heart surgery?  His reply was take care of my health, keep my weight under control, lower my cholesterol, and avoid continued stressful situations. Now for weight loss. We know for most of us weight loss is going to be a complete change in lifestyle when it comes to eating habits.  Educating ourselves about healthy foods as well as foods that are not healthy.  We must know how to take the weight loss, eating healthy, and remain focused on lowering cholesterol.  You must not get too focused on this is all about losing weight.  If we do it right, hopefully, we will lose weight, lower cholesterol, and lower blood pressure at the same time, which is exactly what we are going to do.  But we have to be dedicated to doing this, and have a mental picture of  where we want to be physically in 6 months.  We are going to be changing most of our eating habits,  if we are really serious about getting healthy, changing won't stop us. 

If you were to ask me to draw you out a healthier menu for the first couple of weeks to get you started on eating healthy foods, it would be something like this.....You already know what number one is.    Breakfast every day a large bowl of plain hot oatmeal.  Have coffee and a small glass of orange juice.  About an hour later have a banana.   If you get hungry before lunch eat an orange.   Lunch, a can of tuna packed in water, with 5 saltine crackers. Have some dill pickles sliced, and a sliced tomato.  Optional for lunch the next day, large bowl of cornflakes with skim milk, or repeat the oatmeal.  It is okay to eat oatmeal for lunch too.  Or have a large bowl of Campbell Soup, vegetable, chicken noodle, or tomato.   For an afternoon snack have fruit. Any reasonable amount you want.  You be the judge.  We keep strawberries, oranges, apples, pears, peaches, cherries, watermelon in the refrigerator.  Whenever you get hungry, morning, afternoon, night, eat fruit to take off the hunger edge.  I know seasons have to do with fruit availability, you will work that out for yourself.  Every time you want to reach into that bag of chips, or have a Snickers candy bar, grab a couple of strawberries and think how sleek you're going to be in a few weeks. I drank fruit juices, and water.

Now here are some secrets that helped me, just for you.    I used small serving size glasses when drinking juices.  We had small children size glassware for our grandchildren and that is what I used.  I always measure out the fruit juice at about 3/4 full in the small glass.  I never have a refill. When empty, I put it down and that is it.  Other than the oatmeal at breakfast, I never ate everything on my plate or in the bowl. I would leave some of the fruit, cereal, tomatoes, soup salad or whatever it was...    For me dinner was the blandest and most difficult meal of the day.  Always a salad with basalmic vinaigrette dressing.  Either a plain baked potato, soup, or chili.  I normally would  put left over soup or chili over the baked potato.  Sometimes, salad and skinless baked chicken breast.  Sometimes oatmeal for dinner.   There you go, no charge, guaranteed, it worked for me.  I lost a lot of weight, and didn't have to buy the first expensive special meal plan from some TV celebrity.    Why would you want to pay someone to tell you how to lose weight...? Think about that for a moment.  If you're that determined to do that,  hire me as your personal coach !

I would not check my weight every day for the first few weeks.  You'll get discouraged.  Remember, our goal is getting healthy, and recovering fully.  To be fit and enjoy doing physically what we use to do, or more, and better.  Shedding weight, getting thinner is just a great bi-product of our new program.  We are taking our first few steps in transforming ourselves.  Somewhere between the 6th and 8th week you're going to look in a mirror and see a different person.  And when you put on some clothes that use to be pretty snug, that now fit loosely, you will feel real good about yourself.   When you do, think for just a moment, hey he told me I could do it.

Oh, I almost forgot.  Every night I would treat myself, before bedtime, and have a small glass of skim milk.  It gave me something to look forward to and finished the day off not going to bed hungry.

Remember, you and I are not dieters on a weight loss adventure for a few weeks.  We have health problems, need, should, and have to lose weight. Must get our cholesterol levels lowered.   We are making complete eating habit changes that we are going to live with for the rest of our lives.   We are going to find foods that work for us and fits our new lifestyle.

When you get past the first  few weeks, you will feel good about yourself and will begin to get your new food routine established.   You can experiment. Try some things like nuts for snacks, begin to add treats, like apples and strawberries to your salads.  It is not going to be as difficult as you think.  Trust your instincts, you will figure out what foods you need to give up and what new foods best fit your taste and needs.   You'll also feel accomplishment when your blood pressure and cholesterol levels start going down.  You will look forward going to your cardiologist, rather than having a sense of dread.

Next post we are going to finish this up and talk about the one issue I have avoided here.  What are you going to do about eating processed and red meats?

Healthy Honey And Bananas #76

For those who are just beginning to exercise and are developing a workout routine, we have discussed most of the various exercises I do.  The most popular cardiovascular exercises, are mostly defined as treadmill, elliptical, stairmaster, spinning bike, or rowing.  The last two bike and rowing, have several variations and are based on the same motions as riding a bicycle, or rowing a boat.   You may remember I wrote about the elliptical many postings ago, perhaps during last summer.  I do not use the elliptical.  It has good cardiovascular motion, works a lot of various muscles, and there are several different types of ellipticals. Each type with a slightly different motion.  You just need to find one with a leg and arm motion you are comfortable with.  That is why I am not using one.  My previous fitness center had a specific model that I used daily and felt very comfortable with.  My current center has 4 or 5 different models, with an array of motions, but not one I prefer, or have been accustomed to using.  I increased my usage of the treadmill to maintain a  minimum in cardiovascular exercise time.   In addition, I do several exercises on strength machines, which you have heard me discuss.   I know any of the exercises I do on strength machines provides a high level of cardiovascular exercise.  If you push yourself to do and complete the exercise you are performing, you will increase your heart rate and circulation.  So as a beginner, do not be concerned that you may not be getting cardiovascular benefit from doing exercises, other than treadmill time.  Which is good, don't get me wrong,  the treadmill is a critical part of my total program.

Bananas are another fruit I eat daily and recommend for it's cardiovascular and weight control benefits.  First of all, bananas are available throughout the year.   They are good sources of vitamin A, iron, phosphorus, and potassium.   They help regulate your heart rate, and blood pressure.  Bananas contain the  chemical substance tryptophan also found in turkey, which has a soothing and relaxing effect on your nervous system.   Bananas are also a great source of natural energy.   I would tell you to include them in your new heart healthy foods daily diet.

Honey is also something I try to eat a small amount of daily.  Honey is a great natural sweetener, helps reduce overall cholesterol levels, and increases your antioxidant levels.   My reading on honey explained it is difficult  to assign specific antioxidants and nutrients to any one honey, as the plants and pollen collected by bees to make honey is so varied it effects the total health make up of honey.   Sometimes I will take a small amount of sunflower kernels, uncooked oatmeal, and a couple of pecans or walnuts and combine in a cup.  I then pour honey over this,  mixing it in and making my own mid-morning granola sweet snack.

I am knocking on wood as I say this, my weight has remained constant for the last several months.  During the holidays I probably picked up a few pounds, but have dropped them off and am about 4 pounds below my normal weight.  Eliminating the holiday sweet treats and getting back into a solid workout routine did the trick for me.  

Next time we may discuss more on weight loss, and dieting.

Heart Attack Survivors Calories From Fat #75

I have not had much to write about the past few days, and it has been too cold for me to get outside and do some of the things I enjoy doing.  Exercising is still going great and I have found one new strength machine exercise I am going to add to my routine.  I believe the name is a lat pull down, I'll check to be sure.  I have tried it a couple of times and it fits what I am wanting to do.   I want you to know that  I have really been feeling good about myself for lowering my borderline diabetes level to no longer being considered borderline.  To know you have struggled with exercise, workout routines, learned healthy foods, and have committed yourself with being healthy,  yes, you should feel good about yourself.   And I know there are many following us who are heart patients, who want to be healthier, and are struggling with the same issues.  Exercise, eating healthy, and weight control.


When reading about food and calories I kept coming up with the term "fat from calories" and wanted to know more about what it meant.  Obviously, the term itself is self explanatory but what is the difference in calories from fat, and what does that mean to your health?   Fat is a food substance needed by your body to generate warmth and energy.  It is one of six nutrients needed by your body to stay healthy. Three of the nutrients, fat, carbohydrates, and proteins produce calories.  Fat produces more than twice as many calories as the other two nutrients.  Some fats raise cholesterol levels, provide higher calories and fewer nutrients than other low fat foods.  Examples would be fats from bacon, sausage, potato chips being high versus lower fats from beans, lentils, skim milk, tuna fish packed in water.  If you consume more fat than you burn, the remaining accumulates in fat cells.  A gram of fat has 9 calories, where calories from protein or carbohydrates are about 4.   Fat being a needed nutrient by your body, there is a daily recommended allowance.  For a healthy adult, it is no more than 20%-35% of your total daily calorie consumption.   Yours and my daily allowance percentage may be less.    How do you determine how much fat you should take in based on total calories?   Well, it is somewhat complicated.  Here is the formula to determine daily allowance of fat from calories.   If my daily calorie intake is 2,000 and I want to be at the 25% level, I multiply 2000 x .25 = 500 calories.  We have established there are 9 calories in one gram of fat so divide 500 calories/ 9 = 55 fat grams.   This may seem simple and easy to understand to you, to me it is too complicated.  Basically a calorie is a calorie.  But calories from fat could be an indication to you, that in addition to the calories, this food product could contribute to raising your cholesterol level. Your body does require an amount of fat to function and calories from fats is a measurement tool to determine your daily intake of those fats.  As stated before, consuming more than you use will result in the excess accumulating in your body as fat, along with effecting your cholesterol levels, and weight control. 

My practical application of this information in my daily eating habits as a heart patient is being attentive to the food labels on the products I eat that contain calories from fats and my daily allowance goals. Again, as a heart patient going over the goals could effect my overall health.   I think what we have learned here is how to measure the amount of fat we should consume daily.  And have a better understanding of the caloric difference of low fat food.  Did you know it would be this complicated in eating healthy food and be such a mental challenge?   I know butter pecan ice cream is not good for me, but I should know more about why it and other foods are not best for me.

Two fruits I eat on a absolute daily basis are strawberries and oranges.  Strawberries rank 4th among the fruits that are the best source of antioxidants.  Strawberries provide excellent oxidative and inflammatory protection to your heart and blood vessels, and reduce your blood sugar levels.  They help your weight by being a great in between snack and satisfies your appetite.  Eat more strawberries, they are great for you. We have a lot of readers from some Eastern European countries and I am curious if strawberries are available there and affordable?

More exercises and healthy food info next time.