Avoid salty, fatty and sweet foods for your HEART

Details: Category: Region 9; Published: 25 May 2022

Kumainment 8 When it comes to food consumption, you really want to choose the best for your appetite. You want to eat saltier, fattier and sweeter foods just to satisfy your cravings. But did you know that too much consumption of these foods is bad for your health especially to your heart? When we are sad or happy, we tend to eat different foods to make us feel better and in some instances celebrate an important occasion. Most of them are referred to as comfort foods because sugar can produce brain chemicals like serotonin that make us better each day.

Kumainment 8 reminds us to limit foods that are high in sodium (salty), rich in saturated fats (fatty) and high in glucose (sweet) foods that can damage our organs specifically our heart. Here are the dangers in consuming too much of these food groups:

Too much sugar is harmful to your health. All sugars are portion of the carbohydrate family, and they can give 4 calories of energy per gram. Once you eat excess sugar, your liver is driven to create insulin to convert sugar into energy. For individuals with insulin resistance, too much sugar is not sufficiently absorbed by cells through insulin, and it can cause increase of blood sugar level. This situation can lead to heart disease. To consume less than 6 teaspoons of sugar per day (24 grams), avoid drinks that contain more than 5% of sugar (read dietary labels), eat low glycemic index (sugar) fruits such as guava, green apple, papaya that can substitute to your dessert are the easiest ways to lower the blood sugar level.

Fat is always part of our daily meal. Too much consumption of fatty foods is harmful to your health. Fat has 9 calories per gram, more than 2 times the number of calories in carbohydrates and protein. Trans-fats are undesirable fats that are found in shortenings, doughnuts, treats, coffee etc. Fatty foods that contain immersed fat are connected to poor heart health and they can cause high cholesterol level, increase LDL, and lower HDL. This can also lead to coronary artery disease. Food rich in saturated fat and cholesterol includes fatty meat and coconut milk. Easy ways to lower fat intake can be done through eating less than 6 teaspoons of fat per day (30 grams); eat lean meat 2-4 tablespoons per meal (depending on sex and age), avoid deep fried or fried foods, avoid nourishment that contains trans-fat such as shortenings, popcorn, cheeseburger, etc. and avoid reusing of cooking oil.

Based on recent studies on food consumption, people are noted to loving to eat salty foods more often. This can put them at risk for hypertension, kidney infections, and heart conditions. Sodium is a nutrient that is essential to human life. Sodium plays an important role in muscle compression, nerve conduction and water balance within the body. However, health experts recommend the proper consumption of salty foods per day to avoid health problems. Too much sodium consumption can increase the blood pressure that will eventually lead to heart attack, stroke and other cardiovascular problems. Eating less than 1 teaspoon of sodium per day (2,000 milligrams), avoid including fish sauce (or other commercialized seasonings) and processed foods are the easiest ways to lower salty food consumption.

Living a healthy lifestyle is a challenging task. We need to consume nutritious foods to make us strong and to stay away from illnesses. Let’s stay HEALTHY every day by following Kumainment No. 8 “Hinay-hinay sa maaalat, mamantika at matatamis”!

NOII Joanna Marie E. Baltazar, RND

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