Below you'll find a list of all posts that have been tagged 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 …
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 …
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 …
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 …
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 …
The start of a new year is a good time to reflect on past behaviors and identify where you need to improve. One of the best ways to promote your overall well-being is to nurture your heart’s health. Here are six key measures to ensure you’re doing right by yours in the coming year: 1. Know your numbers Your cholesterol, …
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 …
About 30 million Americans — more than 9 percent of the population — currently have diabetes, and one in three Americans is expected to have diabetes by 2050. Diabetes happens when your blood glucose, or blood sugar, levels are too high. Over time, the extra glucose can wreak havoc on health, damaging the eyes, kidneys and nerves and leading to …
When it comes to our eating habits, it doesn’t get much grimmer than the Western diet. High in fat, red and processed meats, salt, and sugar and low in healthful plant foods, it’s the predominant eating pattern in the U.S.—and increasingly in other parts of the world—and solidly linked to heart disease, diabetes, cancer, and other chronic conditions. But recently …
Fruits and vegetables, the stars of a healthy plant-based diet, have long been recognized as powerful weapons against inflammation, which underlies cardiovascular disease as well as cancer and many other chronic inflammatory conditions. Scientists credit bioactive compounds present in these plant foods, such as carotenoids and flavonoids, for the inflammation-quelling properties. With the summer’s bounty of fresh fruits and vegetables, …
Everyone is at risk for heart disease, but some people have more risk factors than others. Since heart disease is the leading cause of death among adults in the U.S., it’s important for us all to know what our risk factors for heart disease are, and what we can do about them. There are two types of risk factors for …
Even if you’re not overweight, cutting calories could lower inflammation by nearly 50 percent, improve other major risk factors for heart attack and stroke, including blood pressure and cholesterol, and even add years to your life, suggests a new National Institute on Aging (NIA) study. The findings, which were published in Journal of Gerontology: Medical Science, “are quite intriguing,” said …
Following six healthy lifestyle habits may reduce women’s risk for heart disease by 92 percent, compared to women with none of these habits, a new study published in Journal of American College of Cardiology suggests. Researchers from Harvard and other centers tracked 88,940 women whose ages were 27 to 44 at baseline over a 20-year period. With February marking American …
There’s no question that an excess of sugar in the American diet is one of many lifestyle contributors in the obesity epidemic. What’s most alarming is the growing link between excess sugar and abdominal fat, visceral fat, low HDL and elevated triglycerides, not to mention risk of heart disease and diabetes. Back in 2010, as a response to the growing …
