| By :
Bessie Jo Tillman
What would your ideal heart disease diet look like? You probably want an eating plan that's easy to prepare and delicious to taste as well as one based on solid nutritional research. You are in luck because that great heart disease diet exists. First let's take a brief overall look at heart disease because you need to combine two other major lifestyle habits with diet to truly make a difference in reversing or preventing heart disease. For this article we're defining heart disease as narrowing and blockage of the arteries that can affect almost all major arteries of the body. Unfortunately, heart disease and stroke can cause up to one third of all deaths. But here's the good news. You can prevent or reverse heart disease by following this simple ABC approach: A. Avoid tobacco B. Be more active and walk 30 minutes C. Choose healthier food, including more fiber, less saturated fat, and less salt. Avoid tobacco - if you're not smoking now, great. If you're smoking now, look for help in stopping. Be more active and walk 30 minutes, that's easy to implement - just do it! Choose healthier food. Now that may seem more complicated to you, depending on how you're eating now, especially if you eat the Standard American Diet (SAD - so true). Have you tried a lot of the heart disease diets out there, low carb, low fat, low glycemic, avoid this, avoid that. Is it just too confusing and hard to follow? Just forget all of that! People diagnosed with heart disease and hardening of the arteries need a simple, effective, tasty heart disease diet that becomes their healthy eating plan for lives. Pioneers in the field of nutrition research discovered that certain food creates life and health in the body and other food creates disease and death for the body. These pioneers studied people who lived in cultures free of heart disease and free of other diseases. These happy folks enjoyed great physiques and beautiful straight teeth. These robustly healthy people had no need for doctors, dentists, jails or policemen. They lived in harmony with nature and each other. Their food supply came directly from nature, what they could grow, harvest or hunt. Each culture had a source of animal protein, vegetables, whole grains, nuts, seeds and sometimes fruit. Each generation passed the wisdom of proper nutrition on to the next generation to perpetuate the legacy of health. For instance, native Alaskans had very few resources for food containing vitamin C. Ingeniously they divided the adrenal glands of the caribou with all the tribal members as one source of vitamin C. They also froze the stomach contents of the caribou which contained green food since they are grazing animals. Then they carefully sliced and shared the vital nutrients in this delicacy. Now you don't have to eat the stomach contents of the next animal you encounter, but pay attention to the wisdom of eating food that contains all of the nutrients that your body needs. They had no heart disease or other diseases (even though their diet was around 80% fat) until they were exposed to processed death-food like sugar, white flour, coffee, canned food and abnormal plasticized fats found in fried and overheated oils. Learn well from such wise people. Choose life by choosing life-giving food. Base your heart disease diet on vegetables, animal protein, whole grains, nuts, and seeds. Once you're well on the road to revitalizing your health, you may add a small serving of fresh fruit to your eating plan. Think of eating in a way that serves your body well. In your healthy heart disease diet eat these foods that promote health and avoid the ever prevalent death foods. Think of developing an eating plan that suits your uniquely-you metabolism. Forget about the diet idea if you're thinking of it as a diet that you'll do for awhile and then you'll go back to those old ways of eating (i.e., "the death food plan"). Instead enjoy a healthy eating plan for the rest of your vibrant and productive life.
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