Health-e-Weight for Women

Eating well can prolong your life. A healthy diet, combined with regular physical activity and not smoking can eliminate 80% of heart disease and 70% of some cancers. A healthy diet also can reduce your risks of developing diabetes, high blood pressure and stroke.

Follow these 7 recommendations to make your diet healthier:

1. Watch your weight

• Next to whether you smoke, keeping your weight in a healthy range is the most important measure of your future health.
• If your BMI (Body Mass Index) is greater than 25, try to reduce it.
• Gaining more than a few pounds after your early 20's can increase your risk for chronic disease. Middle-aged men and women who gain between 11-22 pounds after age 20 are three times more likely to develop heart disease, diabetes, high blood pressure and gallstones than people who gain 5 pounds or less.
• Fat that collects around your waist and chest may pose a greater health problem than fat around the hips and thighs. Abdominal fat has been linked to high blood pressure, high cholesterol, high blood sugar and heart disease.

2. Eat fewer "bad" fats and more "good" fats

• The all-fat-is-bad message has resulted in people eating more carbohydrates - foods like white bread, white rice, potatoes and sugar. This switch often leads to weight gain, lower levels of HDL (good cholesterol) and higher triglycerides (a major type of blood fat).
• Substituting unsaturated fats (trans fats and saturated fats) improves cholesterol levels.
• Limit trans-fat food sources, including margarine, vegetable shortenings, foods with partially hydrogenated vegetable oil (such as cookies, crackers, pastries), deep-fried foods (such as doughnuts, french fries, fast foods).
• Limit saturated-fat food sources, including cheeses, butter, fatty meats, cold cuts, poultry skin, whole mild and whole-milk products (such as ice cream and cream), desserts prepared with butter, coconut.
• Choose monounsaturated-fat food sources, including olive oil, canola oil, peanut oil, nuts avocado, peanut butter.
• Choose polyunsaturated-fat food sources, including corn oil, soybean oil, safflower oil, sunflower oil.
• Choose Omega-3-fat food sources, including mackerel, sardines in oil, cod liver oil, bluefish, salmon, lake trout, tuna.
• It's fine to get more than 30% of your daily calories from fats as long as most of these fats are unsaturated.

3. Eat fewer refined-grain carbohydrates and more whole-grain carbohydrates

• Eating lots of carbohydrates that are digested and absorbed quickly increases your levels of blood sugar and insulin, raises triglycerides and lowers HDL cholesterol. Over time, these changes can lead to heart disease and diabetes.
• Eating whole-grain foods is better for your long-term health and offers protection against diabetes, heart disease, cancer, and gastrointestinal problems like constipation.
• Some foods containing carbohydrates make blood sugar increase rapidly, while others get absorbed more slowly. The Glycemic Index (GI) was developed to rank the impact of different carbohydrates on blood sugar levels compared to white bread. Foods with a high GI offer a fast energy boost, but also cause fast drops in blood sugar. These drops can trigger hunger and cravings.
• Choose whole grains, including 100% whole-wheat bread, oatmeal, brown rice, whole-wheat pasta, whole-grain crackers.
• Reduce refined carbohydrates, such as white bread, white rice, potatoes, pasta, sugary cereals, sweets, jellies, candy, soda.

4. Choose healthier sources of protein

• The best sources are beans and nuts, along with fish, poultry and eggs.
• Limit sources of red meat, which is high in saturated fat and, when grilled or fried, produces potentially cancer-causing compounds.

5. Eat plenty of vegetables and fruits - but hold on the potatoes

• A diet that's high in fruits and vegetables can lower your blood pressure, decrease your risk of a heart attack or stroke, help protect against a variety of cancers, and limit your chances of developing age-related problems such as cataracts.
• A health goal is 3 fruits and 5 vegetables each day, which translates into 3 pieces of fruit and 2-3 cups of vegetables.
• Limit starchy vegetables: potatoes, peas, corn, winter squash and sweet potatoes.

6. If you consume alcohol, do so in moderation

• Moderate alcohol consumption lowers the rate of heart disease.
• Alcohol's effects depend upon the dose. A little can be beneficial (increasing HDL and making platelets less "sticky", thus reducing the clotting. A lot of alcohol can eventually destroy the liver, lead to various cancers, increase blood pressure, weaken the heart muscle and harm fetuses.
• Moderate drinking is defined as 1 drink/day for women and 2 drinks/day for men, with 1 drink equal to:
  12 oz. beer
  5 oz. wine
  1 1/2 oz. liquor
• Saving your drinks for the weekend and downing 5-10 on a Saturday night does not qualify as moderate drinking.

7. Take a multivitamin for insurance

• A multivitamin is a cheap, effective "life insurance policy". It does not replace a healthy diet, but it can help fill a few holes that even the most careful eater may have.
• Several of the ingredients in a standard multivitamin (vitamins B6 and B12, folic acid and vitamin D) are critical for preventing heart disease, cancer and osteoporosis.
• Avoid multivitamins that say "super" or "ultra".

Source:  Eat, Drink and Be Healthy
     Walter C. Willett, MD, DPH
     Harvard School of Public Health

Copyright 2002 Brigham and Women's Hospital