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| SMART SOURCES |
| The American Heart Association publishes numerous free pamphlets on nutrition and heart disease, including The American Heart Association Diet, Cholesterol and Your Heart, and Facts About Potassium, along with publications on exercise and other crucial lifestyle factors. For more information, call the AHA at 800-AHA-USA1 or check out the AHA Web site at: www.americanheart.org |
| Heart Disease |
| Heart attack is the number one killer of Americans; stroke is number threeand the number one cause of debilitation. Both come courtesy of heart disease. |
| After studying heart disease for decades, researchers have a pretty clear picture of what makes it happen and what you can do to help prevent it. When arteries become clogged by plaque, they can't carry sufficient oxygen-bearing blood to the heart. That leads to heart disease. Heart attacks happen when the heart's arterial passageways are completely blocked by plaque or by blood clots; stroke happens when the brain's arteries are similarly blocked. |
| Some of the risk factors for heart disease are out of your control: age, gender (men are at greater risk than women, and they have attacks earlier in life), and heredity. Others, however, are well within your control. Aside from smoking and inactivity, all the other risk factors cited by the American Heart Association involve diet. |
| The dietary keys to heart health are eating foods that are low in saturated fat and high in antioxidant vitamins, particularly vitamin E and beta-carotene, as well as potassium, which regulates blood pressure. Eating foods high in omega-3 fatty acids have also been shown to have a heart-healthy effect. |
| Smart Foods |
| Wheat germ, sunflower seeds, almonds, sweet potatoes, broccoli, and leafy green vegetables for vitamin E. |
| Red peppers, apricots, mangoes, pumpkin, carrots, and leafy green vegetables for beta-carotene. |
| Dried fruit, leafy green vegetables, potatoes, bananas, and citrus fruit for potassium. |
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