February is Heart Health Month

February is Heart Health Month

The health of your heart encompasses a number of factors. Laughter is one of them. I truly hope you have people in your life that make you laugh daily. It is a proven fact that laughter can contribute to your health, and specifically, to the health of your heart.

Another factor contributing to your heart health is cholesterol and triglycerides. Dealing with the world of fats can be very confusing, this will help you keep it straight.

Cholesterol in your diet comes from foods that are animals or from animals. Plant foods, and grains do not contribute dietary cholesterol. That right there makes how you get cholesterol in foods much easier. Egg yolks, organ meats, and whole dairy products  contain the most cholesterol.
Where this gets confusing for some people is the fact their own body also produces cholesterol. Cholesterol is not a bad thing. Which is why our own bodies produce it. Cholesterol is abundant in our nerve tissue and is needed by every cell in our body. Our body’s produce about 80% of the cholesterol found in each individual. Foods supply about 20%. Our genetics determines how much cholesterol our body will make.

Saturated fats also are from animal foods: beef, pork, veal, whole dairy products. Processed foods that contain coconut oil, palm oil,stick margarine, cocoa butter, shortening. These are ingredients often found in baked cookies and cakes, crackers and snacks. Saturated fats are found in all the foods we recommend our patients

 don’t eat.

The healthy fats to eat are: Omega 3, monounsaturated fats, and poly-unsaturated fats. Omega 3’s are found in: Fish- salmon, mackerel, herring, sardines, albacore tuna, rainbow trout. Plant sources are walnuts, and flax seeds, which are very good to keep in your diet, though the plant sources provide a little less of the Omega 3’s than the fish sources. 
For unsaturated fats the best sources are: plant oils – olive oil , peanut, walnut, and canola; all nuts, peanuts, almonds, walnuts, pistachios; and avocado and olives.
Triglycerides are other fats found in the blood in blood tests. Triglycerides are stored fats. Calories consumed that your body does not readily need for functioning, gets stored as fat and this is basically what triglycerides are. To keep your triglycerides low, eat just the healthy fats discussed, eat the food you need each day without consuming extra calories and exercise.

If you stick with these healthy fats and stay away from the un-healthy fats, and if you get regular physical exercise, your triglyceride and cholesterol levels should be healthy. Majid and I do have herbs to help lower all these unhealthy fats and it is important to consume EFA’s which we do have available at the office. If you have further questions, please feel free to ask us.