Encouraging Health

More proof that good things come in small packages: The tiny pickled plant buds known as capers could do big things for your body.

That’s because capers — used for centuries in Mediterranean fare to add zing to fish, salads, and pasta — may have their own special heart-disease-busting and cancer-thwarting powers.

Two Great Capers
Extracts from capers, even in small amounts, did two surprising things in a recent study. First, they limited toxic and gene-mutating by-products of meat digestion. Great news, because those by-products can spell trouble for your heart.

Second, the caper extracts improved the bioavailability of vitamin E. Also great news, because vitamin E helps put a damper on certain cancer-causing processes.

Cooking Ideas
Capers contain a bundle of antioxidants, including a bit of vitamin C and vitamin E. Just don’t go overboard if you’re sensitive to salt, because capers also pack quite a sodium wallop.

Lower your risk for stroke.

There are different diet options available for lowering your cholesterol.

One option is the Mediterranean diet, which replaces saturated fats in the diet with monounsaturated fats. Studies indicate that this is one of the most effective diet therapy options for improving unhealthy cholesterol values. Substituting monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats for saturated fats in your diet can help lower your LDL-cholesterol levels without lowering your heart-protective HDL cholesterol levels. In fact, it may even help raise HDL levels. Sources of monounsaturated fatty acids include olive oils, peanut oil, peanuts, peanut butter, avocadoes, and sesame seeds. Recent studies indicate that almonds may lower LDL cholesterol levels and help reduce the risk of heart disease.

Another diet option involves reducing the total fat intake in a person’s diet to 30% of daily calories, and limiting the amount of saturated fat in a person’s diet to 10% of daily calories. Dietary cholesterol intake is limited to less than 300 milligrams per day in the first phase of this standard nutritional approach. Fat calories and dietary cholesterol are limited even further in the second step of this diet. These diet phases work especially well for those who wish to reduce their weight along with their cholesterol; however, this diet may lower heart-healthy HDL along with LDL cholesterol.

Your healthcare provider can help you determine which diet strategy is best for you.

Added Benefits of Exercise

Physical activity is considered an essential part of diet therapies aimed at reducing serum cholesterol levels. Combining weight reduction with exercise when treating overweight individuals with high cholesterol levels has a number of positive benefits. Not only does this approach promote the reduction of total and LDL cholesterol levels, but it also can reduce other CHD risk factors by:

Reducing blood pressure
Reducing triglyceride levels
Raising HDL-cholesterol levels
Decreasing diabetes risk

Speak with your healthcare provider for information on how to design a workout program that is right for you.

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