dietarystudent2021

[dietarystudent2021]

Looking to improve your cardiovascular health?

What are added sugars?

Added sugars are sugars that are added to food items like beverages. The difference between added sugars and natural sugars is that the natural sugars do not have any added sugars. They are just naturally sweet. For example, fruit is something that no sugar is added to it to make sweet. If you have ever seen these on your food label high-fructose corn syrup, corn sweetener, corn syrup, dextrose, fructose, glucose, lactose, malt syrup, maltose, molasses, raw sugar, then your food item has added sugar into it.

Added sugar started when companies replaced fat with sugar in foods. Today you will find that added sugars are in everything. These added sugars may be causing you more harm than good.

Other Health Concerns Linked to Added Sugars

You may want to reduce your intake of added sugars for various reasons, but sugar can help you shed a few pounds that can be leading to one of the following health concerns.

· Obesity

· Type 2 Diabetes

· High blood pressure

· High cholesterol

· Chronic inflammation

Added sugar is linked to cravings that occur when consuming sugars in foods. It makes you more likely to want that food again, or you crave that food for the sweetness. A major concern that sugar cravings can lead to is mood swings, increased in other sugary food intakes, and may be even withdrawal symptoms like headaches.

Over consumption of sugar can affect the natural way your body functions. This can affect your hormones, which can lead to the pancreas secreting more insulin. More insulin in the body causes the body to store more fat.

The main health concern that I will be focusing on is heart disease. Now that you see how added sugars affect many different types of people and create many issues within the body. Let me explain how it is affecting your heart.

Major Food Items That Contain Added Sugars

When we think of added sugars, we can think of ourselves added sugar to our foods. This is the right way to think about this, but it is also in foods that we buy at the store as well. We can see these added sugars in regular soft drinks, candy, cakes, cookies, pies, and fruit drinks. They will also be seen in desserts and milk products like ice cream, sweetened yogurt, sweetened milk and other grains, cinnamon toast, and honey-nut waffles. We need to keep an eye out for these sugars because they can affect our bodies in a negative way.

What added sugars does to Heart Disease

Heart disease affects many Americans. These patients become more aware of what they need to eat during the day to stay healthy and keep their heart healthy. According to the study done to prove the risk factors of cardiovascular disease, “The INTERHEART study showed that people with abnormal blood lipid levels are 3 times more likely to have cardiovascular disease than those with normal blood lipid levels” (Dong). Cutting out sugars can improve these patient’s health. Heart disease is a major concern for people eating added sugars because when people are continuing to eat these added sugars, they tend to gain more weight. More weight means extra pounds that your body does not need and causes obesity. This obesity can thereby reduce your heart health in a negative way. A tip that I would recommend for these patients is to replace all those added sugars with awhole food.

Reducing added sugars can also improve other aspects of your health along with your heart health. These include:

· Increased energy

· Clearer skin

· Weight loss reduced inflammation

· Decreased mood swings

While you may be worried about your heart health and this may be your major reason to change your health, but by focusing on your self-care is a major step in changing your eating patterns and also changing your mind-set.

Begin Reducing Added Sugars Slowly

Reducing added sugar should be done slowly. Change is hard and uncomfortable. You do not need to empty your whole pantry and refrigerator of all the added sugars. Start off by picking a few things that will benefit your lifestyle.

A great idea would be if you drink soda every day, replace it with a sparkling water with no calories or no added sugars. Try this for a week and see how much better you feel.

Replacements

Some other ideas that can help you feel better is:

1. Coffee: Try added cinnamon in place of sugar

2. Yogurt: Try Greek yogurt in place of a fruit flavored yogurt

3. Oatmeal: Try bulk rolled oats in place of flavored instant packets

4. Fruits: Try fresh or frozen in place of canned with heavy syrup

5. Snacks: Try Veggie sticks and hummus in place of chips or crackers

6. Dressings: Try olive oil and lemon in place of premade

7. Candy: Try dried fruits and nuts in place of packaged candy

8. Burgers: Try portobello mushroom cap in place of a regular bun

These are a few tips that can help you start making the right decisions. Each one of these is something that is small enough that you can continue to change a few other items in your own personal diet. Heart patients who do cut out added sugars are more likely to live longer, according to the CDC.

Read Those Food Labels

The simplest way to reduce your added sugars is to read the food nutritional label on each food item that you consume. You will find the amount of sugar added in grams below the carbohydrates. Be sure to also read all the ingredients in the food to make sure that it does not contain any of the added sugars stated at the beginning. If you notice that a food item like Greek yogurt has 6 grams of added sugar, you may think to yourself that “I should not eat this food item because it has added sugars.” This may be your thought, but the Greek yogurt provides you with more good than harm, so it is acceptable to consume this food item. The reason for this is because Greek yogurt provides you with protein, fats to keep you fuller longer and calcium. This may happen to many other food items in your pantry, so you will have too way out the good over the bad.

Recommendations

The American Heart Association (AHA) recommends that the amount of added sugars you consume be no more than half your daily discretionary calories allowance. What this means is that your daily calorie allowed after the calories you have accounted for with your recommended food consumed from each food group. These calories provide you with no nutritional value. For women, this would be no more than 100 calories a day and for men, this would be no more than 150 calories.

Why Whole Foods

Replacing added sugars with whole food can reduce the facts of heart disease. When replacing added sugars in your diet with whole foods this can shed unnecessary weight. Reducing your weight is a major concern for heart patients because extra pounds can put a strain on your heart and therefore have a negative effect on your heart disease.

Whole Foods That Are Great for Your HEART

Here are some food items that you can find that are bene to your heart and some tips to go along with each food item. These foods are great for your heart:

1. Eat fish high in omega-3s, this includes salmon, tuna, herring and trout

2. A handful of healthy nuts, this includes almonds or walnuts. These are a great snack that will help satisfy you if you are feeling hungry

3. Berries, such as strawberries, blueberries, blackberries and raspberries, are a great option to add to your diet. Berries are full of phytonutrients and soluble fiber.

4. Seeds: Some seeds that can be added to your diet to improve your heart are flaxseeds and chia seeds. Flaxseeds is a great omega 3 fatty acid and fiber that will boost your heart health. Chia seeds also provide omega 3 fatty acid and fiber, but it also provides proteins.

5. Oats are a great morning staple to add a more nutrient dense food to your breakfast. It can also be added to salads and yogurts

6. Legumes like dried beans and lentils are high in fiber and B Vitamins and minerals. You can make a meal such as chili.

7. Soy, such as tofu and edamame beans, is great for your heart healthy. These can be added to your meals to make a stir-fry or any lunch or dinner meal.

8. Vegetables that are red, yellow and orange provide your body with fiber and vitamins that are essential to help your heart. These include sweet potatoes, carrots, red peppers, tomatoes, and squash

9. Green leafy vegetables such as spinach, kale, collard greens and bok choy provided your body with folate, calcium and fiber. Be sure to ask your doctor the recommended amount for you. Many heart patients need to limit their Vitamin K intake due to their medications like blood thinners.

10. Fruits that contain beta-carotene potassium, magnesium and fiber are important to added to your diet. These fruits include oranges, cantaloupes and papaya.

Many of these whole foods can be found at your local grocery store and you can continue to improve your heart health with all these great tips and knowledge that you have read here in this blog. Reducing your added sugars may be something that can be hard at first, but it can be done to help you better your cardiovascular health and your overall health as well.

Submitted by – _Erin Jacinto, Food and Nutrition Student

Total Word Count: 1606