Your heart beats roughly 100,000 times a day, which causes about 2,000 gallons of blood to circulate through its chambers. (Source: Tom Scheve) This organ, which is actually a muscle, is vital for survival, so taking care of it should be at the top of your list. Heart disease is the leading cause of death in the United States and in 2010 it will cost America more than $316 million in health care services, medicines, and lost wages. (Source: The Centers for Disease Control) With all that we know about heart disease and its origins you would think that the prevalence would be on the decline; however, it is not. For the most part, heart disease can be controlled with proper diet and sufficient exercise.
How a Poor Diet Affects Your Heart
You have all heard the saying, “You are what you eat.” It is true, though; the foods that you consume on a daily basis play a huge part in the internal workings of your body. Your diet has an effect on your blood pressure, cholesterol levels, body makeup, and more. These chemical and physical processes take a toll on whether or not your heart functions at its optimal level. It is very important to know what the healthy ranges are for your heart and body so that you don’t let yourself slip onto the path towards heart disease.
A healthy human being should have a blood pressure level of less than 120/80 mmHg. Staying close to this level is very important because the more your heart beats, the harder it works and the sooner it will wear out. Yes, your heart has a life span to it and can wear out. A healthy diet is an important factor in blood pressure because it keeps your arteries from building plaque (narrowing artery walls) and raising your blood pressure into hypertensive levels, which will really cause your heart to work hard.
A Well-Balanced Diet is Good for Your Heart
Eating a well balanced diet is how people can prevent themselves from getting heart disease in the future. When planning a healthy diet, one should look to consume whole grains, lean meats, plenty of fruits and vegetables, and foods that are low in fat. One of the most important parts of the human diet is where you get your protein from. Animal products are a key source of protein; however, these sources also contain saturated fats which are bad for your heart. Lean meats such as poultry and fish are lower in saturated fats. There are other sources of protein that you can choose from as well and they are not chalked full of unhealthy substances that could lead to heart disease. These sources include beans, whole grain foods, lentils, vegetables, protein shakes, and liquid protein shots.
The last two, protein shakes and liquid protein shots, are excellent sources to get the protein that your body needs. These sources contain quality protein derived from cow’s milk and are low in calories and fat.
Cholesterol and Your Heart
Your diet is the single greatest aspect that you can control when it comes to preventing heart disease. By keeping an eye on your diet, you can lower your blood pressure, lower your bad cholesterol levels and raise your good ones. Too much cholesterol within the body can lead to heart disease. Here’s how. Your body makes cholesterol, but when there is too much circulating around within the body it can build up along the walls of your arteries, leading to a form of heart disease known as atherosclerosis. When this happens, the blood that your heart is pumping has a hard time getting through, which will deprive your organs (and the heart) of the oxygen that they need. If there is enough buildup on the walls of your arteries or even a blockage, then you could suffer a heart attack, which is where part of the muscle dies because of lack of oxygen. You can prevent this from happening by controlling your cholesterol levels.
There are two types of cholesterol in the body. First, there is the bad kind which is known as LDL or low-density lipoprotein. You want to make sure that your LDL levels are below 100 to stay healthy. The other type of cholesterol is HDL or high-density lipoprotein. This kind is made of more protein and less cholesterol, so it works to combat the damage that the LDL does to your body. When measuring your HDL levels you want them to be high (because it is the good stuff). Optimal HDL levels should be 60 or greater. High levels of HDL help your body to fight off heart disease. Just on a side note, your total cholesterol should be less than 200.
The final component you need to know about is triglycerides. Triglycerides are fats that are found in the blood stream which are also linked to heart disease. You want these levels to be less than 150. The levels of HDL, LDL and triglycerides are all influenced by what you consume on a daily basis.
Since you can see that HDL and LDL are both types of protein, it is no surprise why protein plays such a big part in whether or not you will have heart disease. When you are selecting your foods, it is important to have high quality proteins that will not raise your LDL (but will raise your HDL). Liquid protein is an ideal choice to do this. If more people were educated on this source of protein in conjunction with a healthy diet, then the country could take a step in the right direction for lessening and hopefully one day eliminating heart disease.
If you do not want to wind up as a statistic in some journal as a fatality of heart disease, then you need to take action now. The steps that you should be following are these:
– If you are already overweight or obese, then you need to lose weight by combining a well-balanced diet and exercise.
– Evaluate your diet and replace poor sources of protein with those that will not add calories and fat into your diet.
– Keep track of your cholesterol levels and triglyceride levels.
– Visit your doctor in order to make sure that there are no underlying health problems that you may be suffering from.
You can prevent heart disease; but, the longer that you put off being proactive, the less likely you will be to make a difference and save your own life.
Protica Research (Protica, Inc.) specializes in the development of Capsulized Foods. Protica manufactures Profect, IsoMetric, Pediagro, Fruitasia and over 100 other brands, including Medicare-approved, whey protein shots for dialysis patients. You can learn more at Protica Research – Copyright