LADIES, PLEASE READ THIS!

(PART THREE OF FIVE)


Just to recap, here are the 6 Risk Factors of heart problems again:

I. High cholesterol,
II. Hypertension,
III. Poor diet and obesity,
IV. Smoking,
V. Diabetes and
VI. Lack of exercise.


In my previous post, I wrote about how to minimise Risk Factor #1, by:

(i) Eating a heart-healthy diet,
(ii) Geting regular physical exercise, and
(iii) Avoiding tobacco smoke (first- & secondhand)


And I did not finish writing about (i) Eating a heart-healthy diet. Remember the key words of a heart-healthy diet?

WHOLE GRAINS, FRUITS, VEGETABLES, LEGUMES. More of these.

And less of these: CHOLESTEROL, SALT, SUGAR, SATURATED FAT, TRANS FAT, ALCOHOL.


I finished writing about CHOLESTEROL in food, so in this post, I hope to finish writing about SALT, SUGAR, SATURATED FAT, TRANS FAT, ALCOHOL.

The FACT is, cutting down on your salt intake will help to reduce Risk Factor #2, which is HYPERTENSION, and in turn, reduce the risk of getting heart disease. Of course, too much salt in your diet is not the only cause of hypertension. But we shall look at this later.

What kinds of food are high in salt (more than 400 mg per serving)?

- Onion soup
- Foods made with seasoned bread crumbs
- Sauerkraut
- Spaghetti sauce (ready to serve)
- Potato salad
- Cheese sauce
- Baked beans with franks
- Macaroni and cheese
- Pizza slice
- Cheeseburgers, hamburgers, hot dogs, tacos, and many other fast foods
- Beef stew (from a can)
- Cottage cheese
- Minestrone soup
- Submarine sandwiches
- Tunafish salad
- Pretzels, potato chips, and other snacks
- Sliced ham, bologna, salami and other cold cuts
- Cream-style corn (from a can)
- Pickles
- Beef jerky snacks
- Egg bagels

This is not an exhaustive list, but reviewing it and then getting in the habit of reading food labels can help you spot other foods high in salt (normally listed as SODIUM). As you can now see, high-salt items are typically many CANNED FOODS (especially soups), COLD CUTS, SNACK FOODS a.k.a. JUNK FOODS, and FAST FOODS.

Again, the choice is yours. You might think that... what the hell does that guy know? Those food that he listed are yummy, tasty food, and surely, eating some of it is not going to give me a heart attack.

OF COURSE... one or two packets of instant noodles are not going to cause an immediate heart failure, but, the TRUTH is, did all those people who died from heart problems died just because they just had one or two packets of instant noodles? Nope... they, too, thought that one or two should be fine, and the problem is, one or two over a long period of time, becomes A LOT.

I'm not asking you to meticulously go and count your daily sodium intake to ensure that it does not exceed 2,300 mg per day, or 1,500 mg per day for individuals with hypertension, African Americans, middle-aged and older adults. But if you did, you'll be surprised that you easily do not meet the recommendation. So do many others.

And guess what? One packet of instant noodle contains AT LEAST 3,000 mg of sodium. I know you must be cursing me, that I'm crazy, simply writing things that are not true, etc. Fine, if you don't believe me, go read the labels of any packet of instant noodle. Or a canned food. Or one double cheeseburger. Don't be shocked at the TRUTH.

Of course, again, many people don't feel the urgency or the importance of keeping a low-salt diet, mainly because of the terrible side effects are NOT FELT after many years down the road. But PLEASE BELIEVE ME FOR ONCE. I'm not kidding. Cut down on your salt intake. And you'll avoid wasting money on expensive hypertension drugs, drugs for heart problems, hospitalisation, and ultimately, a fatal heart attack.

You might complain... food with little or no salt, no MSG is TASTELESS... Again, the choice is yours. Choose wisely.

You know what? I think my posts are getting too long, and I feel that I'll never be able to complete writing about how to keep your heart healthy, because there's just too many things I would like to share with you all. You might say, cut it short. Go straight to the point, but the truth is, do people follow "shortcuts"? Most of the time, they'll just ignore all the points and think that the author is mad. And then regret it 10, 20 years down the road. And oftentimes, they JUST DON'T GET IT. They know that too much salt is bad, but they don't give a damn about it, and go on as usual, eating like they had always been eating, all those high-cholesterol, high-salt food. WHY THEN, do you think that the statistics is always increasing, year after year? Because of population growth? Do you think that the people in India or Africa, which are currently the main contributors to population growth mostly die from cardiovascular problems? The truth is, the increase in the number of people dying from heart diseases comes from all those developed, high-income countries. Because people JUST DON'T GET IT. Am I the first to write about something like this? Of course not. Thousands of nutritionists and dietitians and doctors had spoken or written before me. Are these things I'm sharing NEW information? Nope... ancient wisdom passed down for generations. And still, few listened, and even fewer assimilated these information.

Take care, and I hope YOU get it.