Taking cardio-protective foods to heart
THE MERCURY ON SEPTEMBER 23, 2016
AS WORLD Heart Day approaches (September 29), dietitian and nutritional expert Dr Tuschka Reynders weighs in on the best foods to eat to prevent hypertension – one of the leading risk factors for heart disease and stroke.
Hypertension refers to the level of high or raised blood pressure that stresses your body’s blood vessels, causing them to weaken. With few or no symptoms, 75% of South Africans have high blood pressure and don’t even know it.
The condition can lead to the narrowing of the blood vessels, which increases the chances of a blockage from blood clots or bits of fatty material breaking off from the lining of the blood vessel wall.
Damage to the arteries can also create weak places that rupture easily or thin spots that swell the artery wall, resulting in an aneurism (an excessive localised enlargement of an artery, which, if ruptured, can cause serious problems and even death). She advises: Focus on moderate portions. Include foods such as dairy, fermented products such as yoghurt, cultured buttermilk and maas, and a variety of fruit and vegetables.
Eat more lean protein foods, healthy plant fats and whole grains and legumes.
Limit added salt, sugar and unhealthy fats.
Adopt healthier lifestyle habits such as exercise, maintaining a suitable weight and a healthy diet to help prevent hypertension. responsible for 50% of strokes (one in two) and 42% of heart attacks (two in five) in South Africa.
Nearly eight out of 10 people in South Africa aged 50 and older have been diagnosed with hypertension.
Every hour in South Africa, five people have heart attacks and 10 people have strokes.
Of those events, 10 people will actually die from them.
Hypertension affects at least 970 million people worldwide – the World Health Organisation rates it as one of the most important causes of premature death worldwide.
Hypertension is quantitatively the most important risk factor for premature cardiovascular disease. It accounts for an estimated 54% of all strokes and 47% of all ischemic heart disease events globally.
The more risk factors you have (hypertension, high cholesterol, obesity, physical inactivity, diabetes and unhealthy diets), the greater your likelihood of developing cardiovascular disease, unless you take action to modify your risk factors to prevent them from compromising your heart health.
– Sources: World Heart Federation and Heart and Stroke Foundation South Africa