World Heart Day

Run For Your Heart


Today is World Heart Day. Keep your Heart Risk Free. Attack the "Heart Attack" before it attacks You !



Happy Hearts are Healthy Hearts !

World Heart Day 2008 - 'Know Your Risk' - is a call to action to help people better understand their personal risk for cardiovascular disease, including hypertension (high blood pressure). Heart health screening and other activities for the public are being planned in over one hundred countries worldwide.

A 3 gram reduction in a person’s dietary intake of salt would result in over a 20% drop in deaths from stroke and over a 15% fall in deaths from heart disease. As heart disease and stroke are the world’s number one killer, causing 17.5 million deaths every year, eating half a teaspoon less of salt each day could save millions of lives.

High blood pressure or hypertension is the biggest single risk factor for heart disease and stroke and currently affects more than a billion people worldwide. However by the year 2025 it is estimated more than 1.5 billion people,3 or nearly one in three adults over the age of 25, will have high blood pressure. This is why this year’s World Heart Day taking place on Sunday 28th September is urging people to take action and visit their health-care professional to “Know Your Risk!”

Risk factors for heart disease and stroke include high blood pressure, cholesterol and glucose levels, smoking, inadequate intake of fruit and vegetables, overweight, obesity and physical inactivity. Taken together, these major risk factors account for around 80% of deaths from heart disease and stroke.Heart disease and stroke cause the equivalent of more than one death every two seconds, as many deaths as HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria and diabetes, all forms of cancer and chronic respiratory disease combined.

There is a vast public misperception and disproportional lack of attention paid to people’s risk of heart disease and stroke in relation to more sensational health issues. As a result, people tend to overestimate the number of deaths from rarer and infrequent risks while underestimating those from more common causes such as heart disease and stroke.

How to reduce salt in your diet

The UK Food Standard Agency provides the following dietary tips to make sure people do not consume excess salt and to help protect them from heart disease and stroke

Hidden salt

When most people think of salt, they think of shaking it on their food, or adding a pinch to cooking. However, you also need to be careful about the salt you can't see. The World Health Organization recommends a maximum quantity of 5 grams of salt a day7, which is about a teaspoonful. This is not a large amount, especially when you consider that 75% of the salt we eat is already in the food we buy. Therefore, before you assume that you don't eat too much salt, take a look at what you're buying, as well as how you use salt at home.

Tips on reducing salt in your diet

There are a lot of simple ways to reduce the amount of salt you eat, whether you're cooking or choosing food at the shops. Try not to add salt automatically when you're cooking or about to eat. Often people only use salt out of habit.

When you cook, there are lots of ways to add flavor to your cooking without using any salt.
-Add fresh herbs, use black pepper, garlic, ginger, chili and lime in stir fries.
-Marinate meat and fish in advance to give them more flavor.
-Roast vegetables such as red peppers, courgettes, fennel, parsnips and squash to bring out their flavor.

When you eat, there are lots of ways to eat less salt.

-Choose healthier breakfast cereals. Try puffed wheat or wheat biscuits with no added salt.Snack on plain popcorn or unsalted nuts and seeds, instead of crisps or crackers.
-Go easy with ketchup, soy sauce, mustard, pickles and mayonnaise - these can all be high in salt.
-When you have a salad, use only as much dressing as you need. Some dressings can be high in salt.

When you buy food, find out the amount of salt in foods, you normally eat.

You will then discover how easy it can be to eat more than 5 grams. One of the simplest ways to cut down on salt is to compare foods and choose those which have a lower salt content whenever you can.