Just saw this online and thought it was pretty good.
http://health.yahoo.net/articles/nutrition/photos/8-surprising-heart-healthy-foods#0
Five dollar foot-longs: good for the heart? Well, kind of. Earlier this summer the American Heart Association put its stamp of approval on certain Subway meals, crowning the sub shop the first fast-food chain to don the “Heart-Check” logo on its menu.
While the whole menu isn’t fair game, some of your favorite sandwiches like the black forest ham, oven roasted chicken, and subway club on 9-grain bread—at 6 inches—meet the American Heart Association’s standards for amounts of calories, sodium, cholesterol, saturated fat, and trans fat. (Want to drop pounds eating delicious restaurant fare? Pick up Eat This, Not That! 2012 today.)
Shocked? Heart-healthy foods don’t have to mean boring oatmeal and dry salmon. Here are three more that may surprise you.
Spicy Foods Heartburn or heart protector? When researchers at the Chinese University of Hong Kong studied the effects of capsaicinoids—compounds that lends flavor to chili peppers and jalapenos—in hamsters, rodents fed the spicy foods showed lower levels of LDL (“bad”) cholesterol than the animals that ate capsaicinoid-free meals. What’s up? Capsaicionoids appear to block the gene that causes your arteries to contract, leading to relaxed muscles and better blood flow to the heart, researchers believe. Your move: Don’t go overboard with the Mexican. Instead, spice up a salad with half a chili pepper, or a tablespoon of chili flakes a day. Bonus: Sip that Bloody Mary guilt-free—it’s also packed with the capsaicinoid cayenne.
Beer Red wine may soon have company on the healthy drinks menu. According to a recent review of more than 18 studies on booze, beer is just as good for your heart as vino. Drinking a little more than a pint of beer a day could make you 30 percent less likely than non-drinkers to suffer from stroke, heart attacks, and heart disease, researchers found. Credit heart benefits to the alcohol itself, and polyphenols (antioxidants) in beer. And make sure to drink that beer with a smile—click here to learn The Surprising Heart Benefits of Optimism.
Burgers As long as they’re grass-fed. How come? A heart-healthy diet has to be balanced in omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids. The omega-3 to omega-6 fatty acid ratio is usually way out of whack on most of your conventional beef, but with grass-fed beef, it’s close to 1:3—similar to the ratio found in most heart-healthy fish. Another bonus? Grass-fed beef is loaded with cardio-protective vitamin E. Check out your local farmer’s market to find the best grass-fed beef.
Pasta The antioxidants in pasta help control inflammation and insulin, which in turn helps reduce levels of harmful LDL cholesterol and triglycerides. When Harvard University researchers analyzed the diets of more than 27,000 people over 8 years, they discovered that those who ate whole grains daily weighed 2.5 pounds less than those who ate refined grains. The solution? Start by avoiding these 7 Worst Pasta Dishes in America.
Scrambled Eggs A study in the Journal of Nutrition found that eating eggs increases HDL (“good”) cholesterol but not LDL (“bad”) cholesterol. So eggs actually help your arteries stay clear! In another study, overweight participants ate a 340-calorie breakfast of either two eggs or a single bagel 5 days a week for 8 weeks. Those who ate eggs (including the yolk) reported higher energy levels and lost 65 percent more weight—with no effect on their total cholesterol levels.
Steak Yes, it’s true: Even beef can give bad cholesterol a gut-punch, says a study published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. Study participants ate portions of 4.0 and 5.4 ounces of lean beef daily, and saw decreases in “bad” LDL cholesterol of up to 10 percent when combined with a healthy diet.
What gives? Previous studies that found that red meat increases heart disease risk have one big flaw: They lump processed meats (sausage, hot dogs, Spam) in a category with red meat. “These are completely different from lean beef in terms of nutrition,” says nutritionist and coauthor of the study Michael Roussell, Ph.D.
Drumsticks “The extra fat in dark turkey or chicken meat raises your levels of cholecystokinin (CCK), a hormone that makes you feel fuller, longer,” says Alan Aragon, M.S., a California-based nutritionist. The benefit: You'll be less likely to overeat in the hours that follow your meal. What about your cholesterol? Only a third of the fat in a turkey drumstick is the saturated kind. (The other two-thirds are heart-healthy unsaturated fats.) What's more, 86 percent of that saturated fat either has no impact on cholesterol, or raises HDL (“good”) cholesterol more than LDL (“bad”) cholesterol—a result that actually lowers your heart-disease risk.
Ketchup There are two things you need to know about tomatoes: red are the best, because they’re packed with more of the antioxidant lycopene; and processed tomatoes are just as potent as fresh ones, because it’s easier for the body to absorb the lycopene. Studies show that a diet rich in lycopene can decrease your risk of coronary artery disease. It took people just one glass of tomato juice and 2 tablespoons of ketchup every day for 3 weeks to cut LDL cholesterol levels by an average of 8.5 percent, according to a study in the British Journal of Nutrition.
http://health.yahoo.net/articles/nutrition/photos/8-surprising-heart-healthy-foods#0
Five dollar foot-longs: good for the heart? Well, kind of. Earlier this summer the American Heart Association put its stamp of approval on certain Subway meals, crowning the sub shop the first fast-food chain to don the “Heart-Check” logo on its menu.
While the whole menu isn’t fair game, some of your favorite sandwiches like the black forest ham, oven roasted chicken, and subway club on 9-grain bread—at 6 inches—meet the American Heart Association’s standards for amounts of calories, sodium, cholesterol, saturated fat, and trans fat. (Want to drop pounds eating delicious restaurant fare? Pick up Eat This, Not That! 2012 today.)
Shocked? Heart-healthy foods don’t have to mean boring oatmeal and dry salmon. Here are three more that may surprise you.
Spicy Foods Heartburn or heart protector? When researchers at the Chinese University of Hong Kong studied the effects of capsaicinoids—compounds that lends flavor to chili peppers and jalapenos—in hamsters, rodents fed the spicy foods showed lower levels of LDL (“bad”) cholesterol than the animals that ate capsaicinoid-free meals. What’s up? Capsaicionoids appear to block the gene that causes your arteries to contract, leading to relaxed muscles and better blood flow to the heart, researchers believe. Your move: Don’t go overboard with the Mexican. Instead, spice up a salad with half a chili pepper, or a tablespoon of chili flakes a day. Bonus: Sip that Bloody Mary guilt-free—it’s also packed with the capsaicinoid cayenne.
Beer Red wine may soon have company on the healthy drinks menu. According to a recent review of more than 18 studies on booze, beer is just as good for your heart as vino. Drinking a little more than a pint of beer a day could make you 30 percent less likely than non-drinkers to suffer from stroke, heart attacks, and heart disease, researchers found. Credit heart benefits to the alcohol itself, and polyphenols (antioxidants) in beer. And make sure to drink that beer with a smile—click here to learn The Surprising Heart Benefits of Optimism.
Burgers As long as they’re grass-fed. How come? A heart-healthy diet has to be balanced in omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids. The omega-3 to omega-6 fatty acid ratio is usually way out of whack on most of your conventional beef, but with grass-fed beef, it’s close to 1:3—similar to the ratio found in most heart-healthy fish. Another bonus? Grass-fed beef is loaded with cardio-protective vitamin E. Check out your local farmer’s market to find the best grass-fed beef.
Pasta The antioxidants in pasta help control inflammation and insulin, which in turn helps reduce levels of harmful LDL cholesterol and triglycerides. When Harvard University researchers analyzed the diets of more than 27,000 people over 8 years, they discovered that those who ate whole grains daily weighed 2.5 pounds less than those who ate refined grains. The solution? Start by avoiding these 7 Worst Pasta Dishes in America.
Scrambled Eggs A study in the Journal of Nutrition found that eating eggs increases HDL (“good”) cholesterol but not LDL (“bad”) cholesterol. So eggs actually help your arteries stay clear! In another study, overweight participants ate a 340-calorie breakfast of either two eggs or a single bagel 5 days a week for 8 weeks. Those who ate eggs (including the yolk) reported higher energy levels and lost 65 percent more weight—with no effect on their total cholesterol levels.
Steak Yes, it’s true: Even beef can give bad cholesterol a gut-punch, says a study published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. Study participants ate portions of 4.0 and 5.4 ounces of lean beef daily, and saw decreases in “bad” LDL cholesterol of up to 10 percent when combined with a healthy diet.
What gives? Previous studies that found that red meat increases heart disease risk have one big flaw: They lump processed meats (sausage, hot dogs, Spam) in a category with red meat. “These are completely different from lean beef in terms of nutrition,” says nutritionist and coauthor of the study Michael Roussell, Ph.D.
Drumsticks “The extra fat in dark turkey or chicken meat raises your levels of cholecystokinin (CCK), a hormone that makes you feel fuller, longer,” says Alan Aragon, M.S., a California-based nutritionist. The benefit: You'll be less likely to overeat in the hours that follow your meal. What about your cholesterol? Only a third of the fat in a turkey drumstick is the saturated kind. (The other two-thirds are heart-healthy unsaturated fats.) What's more, 86 percent of that saturated fat either has no impact on cholesterol, or raises HDL (“good”) cholesterol more than LDL (“bad”) cholesterol—a result that actually lowers your heart-disease risk.
Ketchup There are two things you need to know about tomatoes: red are the best, because they’re packed with more of the antioxidant lycopene; and processed tomatoes are just as potent as fresh ones, because it’s easier for the body to absorb the lycopene. Studies show that a diet rich in lycopene can decrease your risk of coronary artery disease. It took people just one glass of tomato juice and 2 tablespoons of ketchup every day for 3 weeks to cut LDL cholesterol levels by an average of 8.5 percent, according to a study in the British Journal of Nutrition.