Nitrates, Nitrites....No Way #41

I am going all the way back to my first two posts. For at least 2 years prior to that, I had been considering changing my eating habits.  Based on some reading and personal thoughts, I wasn't convinced our physical make up was such that we were  meant to consume meat.  I  believe we were natural vegetarians in the sense we ate what nature provided us. Be it fruits, vegetation, wild vegetables, nuts, and over time we evolved ourselves into becoming meat eaters.  I knew I was eating too much meat.  Processed meats, chicken, beef, pork, I really was out of control when it came to eating meat.  And then for some sudden reason, unknown to me,  I lost my desire to eat meat. I found that  eating meat had become more of an addiction and stopping was not going to be easy.  I think what pushed me to the point of making the change was I knew the chemicals in meat, in particular processed meat, were not good for me.  You can argue how wrong I am in my thinking our digestive system was not meant for us to consume meat.  I could be wrong there.  But I do know I am not wrong about the chemicals we take in from our eating meat. We might as well sit down and munch on a bag of fertilizer at Home Depot as to eat  hot dogs, bologna, bacon, and so forth.  And I am not criticizing anyone for eating what they want to eat.  I still to this day would like a couple of hot dogs, and a ham sandwich stacked 3 inches high garnished with bacon.  But I can't do it.  Why am I going over this, because I read an article about nitrates.

Sodium nitrate and sodium nitrites.  Each is used as a meat preservative, and in the making of processed meats.  They are closely related and used in curing or preserving meats.  Nitrates are used in bologna, bacon, hot dogs, sausages, as examples, to preserve the color.  Pink or red rather than gray. They inhibit botulism, and retard the development of rancidity.  They are thought to cause certain cancers, and damage your blood vessels, making them more likely to harden.  Anybody for a little ammonia nitrate sprinkled over those spam and vienna sausage appetizers?

Very briefly, doing some research on this I came across "Aspartame."  It is a chemical used in artificial sweeteners brands such as Equal, and NutraSweet. It is used in over 6,000 consumer foods and diet sodas.  There is a lot of conflicting medical research and dangers associated with it's use.  If interested, I suggest you look it up on the internet.  Also in fairness, go to aspartame.net to get their side of it.

I continue to look forward to and exercise 5 or 6 days per week.  I have made a couple of minor changes to my workout routine.  I found a book with 100 different workouts with detailed instructions, and illustrations.  Something else I like about it is that each exercise describes what muscles or muscle groups your working on.  And if it involves a strength machine you're not familiar with, you now feel more comfortable about using it the first time.

Next post we will talk more about staying active and exercising.

More on Food Health and Exercise #40

Determining which fats are healthy or unhealthy can be confusing and demands much reading to make a decision for yourself.  I hope you have been researching the new USDA healthy food guidelines.   Fats, saturated and unsaturated, health factors, seem to be a matter of disagreement among some nutritionists.  Saturated fats, being mostly those derived from animal products, meat, dairy, and eggs as example.  Coconut and palm oil is also a saturated fat. Most saturated fats are thought to raise your total and LDL cholesterol levels.   Unsaturated fats are from plant, vegetable, and fish products. Most reduce total and LDL cholesterol and lower the risk of coronary heart disease.  Okay this is in general categories, specific fats in specific foods can do more or less than others.  An unsaturated fat example would be omega 3 fatty acids which come from walnuts, cold water fish, and soy.  This essential fatty acid is critical for your health and cannot be produced by your body.  The point, that should relate to you and me as far as federal guidelines interpreting health for us, is that there are good fats and bad fats.  According to the program of Cardiovascular Epidemiology at Harvard "total fat content of a given food or diet is a useless metric" "because there are healthy and unhealthy fats".  So as a heart patient desiring to not eat foods bad for my cardiovascular system, I need to avoid unsaturated fats, and not be as concerned about total fat content if it is fat from good natural plant, vegetable, or fish.  Dr. Mozaffarian of Harvard also says concerning fatty acids, "eat more whole foods, and avoid processed ones."  Dr. Mozaffarian is among those who do not entirely support the new health guidelines, thinking they are overly fussy and based on outdated science.  So I think these new federal standards speak for themselves, and from this point on I will go back to focusing on what we determine works best for us.  As heart patients, the best gauge of success of our efforts to become healthy, will be measured by our cardiologist examinations and test results.

Some things I want to reference from Experience Life Magazine for the benefit of those who have not been following us from the beginning, or in the early stages of heart patient rehab and  recovery. "Avoid trans fats, and excess sugars."  "Avoid over salted processed snacks and fast foods. Don't assume low-sodium foods are healthy".

Some of you realize I am spending  time covering some issues we discussed quite a while back.  The reason I am doing this is we have some readers who have not been with us since the beginning.  Exercising is a critical part of a successful recovery.  Being in a formal exercise program, or routine, is very beneficial, in my opinion.  Another benefit,  is exposure to people like yourself.  Maybe not heart patients, but most all are exercising for health reasons, young and old.  Now, if your are recovering from heart attack and heart surgery, you are probably not around a lot of people.  Being with people when exercising helped my morale when I began going to a fitness center.  You know in the first few weeks home from the hospital, it can be discouraging or depressing.  It's was good for me being around other people when I started working out.

Remember exercise, eating healthy, and weight control, are all critical in successful recovery from heart attack, and heart surgery.

I will attempt to spend more time talking about exercising in the next post.

Circulation Exercise, Nutritution News, MyPlate #39

The new USDA dietary guidelines have been released by the federal government.  The once well known and accepted food pyramid has been replaced with the MyPlate symbol.  Yes, the federal government has decided the food pyramid wasn't that healthy for us.  The new symbol represents a dinner plate divided into four sections.  Fruits, grains, vegetables, and protein.   There is also a side dish of dairy. These are the new federal nutrition policies.  As example, the federal government "will dictate what food is made available to school children through the National School Lunch  Program."   This also will go further including programs as Women, Infants, and Child and Adult Federal Food Care Programs.   Obviously, there is much disagreement among nutritionist concerning what has now been determined to be unhealthy for you, or what was considered unhealthy 3 months ago is now healthy to eat.  There is an excellent article in Experience Life magazine, September issue, or on line at experiencelife.com. One of my concerns with this is a committee of well renowned nutritionist was formed to make these determinations.  The problem I have is, they were selected to support the vocal views of a select few in the administration.   My conclusion is that I will continue to research as much as possible and eat what I consider to be good heart health foods, regardless of federal guidelines.  You know, if I were a lot younger, I believe I would pursue an education and career in nutrition and good health as it relates to heart patients and exercise.   If you have had heart disease, or concerned about your cardiovascular health, you really should begin reading more about it to form your own ideas about maintaining your health.

For those of you beginning to exercise, or looking for something good for your cardiovascular system, here is something I did when I first started rehabbing.  In addition to my treadmill and other workout routine, I walked one mile holding a 5 pound exercise ball in one hand with my arm fully extended over my head.  I would shift it between left and right as needed.  It is important to keep your arm held high over your head holding the ball.  The other arm can obviously be relaxed and rested at your side or as you wish.  This was done at an early stage in beginning my recovery and with apporval of my cardiologist.  It strengthens and exercises your circulation.  If you're concerned about how you will look walking around holding a ball over your head, don't be.  I was the only person doing it at my fitness center. After around 3 weeks there were at least a dozen more who picked up on the same routine.  When I felt stronger I moved up to a 8 pound ball.  Well it could have been 10 pound, I'm not sure now.  That doesn't sound like much weight, but when you're rehabbing from heart problems it feels like a lot more.  Depending on your situation you probably should refer to your cardiologist for approval before you begin this routine.