A regular serving of safflower oil may help to improve levels of cholesterol and blood sugar in postmenopausal women who are obese and have type-2 diabetes, a small study suggests.

Safflower oil is a flavourless and colourless oil that has a similar nutritional content to sunflower oil.

Scientists at Ohio State University found that women who consumed about 1.66 teaspoons of the common cooking oil each day for 16 weeks showed improvements in a number of risk factors for heart disease.

The oil contains a polyunsaturated fatty acid called linoleic acid, which is now thought to help prevent metabolic syndrome – a cluster of conditions that increase a person’s risk of developing heart disease. Read the rest of this entry »

What is a healthy weight?

A healthy weight is a weight that lowers your risk for health problems. For most people, body mass index (BMI) and waist size are good ways to tell if they are at a healthy weight.

But reaching a healthy weight isn’t just about reaching a certain number on the scale or a certain BMI. Having healthy eating and exercise habits is even more important. When you’re active and eating well, your body will settle into a weight that is healthy for you.

If you want to get to a healthy weight and stay there, healthy lifestyle changes will work better than dieting. Reaching a certain number on the scale is not as important as having a healthy lifestyle.

Why pay attention to your weight?

Staying at a healthy weight is one of the best things you can do for your health. It can help prevent serious health problems, including:

• Heart disease.
• Stroke.
• High blood pressure.
• Type 2 diabetes.
• Sleep apnea.

But weight is only one part of your health. Even if you carry some extra weight, eating healthy foods and being more active can help you feel better, have more energy, and lower your risk for disease. Read the rest of this entry »

Obesity weighs on the heart
All that grease is like napalm to the heart. High-fat diets and oversize portions add weight, which bombards the body with excess cholesterol. That cholesterol begins lining the arteries, causing a gradual narrowing, which damages the heart muscle, said Gerald DeVaughn, MD, a cardiologist and president of Cardiology Medical Associates in Philadelphia.Obesity is a risk factor in cardiovascular disease, especially for young men, but where you carry fat on your body can also be a good predictor of heart health. Being “apple-shaped,” with extra fat on the belly, can put you at a higher risk than someone with the fat distributed around the hips and thighs.

Extra fat cells can also lead to type 2 diabetes, itself a risk factor for heart disease.

Even if you don’t reach your ideal weight, every little bit can help. According to the National Institutes of Health, losing just 10% of your total body weight can lower your risk of heart disease and other conditions associated with obesity.Heavy kids, heavy hearts
While fat-clogged arteries have traditionally been more of an adult issue, rates of obesity and high blood pressure among young people are also soaring, according to researchers at University of Texas Health Science Center in Houston, where 20% of students studied were overweight or obese. Read the rest of this entry »

A good diet is always important for health, but the stakes are especially high for people with heart disease. Food can either help protect the heart or provide fuel for a heart attack.

The diet plan you choose to prevent heart disease will depend on your unique risk factors. People with hypertension, for example, should choose a plan low in sodium and fat.

Those with high cholesterol should consider a diet rich in olive oil, omega-3 fatty acids, and other heart-healthy fats.Those who need to lose weight should consider a calorie-restricted version of their heart-healthy diet. On average, cutting 500 calories a day from your diet leads to a loss of one pound per week. The safest way to lose weight is to aim to drop up to one pound per week; crash diets can be harmful and rarely lead to permanent weight loss. Read the rest of this entry »