healthy heart diet for longetivity

Forget about what you know about eggs,nuts and margarines.Forget about
the US department of Agriculture's food pyramid.The low fat high
carbohydrate diet that has been promoted for over a decade to prevent
coronary heart diease may not be the best diet after all.
Researchers from the famed Harvard University have now presented a
healthy heart diet that question the original diet-heart
hypothesis.The new healthy heart diet is based on large numbers of
diet studies involving hundreds of thousands of people.
In the proposed new healthy heart diet they have put rice,bread,sugar
right on the top of pyramid-to be eaten moderately.And good oils have
been put at the bottom of the pyramid.This radically changes the
current thinking on diet.
Here we give some foods that is considered to be a healthy heart diet
and some to give a pass.We also address some controversial foods.

1. TEA- The recent study says that consumption of 1 to 2 cups of tea a
day resulted in 46% decrease in the development of hardening of
arteries and lowers the risk by 69% if taken 4 cups.Black tea is a
healthy heart diet which contains fairly high levels of compound
called flavanoids,a family of antioxidents known to protect against
free radical damage in heart arteries.

2. NUTS-Nuts are also considered as a healthy heart diet although they
have been much feared because of their fat content.The study involving
some 90,000 women showed that women who ate an ounce of nuts atleast
five times a week for 14 yrs lowered their risk of heart disease by
30%.Nuts are rich in fibre and monosaturated fats, knownto counteract
heart disease.Nuts are also rich in various antioxidants.

3. Garlic/Onion-Heart healthy diet consist of eating garlic and onion
daily.It helps in detrmining artery-clogging and even heal a damaged
artery.Even quarcetin,an antioxidant found in onion has been found to
be useful.Studies are showing that onions can increase good
cholestrol.Eat them raw for best effect.

4.Red Wine-A recent study from the medical center in boston reported
that people who drink alcohol thrice a week are less likely to develop
heart disease than are nondrinkers.Red grapes may also do the trick
for non-drinkers.

5.FISH-The study has proved that fish is also considered as a heart
healthy diet and has been scientifically validated and accepted as
part of mainstream medicine.However beware of contimination of
fish-especially the predatory type.

6.Soy Protien-The Food and drug administration of US have concluded
that 25gm of soy protien as a part of diet low in saturated fat and
cholestrol can reduce the risk of coronary heart disease.However,this
should not be the main stay of your diet.

7.Chocolate- Chocolate helps your heart as well-the darker the
better.Its flavanoids,a family of antioxidants,help the body resist
cell damage from free radicals.Hence making it a heart healthy diet.

8. Honey-Drinking honey with water increases the antioxidants level in
the blood.But,make sure it is pure and unadultereted.One of the
easiest ways to make sure that honey is stored in glass bottles and
not plastic containers as plastics are known to get etched with pure
honey.

These are some of the heart healthy diet ,free of cholestrol.But you
could lack choline which can give rise to liver damage if you stop
eating high cholestrol food completely.Choline is a b-complex
vitamin.found in foods such as eggs and liver.

By Pallavi khera, Gwalior, India