A Heart-Smart Diet
The right diet can help prevent some forms of heart disease. To stay healthy, your body needs the right balance of foods. A “heart-smart” diet means:

Keeping your total calories under control
Eating as much vegetables as you want (at least several servings per day)
Eating more fruits
Replacing butter and margarine with mono-saturated and polyunsaturated oils
Avoiding trans fats and saturated fats
Eating whole grain foods instead of refined carbohydrates and potatoes
Getting your protein from fish, egg whites, legumes, beans, nuts and seeds.
Increasing your physical activity and trying to dedicate time for exercise every day

About Omega-3 Fatty Acids
Omega-3 fatty acids—also known as n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs)—are important for a number of bodily functions, including the relaxation and contraction of muscles, blood clotting, digestion, fertility, cell division, growth, and movement of calcium and other substances in and out of cells.

The three major types of omega-3 fatty acids are alpha-linolenic acid (ALA), eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA), and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA). ALA is found in seeds, vegetable oils (canola, flaxseed, and soybean), green leafy vegetables, nuts, and beans. ALA is converted, usually in small amounts, into EPA and DHA, after it is ingested. Fish oil and fatty fish such as salmon, mackerel, herring, and tuna are the primary sources of EPA and DHA. Algae oils are a vegetarian source of DHA. Omega-3s are available as dietary supplements, usually in the form of capsules or oils. Commonly used supplements include fish oil, flaxseed oil, and walnut oil.

Most American diets provide at least 10 times more omega-6 than omega-3 fatty acids. Scientists generally agree that people should consume less omega-6s and more omega-3s for good health; however, the best ratio of omega-6s to omega-3s has not been determined.

Study finds less damage to brain tissue when the regimen is followed
By Kathleen Doheny
HealthDay Reporter
MONDAY, Feb. 8 (HealthDay News) — Eating a Mediterranean-style diet — one rich in olive oil, whole grains, fish and fruit — may protect aging brains from damage linked to cognitive problems, a new study finds
Other studies have already found that such diets also lower risks for depression, cancer, heart disease and premature death.
The latest study was led by Dr. Nikolaos Scarmeas, an associate professor of neurology at Columbia University Medical Center, New York City, and involved 712 men and women averaging 80 years of age. All of the participants had no history of stroke and received MRIs to look for brain infarcts — tissues that have died because of reduced or cut-off blood supply.
Though the infarcts are true strokes, Scarmeas said, they are so small that they escape notice.
In all, 238 people had at least one area of brain damage, he said.
The researchers also looked at how well the participants had followed a Mediterranean-style diet for the six years before the MRI.
“What we found was, those people who were following a healthier diet, more Mediterranean-like, had fewer brain infarcts, strokes, on the MRI,” Scarmeas said. Their risk for having such damage was lowered by up to 36 percent, he said.
The reduced risk was linked to the type of diet eaten, the study found. “We broke the diet adherence into three groups: those who adhered very, very little [to the Mediterranean plan], those who adhered to a moderate degree and those adhering to a high degree,” he said.
People in the middle — those who followed the diet moderately well — were 21 percent less likely to have brain damage than people in the lowest adherence group. Those who followed it most closely had a 36 percent reduced risk compared with those who followed it the least.
The effect of the diet on brain health that they found was about the same as the effect that not having high blood pressure has on the brain, Scarmeas said.
In earlier studies, Scarmeas and his colleagues have shown that a Mediterranean diet could help lower the risk for Alzheimer’s disease and might lengthen the life of those who have the disease. Now, he said, the new findings may help explain the reason for this — that those who eat the healthiest have the fewest number of brain infarcts associated with cognitive decline.
Scarmeas is expected to present the findings to the American Academy of Neurology at its annual meeting in April in Toronto. The study was funded by the U.S. National Institutes of Health.
Connie Diekman, director of university nutrition at Washington University in St. Louis, said the finding expressed in the study’s abstract “gives strength to the message of the importance of plant foods, and healthy oils, to overall health.”
“Boosting plant food intake can improve heart health and reduce body weight, but now it appears it may [also] aid brain health,” she said.

Omega-3 in fish: How eating fish helps your heart
The omega-3 fatty acids in fish are good for your heart. Find out how the heart-health benefits of eating fish usually outweigh any risks.

By Mayo Clinic staff

If you’re worried about heart disease — whether you want to avoid it, or you already have it and want to get healthier — eating one to two servings of fish a week could reduce your risk of dying of a heart attack by a third or more.

Doctors have long recognized that the unsaturated fats in fish, called omega-3 fatty acids, appear to reduce your risk of dying of heart disease. For many years, the American Heart Association has recommended that people eat fish rich in omega-3 fatty acids at least twice a week.

But some people are still concerned about mercury or other contaminants in fish outweighing its heart-healthy benefits. However, when it comes to a healthier heart, the benefits of eating fish usually outweigh the possible risks of exposure to contaminants. Find out how to balance these concerns with adding a healthy amount of fish to your diet.

What are omega-3 fatty acids, and why are they good for your heart?
Fish contain unsaturated fatty acids, which, when substituted for saturated fatty acids such as those in meat, may lower your cholesterol. But the main beneficial nutrient appears to be omega-3 fatty acids in fatty fish. Omega-3 fatty acids are a type of unsaturated fatty acid that’s thought to reduce inflammation throughout the body.

Omega-3 fatty acids are also believed to improve learning ability in children, decrease triglycerides, lower blood pressure, reduce blood clotting, enhance immune function and improve arthritis symptoms. Consuming one to two servings a week of fish, particularly fish that’s rich in omega-3 fatty acids, appears to reduce the risk of heart disease, particularly sudden cardiac death.

Does it matter what kind of fish you eat?
Fatty fish, such as salmon, herring, and to a lesser extent tuna, contain the most omega-3 fatty acids and therefore the most benefit, but many types of seafood contain small amounts of omega-3 fatty acids. Most freshwater fish have less omega-3 fatty acids than do fatty fish from the sea. Some varieties of trout have relatively high levels of omega-3 fatty acids.