by Pallavi Khera

Created on: March 21, 2007   Last Updated: April 18, 2007

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 disease 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 antioxidants 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, known to 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 determining 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.

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