Love your heart

You can lower your risk for heart attack or stroke if you become ‘heart smart’, according to University of Newcastle researchers.

Dietitian, Professor Clare Collins, and PhD candidate, Tracy Schumacher, are leading the Love your Food, Love Your Heart, Love Your Family study which is testing ways to help families follow a ‘heart healthy’ diet that is based on the best available research.

“By focusing on families where there is a history of heart disease or stroke, we are hoping to improve heart health in all family members. We are also assessing the effects of a family based nutrition intervention on reducing risk factors that are affected by dietary intake, such as blood cholesterol,” Ms Schumacher said.

Families in the study are encouraged to support each other as they try to incorporate different foods in their eating patterns.

Heart healthy foods are those high in soluble fibre, such as oats, legumes, fruits and vegetables, plant sterol food products like Logicol or ProActiv margarines and Heart Active milk, nuts, soy products and fish.

Plant based foods high in protein such as kidney beans, chickpeas and soy milks and soy yoghurts are also heart friendly.

“These types of heart healthy foods can help to lower cardiovascular disease risk and improve health. Unfortunately for some families, it is only when a parent or grandparent experiences a heart attack or stroke that a family history of cardiovascular disease is revealed.

“The good news is that research has given us a lot of new information about heart healthy eating patterns that improve heart health and lower the risk of having a second cardiovascular disease event. When the heart healthy eating patterns are adopted by other family members they can prevent heart disease or stroke in them.”

The study is nearing the end of the first phase and recruitment for the second phase will start soon.

Phase two will focus on helping individuals with raised levels of serum cholesterol, who wish to avoid using medication and prefer to modify their lifestyle in order to reduce their cardiovascular risk.

Email the researchers at FoodHeartFamily@newcastle.edu.au or call (02) 4921 6259 for more information.