Heart disease is the number one killer in the US, but many people don’t realize that this number could be drastically reduced if we just ate healthier diets. For years we have been programmed to believe that cholesterol is the culprit and we should avoid things like eggs and seafood, when in fact this is only part of the story. More and more, research is finding that the real culprit is an unhealthy lifestyle and probably the worst foods for your heart are those which have been hydrogenated, such as margarine which is not natural and far more dangerous than even better as your body cannot process it properly.

Another thing that you don’t hear too much about is the effect of sugar on your heart. In fact, sugar is a leading contributor to heart disease. Sugar raises serum cholesterol and triglyceride levels and also makes your platelets extra sticky causing your blood to clot more which can be a cause of heart attack and stroke. Not only that, but it can lessen the amount of good bacteria in your intestines which indirectly increases blood cholesterol levels. Sugar also causes insulin to be released into your bloodstream and researchers now think that insulin may help cholesterol to be deposited in the walls of your blood vessels.

So what can you keep to keep your heart healthy?

Believe it or not, one of the key heart healthy foods is eggs. I know, you’ve probably believed for your whole life that eggs were bad for your heart and maybe you even avoided them. This is largely due to the fact that eggs to contain a lot of cholesterol and it was once thought that eating cholesterol would contribute to heart disease, however studies now show that the cholesterol that you eat has very little effect on the cholesterol levels in your blood. In fact, a study In the British Medical Journal reported that eating seven eggs a week in combination with a low-fat high fiber diet did not cause cholesterol levels to be raised at all. eggs have great nutritional value, especially the yolk which is loaded with choline which actually helps to dissolve fat and cholesterol. Read the rest of this entry »