Articles
The Mediterranean Diet
The Mediterranean diet has been around for centuries and is considered one of the healthiest diets in the world. It is often seen as the gold standard when it comes to reducing the risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD). Following this diet has been linked to numerous positive effects on CVD risk factors, such as lowering cholesterol levels and blood pressure…
What to do after I have been told to change my diet completely (and I am in total panic)?!
The worst thing you can do is to attempt to completely change your eating habits overnight. It is a great chance that you will fail. If you want to change your diet successfully, please try to follow the SMART goals approach. Start with baby steps that are Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Timed. Goals will be different to everyone. It…
Why oats are good for optimal cholesterol
No doubt you’ve heard about the heart health benefits of consuming oats. That’s partly because oats are good sources of the soluble fibre called beta-glucan. Dietary fibre is the part of plant-based food that mostly passes through the digestive system without breaking down or being digested. There are two types of fibre: soluble and insoluble. Many studies have shown the…
Are you concerned about the cholesterol on your plate?
“Cholesterol is not considered a nutrient of concern for overconsumption,” the latest Dietary Guidelines for Americans says. That means: You don’t need to worry about cholesterol in your food. Why not? There’s a growing consensus among scientists that cholesterol in food has little effect on the amount of cholesterol in the bloodstream. And that’s the cholesterol that matters. Since the…
Health benefits of fermented dairy products
Milk and dairy products are important nutrient-dense components of a healthy diet. They can provide essential vitamins, minerals, macronutrients and micronutrients essential for growth, development and tissue maintenance. Milk is a great source of protein (8 grams in every cup) but also provides calcium for strong bones, vitamin D to help your body absorb calcium, potassium for normal heart function…
What is CVD and why everyone over 30 should know about it
Let me introduce you to one of the biggest public health problems of the modern era and surprisingly it’s not one of the issues you’ll see on the news! I am talking about a group of nutrition and lifestyle-related disorders that affect the heart and blood vessels, forming the most significant cause of death across the globe for men and…
Why testing?
Cardiovascular Disease (CVD) is often asymptomatic and requires testing to determine the risk of a cardiovascular event. In fact, 50% of men who die suddenly of heart attack had no previous symptoms. Framingham Heart Study (one of the longest, most important studies analysing cardiovascular disease) has shown that 50% of people who had a heart attack had normal serum LDL…
What is Cholesterol
If you are reading this, you are probably concerned about cholesterol, but I have a surprise for you. Cholesterol can not only be harmless, but it is actually vital for life! Because cholesterol has received so much bad press over the last decades, most people think that it is something harmful, damaging and should be avoided. But the truth is…
LDL so-called “bad” cholesterol — neither cholesterol nor so bad
The body’s cells need a constant supply of cholesterol to function properly. Because fat molecules, such as cholesterol and triglycerides, are insoluble in water, these lipids must be transported together with proteins (where the name ‘lipoproteins’ comes from) in the bloodstream. Lipoproteins are complex particles with a central core containing mainly cholesterol and triglycerides surrounded by free cholesterol, phospholipids, and…
Atherosclerosis
The tiny layer of cells that lines the blood vessels in our body is known as the endothelium. Vascular endothelial cells line the entire circulatory system, from the heart to the smallest capillaries. These cells have very distinct and unique functions that are key to vascular health. The first crucial function of the endothelium is the control of vascular tone.…
