Publisher's Synopsis
Despite major advances in drugs and medical treatments, maintaining a healthy diet, being physically active, and not smoking are still the best approaches to preventing heart disease. Improving your diet lowers your risk for heart disease in many ways, including helping to lower high cholesterol, blood pressure, and blood sugar and insulin levels, as well as preventing obesity and improving the function of your heart and blood vessels.
A crucial take-home message of this report is to consider the types of foods that you eat and your overall dietary pattern, rather than focusing on individual nutrients such as fat, dietary cholesterol, or specific vitamins. There are no single nutrients or vitamins that can make you healthy. Rather, there is a short list of key foods that together can dramatically reduce your risk for heart disease.
A closely related, second take-home message is that you cannot simply eat “everything in moderation.” Among different foods, there are clear winners and losers when it comes to risk of heart disease, weight gain, and diabetes. You want to stock up on the right foods, and minimize the harmful foods. The rest of this report will explore practical steps for eating your way to a healthy heart.
Fortunately, a heart-healthy diet is relatively easy to define — as you’ll see in the pages to follow. More great news: you don’t have to give up great-tasting food to eat for your heart, as you’ll see when you get to the recipes section of this report.
