good diet for a healthy heart

Dietary Factors for a Healthy Heart

Heart Disease

  • Affects more than 3.7 million Australians
  • Kills one Australian nearly every 28 minutes
  • Claimed the lives of 18,590 Australians (12% of all deaths) in 2017.
    • underlying and contributing cause, heart disease was a factor in nearly one in four deaths in 2017
  • Affects one in five Australians, and affects two out of three families

Risk Factors

  • Smoking
  • Overweight/obese
  • High Blood pressure
  • High Cholesterol
  • Poor Diet
  • Lack of exercise
  • Family History

What dietary factors to address

  1. Reduce saturated fat in diet
    1. Skin on chicken, fat on meat, processed foods, cakes, biscuits etc
  2. Increase fibre
    1. F+V, high fibre cereal/snacks
  3. Increase omega 3
    1. Fish, nuts, avocado. Soy products
  4. Alcohol in moderation
    1. Red wine can increase HDL (good cholesterol)
  5. Exercise – between 1/2 to 2/3 of us are sedentary
    1. Start doing something
    2. Aim for 30 mins/day