Below you'll find a list of all posts that have been categorized as “diet”
You may have heard about inflammation from your doctor or read about it on the Internet. There are 2 kinds: acute and chronic. Acute inflammation is part of the normal healing process. It causes the redness, warmth, swelling, and pain you feel when you cut yourself or get a splinter. But when inflammation sticks around for a while, it can …
The risks might be greater than the benefits. But talk to your doctor before you make a change. Many people take a low-dose aspirin (75-100 mg) every day to protect their heart. But new guidelines may be changing this common practice. The US Preventive Service Task Force makes recommendations to doctors for patient care. Recently it warned that aspirin may …
You probably already know that people with heart problems, obesity, and diabetes have a higher risk with COVID-19. These conditions increase the chances that you will need to be hospitalized, require a ventilator, and have long-lasting problems because of COVID. Researchers are beginning to understand the links between these diseases and COVID a lot better. They have found that the …
You may have heard the buzz that fermented foods have benefits for your health. Fermented foods include things like yogurt, sauerkraut, and kimchi (a pickled vegetable dish from Korea) and beverages called kefir and kombucha. These products contain “good” bacteria called probiotics. Eating fermented products increases the good bacteria that naturally live in your intestines. This is called the gut …
Doctors have known that having type 2 diabetes raises the odds for developing dementia. Now, new research suggests that the age at which your diabetes is diagnosed makes a difference in your risk. The longer you have diabetes, the greater your chances of having problems with thinking skills and memory down the road. That’s worrying because the average age of …
If you have diabetes, you probably know that you have a higher risk for heart problems. But you may not know that you have a higher risk for heart attacks and strokes if you have prediabetes—a condition where your blood sugar is high but not high enough to be diabetes. A new study, presented at an American College of Cardiology …
To get rid of unwanted pounds, some people try fasting—not eating at all or eating less than usual for a set period of time. But a new method of fasting may help you lose weight and boost your health in many other ways. It’s called intermittent fasting. It means eating little or nothing on certain days of the week or …
If you have high blood pressure, you may be familiar with the DASH diet. DASH stands for Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension. This plant-based eating pattern was designed to bring down harmful blood pressure levels and it is very effective. Research has shown that the DASH diet greatly lowers blood pressure, compared to the typical American diet, even when the …
Quick: What is your BMI? Even if you don’t know your score on this important health measure, you may know that it has something to do with your weight. BMI stands for Body Mass Index, and it is a ratio of a person’s weight to their height. Calculate yours here. Depending on your score, you will fall into 1 of …
If you’re looking after your health, it’s important to eat plenty of fruits and vegetables. But, as you probably know, some of these foods are better for you than others. Potatoes are fine to eat in moderation, for instance. But cucumbers, spinach, and broccoli are better bets when you want to fill up. One reason for this is that these …
Spring is still a few weeks away. But you don’t have to wait until then to go green—at least when it comes to your heart. For starters, there’s good news about the benefits of green tea. A growing volume of data ties this tasty brew to better heart health. In the most recent research—published in the journal, Stroke—people who had …
You’ve probably heard that drinking small amounts of wine, beer, and other types of alcohol shouldn’t harm your heart—and it might even help it. But the data are starting to get more complicated. Doctors generally advise that men should drink no more than 2 drinks a day and women no more than 1 drink a day to stay healthy. (A …
Eat to Protect Your Heart from Inflammation and Reduce Stroke Risk You may know that certain foods can raise cholesterol levels and blood pressure and add inches to your waistline. All of these effects can harm your heart. But foods can have another important effect. They can also trigger or reduce the inflammation in your body, which has a huge …
You may know that drinking sugar-sweetened drinks isn’t the wisest health move. Sodas, coffee or tea with sugar, lemonade, sports drinks, and fruit punch aren’t just bad for your waistline. Consuming a lot of these beverages increases your risk for heart attacks and stroke. But you might be surprised to know that diet drinks—those that contain artificial sweeteners—aren’t much better …
A heart-healthy diet may sound boring if you’re not used to eating this way. This eating pattern calls for lots of fruits, vegetables, whole grains, fish, poultry, and limited amounts of red meat, whole-fat dairy products, salt, and added sugar. But that doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy some of your favorite treats. Here are a few popular snacks that are …
Restrictions on some activities are starting to lift around the country, so it’s a good time to take stock of your health. Weeks under lockdown due to the coronavirus pandemic have been challenging! Here’s what’s happening in many households: Less exercise Many people are getting less physical activity than they used to. Gyms and exercise studios may still be closed …
You may have heard that drinking alcoholic beverages like red wine can help your heart. That may be true, but it all depends on how much you drink. More and more research shows that heavy drinking is harmful for your heart. Studies have linked it to risks like high blood pressure, heart attack, stroke, and abnormal heart rhythms or beats. …
Confused if you should be taking a fish oil supplement? That’s not surprising. Sometimes headlines say the omega-3 fatty acids in them can lower heart risks. Others say the opposite. But the data in favor of fish oil has been growing. Two recent studies show a strong benefit – especially if you don’t like or can’t eat fish itself. The …
To keep your heart healthy, you’ve probably heard it’s good to eat only small amounts of saturated fats like butter and full-fat dairy as well as carbs like white bread and starchy vegetables. But one food ingredient doesn’t get enough attention when it comes to heart health: sugar. More and more research shows that the sweet stuff can be rough …
Everyone knows a walk in the park or the woods is good for the soul. But did you know it might also be good for your heart? More and more research shows that spending time in green spaces boosts heart health. In a study in the Journal of the American Heart Association in 2018, researchers found that people who lived …
Improving your heart health usually means cutting things out of your diet. That can leave you feeling deprived. But it doesn’t have to be that way. A new study found that adding more of specific types of food into your diet may lead to better heart health. The secret is focusing on substances called flavonoids, which are found in certain …
You expect to lose weight when you eat less. But what if eating a little less also lowered your blood pressure, improved your cholesterol, reduced inflammation in your body, and helped with blood sugar control? Looks like it does. That was the surprising finding of a recent study in the Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology. It followed 218 people ages 21 …
It’s not fun dealing with the aches and pains of arthritis. This “wear and tear” on joints like the hips and the knees often comes with aging. But people who have this type of joint pain may now have a new concern—a higher risk of dying from heart disease. A new study tracked the health of 469,177 people ages 45 …
You’ve probably heard that whole foods are better for you than processed foods. Processed foods, made in a factory, are easy to grab while you are on-the-go and often very tasty. They’re also hard to avoid if you live a busy life. Most foods that come in a bag or a box are processed. Not all processed foods are bad. …
Can Antibiotics Increase Your Heart Attack Risk? You may have heard that taking too many antibiotics can make them less helpful. This happens because bacteria become resistant to these medications over time. Sometimes, antibiotics may not work at all when you really need them and this can be quite dangerous. But there’s a new reason to be careful about taking …
You might have heard that people who are depressed are more likely to have heart disease. People who have heart disease are also more likely to get the blues. Having both heart disease and depression is worse for your health than just having heart disease. A 2017 study found that people diagnosed with depression after they’d had a heart attack …
Fasting and Your Heart People have often turned to fasting—not eating, or limiting food, for a period of time—to lose weight. Now research shows that eating less at certain times of the day or week may not only help you shed pounds but may also improve your heart’s health. The data have to do with eating patterns where people alternate …
Here’s some good news about heart disease, the number one killer of Americans: the rate of heart attacks and strokes is dropping and has been for decades. That means you are less likely to develop these problems than in the past. But there’s bad news, too: heart attacks are striking more young people, particularly younger women. New research shows that …
A healthy diet is the first step toward a healthier heart. Eating lots of vegetables, fruits, beans, whole grains, healthy fats like olive oil, and lean protein like fish and chicken, can’t be beat for preventing heart attacks and strokes. But how you prepare these foods also makes a big difference. A variety of herbs have been shown to give …
Heart-healthy diets include plenty of vegetables, fruits, beans, and whole grains like oatmeal, brown rice, and whole-grain bread and pasta. One thing these foods have in common is fiber. Fiber is good for your body in many ways and especially good for your heart. The results of a large review study just released by the World Health Organization (WHO) are …
The rich foods and sweet treats of the holidays can make it hard to keep a heart-healthy diet. But one small change in your eating habits could help: eating the day’s larger meals in the middle of the day. You probably know that what you eat and how much you eat is very important to your heart and your health. …
Energy drinks are popular with people who want a power boost, including children and athletes. But these drinks, which contain caffeine, sugar, herbs, and other ingredients, may do more harm than good. A recent study from the University of Texas Health Science Center in Houston found that having just one energy drink had a bad effect on the flow of …
Exercise. Eat healthy. Stay slim. Lower your stress. This “to-do” list is great for a healthy heart, but it may not sound like fun. Thank goodness, there’s chocolate! Hundreds of studies have found that chocolate—specifically, dark chocolate— keeps the heart and blood vessels in good shape. Here are some of the ways this delicious treat helps the heart: It may …
It can take years for hidden inflammation to harm your health, raising your risk for heart attacks and stroke. Fortunately this damage can be reversed. Over time, a poor diet (too much sugar, for example), lack of exercise, a smoking habit, and other personal lifestyle choices may lead to low levels of long-term, continuing inflammation. This type of inflammation can …
You’ve probably heard of the heart-healthy Mediterranean Diet. And you may have heard of the DASH Diet, which is designed to lower blood pressure. But you may not have heard of the Portfolio Diet. All three eating patterns are based on plant foods and help the heart. But if lowering cholesterol is very important to you, the Portfolio Diet deserves …
When it comes to your heart’s health, the foods you eat can hurt or they can help with healing. It all depends on how they affect inflammation. Inflammation, even at low levels, which continues for a long time, has been shown to lead to heart disease, diabetes, and other common health conditions. The latest proof comes from a new study, …
There are many parts of a heart-healthy diet—including one that keeps the heart and blood vessels in good shape and keeps blood flowing well to every part of the body. But some foods are especially good at lowering the chance of having a heart attack, stroke, or other heart problem. Keep reading to learn what you should put in your …
There is no shortcut to better heart health: You really do need to exercise, eat well, and keep a healthy weight in order to have a healthy heart. However, more and more research shows that a common supplement could give your heart and blood vessels a healthy boost. It’s called Coenzyme Q10 (CoQ10). This natural substance in the body is …
If you are confused about fish oil supplements these days, it’s not surprising. Recent news stories suggest that these popular supplements may not be all they’re cracked up to be. Large groups of people, such as those living in Japan who eat high levels of omega-3 fatty acids (the type of fats found in fish oil supplements) over long periods …
Inflammation is not always a bad thing. When you cut yourself or have a splinter or get an infection, your body fights off any harmful invader with inflammation. So, short term inflammation is part of the normal healing process. But if there is a long-term continuing presence of inflammation, it often can cause a problem that worsens the effects of …
Simple Diet Advice for Heart Health in 2018 The evidence for the heart-healthy effects of vegan, vegetarian, and plant-based diets in general just keeps getting stronger. New studies suggest that adopting the principals of plant-based diets could be a smart way to start the New Year. Researchers at New York University School of Medicine recently pitted vegan diets against the …
It’s the season for wonder and joy. But Christmas, Hanukkah, and New Year’s celebrations have a downside when it comes to the heart. Deadly heart attacks rise during the last month of the year and holiday excesses can lead to heart rhythm disturbances like atrial fibrillation. A national study in the journal Circulation, which examined death certificates over a three-decade …
The debate over whether or not to eat breakfast just got a little more serious. Research has previously suggested that skipping morning meals may lead to weight gain and boost the risk for diabetes and high cholesterol. But a new study draws a straight line between forgoing breakfast and the development of dangerous plaque in the arteries. The study, recently …
A New Anti-Inflammatory Nutrient Lutein, a nutrient that’s related to beta-carotene and vitamin A, is often thought of as the vision vitamin. It’s used as a supplement to prevent eye-related conditions including macular degeneration, cataracts, and retinitis pigmentosa. But new research from Linköping University in Sweden suggests that there’s a vital new role for this vitamin known as a carotenoid, …
Sugar plays a well-known role in the development of obesity and diabetes. But research is beginning to show that it’s also murder on the heart. Over the 15 years of a Harvard School of Public Health study, those who got 17 percent to 21 percent of their calories from added sugar were 38 percent more likely to die from cardiovascular …
The Surprising Heart Risks of Yo-Yo Dieting Doctors have long known that repeated weight gain and loss, often called yo-yo dieting or weight cycling, wreaks havoc on metabolism and energy levels. What’s less known is that this pattern may set the stage for cardiovascular disease or worsen existing heart ills. In a surprising new study from New York University School …
Caffeine has upsides and downsides for your health. But new research suggests your morning mug of joe could be a net positive when it comes to your cardiovascular risk. Researchers from Stanford University in California reporting in the journal Nature Medicine found that the more caffeine older people consumed, the more protected they were against chronic inflammation. In the process the scientists …
You know that lifestyle choices can help your heart’s health. And the evidence just keeps getting stronger. Consider exercise. Physical activity not only improves weight, lowers cholesterol, and enhances the functioning of your heart, but, a new study shows, it also calms inflammation, a major culprit behind cardiovascular disease and its deadly consequences. Inflammation is a key part of the …
Heart disease is the leading cause of death for both men and women in the United States, killing about a million people every year. Luckily it’s also one of the most preventable health problems Americans face. This American Heart Month, research is highlighting a simple way to improve your risk profile—consuming a healthy dose of omega-3 fatty acids. Derived from …
There’s good news and bad news when it comes to the holidays and your health. The good news: Research shows that the average American puts on just about a pound between Thanksgiving and New Year’s Day (though heavier people add more than five pounds). The bad news: Most people never shed the extra weight, according to a study in the …
