Heart Disease
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2.5 Most diets designed to prevent cardiovascular disease have one primary goal, which is to lower cholesterol levels. But this is just one among a number of ways to protect your heart. If all adults were to follow a cholesterol lowering diet only, the number of deaths from heart disease would still be much higher. For ultimate protection you need to reduce other risk factors as well the most important of which is the way the blood clots. This is the single greatest determinant of whether you will suffer a heart attack or a stroke. The viscosity of the blood, its stickiness and its tendency to form clots are important factors that can be averted and check cardiovascular tragedies. In the early stages of life the arteries are clean elastic and open. But wrong lifestyle and food choices allow the arteries to get clogged (atherosclerosis) leading to coronary heart disease.
2.6 The incidence of heart disease is more in urban areas than in rural areas. Children in the metros are prone to various diseases due to pollution, their faulty lifestyle, wrong eating habits and sedentary lifestyle like spending long hours in front of TV or in computer games. Weight gain in childhood leads to enlarged hearts in young adults. Secondly, peer pressure and the constant demands to uphold an impressive academic record and examination stress are the prime causes of lifestyle diseases, including heart disease, among children. Moreover, within nuclear families, the lack of time to socialise and the working parents’ inability to devote time for children’s eating habits have precipated new ailments.
2.7 Indians are particularly at an early and higher cardiovascular risk because they genetically suffer from Metabolic Syndrome (Syndrome X). Metabolic Syndrome is a clustering of cardiovascular disease risk factors of central obesity with excess fat around the waist (pot belly); high blood pressure; glucose intolerance, raised insulin levels (insulin resistance); elevated triglycerides; high level of low density lipoprotein (LDL – bad cholesterol); and low levels of high density lipoprotein (HDL – good cholesterol).
2.8 Evidence suggests a number of risk factors for heart disease: Obesity, high serum cholesterol levels, gender, high blood pressure, junk foods, tobacco smoking, excessive alcohol consumption, sugar consumption, family history, lack of physical activity, psychosocial factors, diabetes mellitus, air pollution. These and some other risk factors are detailed below. As a responsible owner/custodian of your heart, it is prudent to know of any risk factors that you may be suffering from. Remember it is never too early, nor too late to start taking care of your heart.
Harmful Junk Foods
2.9 Junk food is anything that has been stripped off its fibre, vitamin and mineral content; that is difficult to digest and produces toxic residues; that has a lot of calories, sugar, sodium (salt), saturated fats, transfats (hydrogenated oils); that is laden with harmful chemical additives and preservatives which may lead to genetic mutations that cause disease in the long term; that is exposed to high temperatures which destroys nutrients. By this definition junk food includes fast food such as pizzas, burgers; processed food such as wafers; street food such as bhelpuri, samosas, pakoras; packaged tinned and readymade food/beverages such as noodles, chips, biscuits and fizzy drinks/colas; sweets such as gulab jamun, cakes, pasteries.
2.10 Human bodies have not been equipped by nature to eat junk unnaturally processed food or chemically contaminated food. If we do so routinely, we can not avoid their harmful consequences including heart problems. Junk foods terrorise and traumatise your metabolism and set the foundation for a clutch of degenerative diseases such as obesity, high blood pressure, diabetes, nutritional deficiencies causing conditions such as anaemia and osteoporosis and raising the risk of heart disease, stroke and even some cancers.
