Can National Wear Red Day Help?
Tomorrow, Friday February 1st, is National Wear Red Day, a campaign to educate and bring awareness to the rising incidence of heart disease in women. Organized by the American Heart Association with celebrity Marie Osmond as the spokeswoman, their goal is to reduce by at least 25% heart disease and stroke by the year 2010.
The web site is filled with stories from women that have made changes along with advice to talk to your doctor about how to reduce or avoid heart disease.
First, your doctor may not be the best person to speak with regarding making changes in your diet and lifestyle. Doctors are primarily trained to ‘heal’ or fix something once it’s broken, and their primary focus is not on prevention. A nutritionist or better yet, doing some research on your own may be one of the best solutions to reducing your risk.
I was also surprised to find most the recipes on the site were not heart healthy. They featured Canadian bacon, buttermilk, dairy, processed complex carbs and other meats throughout.
Research has confirmed that your eating habits and specifically animal foods, are the primary cause of heart disease, cancer and other diseases. A recent study from the University of Massachusetts even named a primarily vegetarian diet the best diet for heart health. A diet primarily of fresh fruits and vegetables, nuts, seeds and natural grains can also lead to weight loss, lowering cholesterol, lowering blood pressure, eliminating depression, reducing the risk of cancer and making you feel better overall.
And just recently, another study published in the journal ‘Circulation’ found that people who eat two or more servings of red meat a day are much more likely to develop conditions leading to heart disease and diabetes. There are many studies that support this and more come available regularly. But why do campaigns like this not make stronger recommendations to avoid meat and continue to include recipes with Canadian Bacon and other meats?
Although the National Wear Red Day is more focused on telling others how widespread heart disease is in women, a campaign focused solely on making lifestyle changes would be much more effective. Here are some suggestions you can use to significantly reduce your risks of heart disease or any other affliction starting today:
- concentrate on a diet of mostly fresh fruits, vegetables, nuts, seed and natural, living grains
- reduce or eliminate the effects of stress in your life
- drink lots of water
- stay active every day
- eliminate processed, convenient and junk foods from your diet
- choose organic foods as much as possible
Get ideas on how to easily and conveniently add more fruits, vegetables, nuts and seeds into your diet.
To your best health!
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