Got Heart? One More Reason to Watch Your Sodium

There is that well-known benefit of lowering blood pressure associated with eating a lower sodium diet. But more and more researchers are finding that there are definitely desirable long-term benefits as well.

A new study, published in the British Medical Journal April 20, 2007, looked at the data from two trials involving adults age 30-54 with pre-hypertension. Trial #1 with 744 participants included dietary sodium reduction and counseling regarding lower sodium intake for 18 months while Trial #2 involved 2382 participants and lasted 36-48 months.

The researchers followed up on these participants 10-15 years after the original trials.

They found that the people who participated in the sodium lowering interventions had a 25-30% lower risk of experiencing a cardiovascular event.

So, it looks like this is more evidence suggesting the short term benefit to reducing sodium in your diet is a reduction of blood pressure but the long term benefit seems to be a reduced risk of cardiovascular events.

~~Elaine

Related Topics:

• Reduce Salt in Your Diet
• Ornish Lifestyle Program

Technorati Tags: highbloodpressure, hypertension, pre-hypertension, sodium, salt, diet

Trans Fat Tidbits

By now I'm sure you've heard that Trans Fats are "bad" fats; these heart disease promoting fats form when oils are partially hydrogenated. Food companies have been seemingly madly trying to reformulate their products so that the trans fat amount (at least on the label) reads, "zero."

[Keep in mind that the FDA allows companies to claim "zero" grams of trans if a food has up to .5 grams of trans fat per serving]

Well, luckily the nonprofit Center For Science In The Public Interest is on the case. They conducted an admittedly limited supermarket survey and found that at least 150 different products (in the categories of stick margarines, pot pies, fruit pies, microwave popcorn, frozen pizzas, pastries and donuts, cookies and other convenience foods) still have a day's worth of trans fat. The American Heart Association advises Americans to consume no more than 2 grams of trans fat per day.

So what about natural trans fat?

Trans fats are found naturally in meat, butter, milk and cheese and they do have a different chemical structure than the ones that are created when oil is partially hydrogenated. Most of the natural trans we get is thought to come from milk that contains fat. If you tend to choose skim milk and lean meats, chances are pretty good that you are getting very little natural trans.

Stay tuned on whether some forms of natural trans fats, such as CLA (conjugated linoleic acid) may actually be helpful. More research needs to be done.

~~Elaine

Related Topics:

• Where are Trans Fats Hiding?
• Trans Fats: The Science and the Risk

Technorati Tags: transfat, naturaltransfat, cla, nutrition

Tea: To add milk or not add milk - that is the question

I'm a purist when it comes to tea. I don't need sweetener and I don't need milk. But I've noticed other people like to add one or both. I've seen it reported recently that the casein and similar proteins in milk may bind to the tea flavonoids (phytochemicals) thereby make them less active in the body.

Well I did some searching around to try and answer the question - to add milk
to tea, or not to add tea - that is the question.

I couldn't find anything definitive one way of the other so I asked well-known researcher Jeffrey Blumberg, Ph.D., from Tufts University's Antioxidant Research Laboratory. According to Dr. Blumberg the evidence is "mixed" with some studies showing an inhibition of absorption and others (the majority of the available reports) showing none. He believes there isn't a consensus on the issue. I believe that, since I spent an hour trying to hunt down some solid information on this and ended up more confused than when I started.

If you want to play it safe than you could drink milk an hour after you drink your tea. The reason I say "an hour" is because a Dutch study noted that tea flavonoids are absorbed from the gut and that there was a significant increase in antioxidants circulating in the blood in their study participants about 1 hour after tea was consumed. [Journal of Nutrition October 2003, 133:3285S-3292S, Rietveld A., et al. "Antioxidant Effects of Tea: Evidence from Human Clinical Trials"]

~~Elaine

Related Topics: Drinking Black Tea May Soothe Stress, How Does Green Tea Help Your Health?

Technorati Tags: tea, antioxidants, milk