High blood pressure can lead to stroke, which is the #2 cause of long-term disability in the US. It can lead to circulatory issues, and erectile dysfunction.

The following recommendations are a summary of the major research that has been carried out on what you can do to prevent high blood pressure, which can lead to stroke.

• Maintain a desirable weight for your height, build and age.

• Limit daily sodium intake in your diet to 2,400 mg, the equivalent of about 1G teaspoons of table salt (sodium chloride). To achieve a more dramatic reduction in blood pressure, restrict sodium intake to 1,500 mg or less each day, the equivalent of less than half a teaspoon of salt.
Be especially careful with prepared foods, which can be loaded with sodium. Always read the label, and also take into account how many servings are deemed to be in the package, and how much of it you are likely to eat.

• Increase intake of fruits and vegetables to get enough potassium. Aim for eight servings per day. Bananas are a particularly good source which can be incorporated into breakfast, lunch or dinner, as smoothies, as part of a sandwich, or even as dessert, as well as on its own.

• Consume two to four servings of fat-free or low-fat dairy products each day for adequate calcium and protein. Milk can help you feel full at meals so you don’t overeat, or drink soda, and yogurt or cottage can be eaten for breakfast or lunch.

• Include plenty of whole grains, fish, and poultry in your diet.

• Restrict intake of fat, red meat, and sugary foods and drinks. Avoid pre-prepared foods and meals you have not cooked yourself. Avoid hidden salt, such as in soy sauce.

• Limit consumption of alcohol to no more than one drink per day for women and no more than two per day for men. One alcoholic drink equals one 12-oz. beer, one 5-oz. glass of wine, or one shot (1H oz.) of 80-proof spirits. If you don’t drink, then don’t start.

Learn to fight Osteopenia and Osteoporosis in Diet and Disease Prevention Part 6

• Opt for fat-free and low-fat dairy products. Also choose lean meats in place of higher-fat cuts. The leanest cuts of meat are loin, flank, and round.

• Get at least 15% of total calories in your diet from monounsaturated fats such as olive oil. Choose unsaturated fats instead of saturated and trans fats.

• Limit cholesterol to 300 mg per day. If you have high blood cholesterol levels, limit your intake to less than 200 mg per day. Try to choose heart healthy fats like olive oil, that can boost your HDL cholesterol to combat your LDL cholesterol.

• Get 20 to 30 g of fiber per day (for adults over age 50); include plenty of soluble fiber. Try to get it from a variety of sources such as wholemeal bread, cereal and fresh fruit.

• Consume at least 400 micrograms (mcg) of folate (folic acid) per day from fruits, vegetables, fortified grains, and/or a supplement.

• Limit intake of refined carbohydrates, such as white flour and sugar.

• Maintain a desirable weight to prevent metabolic syndrome, a major risk factor for heart disease. Metabolic Syndrome is a condition characterized by a group of diagnostic test findings, including elevated blood glucose levels, high triglycerides, low HDL cholesterol, high blood pressure, and obesity.

Metabolic syndrome is associated with an increased risk of diabetes, heart attack, and stroke, so watching what you eat is about more than just apperance and heart health.

Learn to prevent High Blood Pressure in Diet and Disease Prevention Part 5

Heart disease is the #1 killer of BOTH men and women in the US.  In women, a first heart attack is likely to be fatal, or result in death within the first year, in up to 50% of all cases. Yes, that is up to HALF of all women dying.

Just think of the number of bereaved men and motherless children represented by that statistic, and start taking steps today for maximum heart health.

The following recommendations are a summary of the major research that has been carried out on what you can do to prevent heart attack.

• Limit saturated fat and trans fatty acids in your diet to less than 10% of calories (or less than 7% if you have high blood cholesterol levels). You can accomplish this by restricting your intake of the major sources of saturated fat (fatty meats, poultry skin, full-fat dairy products, and tropical oils) and by restricting your intake of hydrogenated fat (found in commercially prepared baked and fried foods and margarines), the major source of trans fatty acids.

• Center your diet around fish, skinless poultry, and plant-based, unprocessed, whole foods, such as whole grains, fruits, vegetables, legumes (such as beans), and nuts.

• Eat at least two servings of fish per week, particularly fatty fish such as mackerel, salmon, and albacore tuna. Fatty fish provide a type of fat, called omega-3 fatty acids, that is believed to be heart healthy.

• Include soy foods in your diet—replace foods high in saturated fat and cholesterol with 25 g of soy protein per day. This diet recommendation is particularly important for those with high levels of total and LDL cholesterol.

Learn more about preventing heart disease through nutrition in Diet and Disease Prevention Part 4

The steps for changing your diet outlined in this series of articles are simple and direct. And the best news of all is that many of these recommendations overlap. Following even one or two nutrition recommendations in this series of articles can actually help protect you against several disorders, not just one.

The diet recommendations for preventing coronary heart disease (CHD), hypertension (high blood pressure), diabetes, and osteoporosis are based on solid, consistent scientific findings.

These diet recommendations also take into account recently revised guidelines for sodium and potassium intake.

Although many of the diet recommendations for cancer prevention are less certain, a growing body of evidence suggests that they are protective.

Experts estimate that about 35% of all cancers are related to your diet, and that a high intake of fruits and vegetables can cut cancer risk by as much as half.

For those of you who already have a genetic pre-disposition to these serious health conditions, the good news is you can take active steps now to prevent heart disease or cancer from striking in the future by being proactive about your heart health today.

Continued in Diet and Disease Prevention Part 3

Since you are what you eat, as the common phrase goes, it should be no surprise that what you eat can keep you healthy, and even fight against serious health issues.

Simple changes to your diet can help prevent heart disease, high blood pressure, diabetes, and cancer. If you have any of these conditions, good sound nutrition can help you.

Even better news is that it’s never too late to start eating right and improving your health.

Many people believe that dietary changes made later in life are of little benefit. This is NOT true!

In fact, changing your diet even at mid-life or even later CAN still be a powerful weapon against several leading chronic diseases, such as heart disease, high blood pressure, diabetes, and certain forms of cancer.

The amount and types of food you eat may determine whether and when you develop a disease that reduces your quality of life (such as osteoporosis) or a life-threatening disorder (such as cancer or coronary heart disease).

In several surveys of nutrition habits, people cite many obstacles to good nutrition: time constraints, the easy availability of packaged and processed foods, the perception that they will have to give up their favorite foods, and confusion over conflicting information on nutrition.

That is not surprising—every day we’re bombarded with information on what we should or shouldn’t eat, and much of the information can be puzzling, inaccurate, or even contradictory.

In this series of articles, we will try to keep the nutrition advice as clear and simple as possible so you can take action NOW to prevent disease.

Continued in Diet and Disease Prevention Part 2

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About the Author:

This series on diet and disease prevention is authored by Joan Mullally, head of online development for Johns Hopkins Consumer Health Publications.  She is a frequent contributor to several popular health sites and blogs, including Nutrition Goddess, Weight Loss Goddess, and Healthful Goddess.

Cholesterol is a soft, waxy substance present in cells throughout the body. Deposits of cholesterol within the walls of arteries can lead to the formation of plaques. Cholesterol is produced naturally in the body, and is also found in the foods you eat.

As you probably already know, a high level of blood cholesterol is considered to be a leading risk factor for heart disease and heart attack.

In fact, an estimated 65 million Americans should reduce their cholesterol.

Fully 35 million of them should be taking cholesterol-lowering medications.

Of the 15 million Americans taking statin drugs like Zocor or Lipitor to lower cholesterol, most of them are actually taking doses too small to help them meet their optimal cholesterol levels.

Surviving dangerously high cholesterol is largely a matter of information and education. you need to get proactive about your heart health now, for a healthier future.

For a Free Special Report from John Hopkins: 7 Keys to Reduce Cholesterol, please visit:

http://www.johnshopkinshealthalerts.com/special_reports/cholesterol/cholesterol_reg_landing.html

The proteins you eat do not go directly into the brain because a filter, called the ‘blood-brain barrier,’ protects the brain. Even though the level of some substances might be quite high in your blood, this filter keeps them from getting into your brain.

Otherwise rapid fluctuations and surges of substances that might be helpful at low levels, but harmful at higher levels, would pummel your brain. The blood-brain barrier excludes from the brain many substances, including protein from the foods you eat and medications, such as antibiotics.

In contrast, other substances, such as glucose, pass freely into the brain. The more glucose in your blood, the more there is in your brain. Other substances do get into the brain but at slow, controlled rates.

Since proteins cannot pass directly into the brain, your brain makes its own, using the substances that do cross the blood-brain barrier, namely, amino acids. Amino acids are the basic structural units of proteins, which connect together like beads on a string. When you eat protein in, say, soybeans or steak, your intestinal tract and liver digest it, breaking the protein’s long strings of amino acids into individual amino acids. These amino acids then circulate in your blood. Like glucose, these lone amino acids can enter the brain, which then assembles them to make the specific proteins it needs. At this level it does not make any difference to your brain if the source of the protein is beef or soybeans.

Of course, the other parts of the food consumed, like fat, do make a difference in your overall health, so a good quality diet rich in protein but not excessive amounts of animal protein is recommended.

Fish has often been touted as ‘brain food’ due to its high protein content, and other very good minerals known to affect the brain, such as zinc.  It also has a good calories to protein ratio, and protein helps you feel full after eating (as does fat, but again, we want to limit it in the diet).

More studies need to be done on the role of fish in a brain-healthy diet, but one things is for sure, fish is generally a healthy food choice, though with increasing levels of mercury in the world’s oceans,  you should do your research on which types of fish are considered least risky.

 I found a very useful little special report

Free Special Report from Johns Hopkins Health Alerts: Seven Keys To Reduce Cholesterol

http://www.prweb.com/releases/JohnsHopkins/cholesterol/prweb508039.htm

which is free to download, to help you reduce your cholesterol.

Herbs and spices are not only tasty, they can be nutritious too. We also recommend them because people tend to think of watching what you eat as dieting or suffering and deprivation. Herbs and spices keep food tasty, and fresh, as well as wholesome.

Herbs and spices are a great way to add flavor without a whole bunch of artificial ingredients, and are particularly healthful if you are trying to cut down on salt for the sake of your heart health or high blood pressure. There is nothing worse for your heart health than a whole bunch of sodium, hidden in all sorts of prepared foods, even in things which are supposed to be sweet.

One of the easiest ways to get better nutrition is by adding breakfast to your day. Too many people fail to eat in the mornings despite the fact that a healthy breakfast provides fuel for the rest of the day. Thanks to the joys of a microwave egg poacher, you can have a fabulous poached egg in about 30-35 seconds, depending on how runny you want it. You don’t even have to add oil, so it weighs in at a tiny 90 calories, for about 15 grams of protein, about 1/3rd of what you need in a day.

People avoid eggs because of the cholesterol, but then eat far worse things, like processed foods, full of salt and sugar, and don’t even get the protein they need, just empty calories. So everything in moderation, but eggs are a great fast, filling breakfast, and inexpensive too compared with cereal!

You can also mix in some herbs for a quick scramble, like dill, parsley, chives, red pepper flakes, and best of all, you can pop it onto and English muffin or piece of bread to have on the go. It is far fewer calories to make it yourself than to by it in a fast food joint, and cheaper too.

You can also stir in a bit of low fat goat cheese or cream cheese for a real taste treat or lovely runny mini omelet. Add some salsa on top, and even put it in a low fat, low carb tortilla for a light homemade breakfast burrito with a bit of fresh coriander, parsley, and some cumin for spice.

With a glass of milk and a piece of fruit you have already covered protein, fruit and dairy in your day, with some greens as well, for a great nutritious start to your day.