Dr Sarah Jarvis
My Weekly’s favourite GP from TV and radio writes for you
The expression “you are what you eat” is most true where your heart is concerned. What you put into your body has a huge impact on your liver, bowel, kidneys, brain – but also your arteries, which supply all your organs with vital oxygen.
We all need some cholesterol in our bodies – it makes up part of the wall of every cell in your body – but most of us have far too much in our systems. Excess cholesterol is deposited as fatty “plaques” on the inside of your arteries, leading to heart attack and stroke.
Keeping your weight down will cut blood pressure and cholesterol, and regular exercise will increase your “good” HDL cholesterol, which can actually protect your heart and brain. But your diet plays a huge part in how high your cholesterol is.
Then there’s high blood pressure, which affects more than half of over-50s. It can narrow and damage your arteries, increasing your risk of heart attack and stroke.
Many diet changes will help both your cholesterol and your blood pressure. A Mediterranean-style diet has been proven time and again to protect against heart disease, but I don’t mean Greek pastries or kebabs! Key elements include: ✦ Less meat, in particular red or fatty meat ✦ More fish ✦ More fruit, veg and salad (at least 5 portions a day) ✦ Less processed food (eg sausages, pastry, cake) ✦ Less saturated fat (butter, cream and other high-fat dairy products) ✦ More unsaturated vegetable oils (especially olive oil, although rapeseed oil is a
EXPENSIVE “POSH” SALTS INCLUDING “PINK HIMALAYAN ROCK SALT” MAY BE MUCH MORE EXPENSIVE, BUT THEY’RE NO HEALTHIER!
healthy British alternative) ✦ More unrefined carbohydrates (wholegrain foods and beans and pulses)
The Portfolio Diet took this a step further, trying to lower cholesterol as much as statin tablets. To a Mediterranean style diet they added plantbased foods that actively lower cholesterol. These include eating daily: ✦ Almonds ✦ Soluble fibre (oats, oranges, strawberries, prunes, barley, rye and lentils) ✦ Soya foods (tofu, soya beans etc) ✦ Plant sterols (like Flora Proactiv or Benecol)
In the longer term, the diet proved hard to stick to strictly, so after a year the average drop in cholesterol was 13%, compared to 25% at three months. Even so, 1 in 3 people who tried the diet kept their cholesterol down by more than 20% for a year.
The DASH diet was specifically looking to see if people could lower their blood pressure through diet. Again, the answer was yes. The DASH diet is similar to the Mediterranean diet, but focuses on limiting alcohol, sugar and especially salt.
Salt plays a major part in raising blood pressure. We should almost all be eating less salt – the average British adult eats over 8g a day when the recommended maximum is 6g (1tsp). In ingredients you’ll often see sodium listed, rather than salt. 6g salt is 2.4g sodium.
About ¾ of the salt in our diets is hidden in ready meals, bread, pickles and sauces. Cooking from scratch gives you more control. So does cutting down on foods like bacon, salami, olives and tuna in brine.
LoSalt contains 2/3 less sodium than normal salt. It contains potassium, so may not be suitable if you have kidney problems or are on some blood pressure medication.
When cooking, experiment with spices and lemon juice to add flavour. Next week: Bowel Cancer Awareness
THE MIND DIET (SIMILAR TO THE DASH DIET BUT WITH MORE NUTS AND BERRIES) CAN ALSO PROTECT AGAINST DEMENTIA.