NIH Radio
NHLBI Publishes New Heart Healthy Cookbook
Brief Description:
The health of your heart has a lot to do with the foods you eat. To help busy people and families shop for, prepare, and serve healthy meals, the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute created and published Keep the Beat Recipes: Deliciously Healthy Dinners.
Transcript:
Balintfy: A healthy diet is a major factor in reducing the risk of heart disease. Janet de Jesus, Nutrition Education Specialist at the National Heart Lung and Blood Institute says studies show that heart health has a lot to do with food.
De Jesus: Heart disease is the number one killer and overweight is one of the risk factors; and we hope that by teaching people how to eat heart-healthy, that they can improve their heart health. So a nutritious diet combined with regular physical activity can help improve one’s heart health.
Balintfy: Some risk factors for heart disease cannot be changed, like age, gender and genes or race. But good nutrition is important to heart-health and can help control other risk factors. Controllable risk factors for heart disease iunclude high cholesterol, high blood pressure and overweight. De Jesus says many studies, including the Framingham Heart Study, have shown how a poor diet increases heart disease risk, which is why the NHLBI developed a new cookbook, containing 75 heart-healthy recipes.
De Jesus: The recipes all follow heart-healthy guidelines so they're low in saturated fat, trans-fat, cholesterol, they're moderate in sodium, so they include fruits vegetables, whole grains, so all of these foods can help you keep your cholesterol levels, your blood pressure, your weight, in check; we’re hoping that people do this along with regular physical activity that it will help them improve their heart health.
Balintfy: De Jesus says the new cookbook, called Keep the Beat Recipes: Deliciously Healthy Dinners is designed for everyone.
De Jesus: It’s for anyone who wants to cook heart healthy and looking for tasty heart-healthy recipes. The dishes variety in flavor and cuisine and they’re influenced by Asian, Latino, Mediterranean and American. And they really provide a satisfying portion while helping people stay within their calorie limits.
Balintfy: She adds that main dish meals take no more than 40 minutes to prepare and cook, and side dishes are made in 30 minutes or less. For more information on heart disease risk, health eating and the new cookbook, visit www.nhlbi.nih.gov. This is Joe Balintfy, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland.
About This Audio Report
Date: 11/25/2009
Reporter: Joe Balintfy
Sound Bite: Janet M. de Jesus, M.S., R.D.
Topic: heart disease, heart disease risk, diet, heart-healthy food, heart health, overweight, cholesterol, high blood pressure, blood pressure
Institute(s):
NHLBI
Additional Info: NHLBI Publishes New Heart Healthy Cookbook
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