Highlights
- Lifestyle diseases are one of the major threats to human health
- Heart ailments account for a large chunk of the global mortality rate
- They are caused by disorders of the heart and blood vessels
Lifestyle diseases are one of the major threats to human health. Heart ailments account for a large chunk of the global mortality rate. They are caused by disorders of the heart and blood vessels, and include coronary heart disease (heart attacks), cerebrovascular disease (stroke), raised blood pressure (hypertension), peripheral artery disease, rheumatic heart disease, congenital heart disease and heart failure. A healthy lifestyle can go a long way in ensuring a healthy heart. Experts press for regular exercising and consuming a balanced diet to keep heart ailments at bay. Making lifestyle tweaks like saying no to smoking and monitoring alcohol intake are also some of the ways through which risk of heart diseases can be kept in check. According to a latest report not only what you eat but how you cook your food may also affect your health. Reusing cooking oil is one of the commonest practices across the country which needs to stop.
"Our (Indian) people simply do not have any idea of what they are eating. Trans fats which are the most harmful and leading cause of heart diseases is entering into the body of humans in so many ways. One should choose cooking oils which are well balanced and has less than 4 gms of saturated fats," said Sundeep Mishra, Professor of Cardiology at AIIMS, on the occasion of World Heart Day.
Transfats are the most dangerous type of fats. Once oil is overcooked or cooked again, the level of transfat present goes up. Mustard and olive oil are traditionally considered good for health. Olive oil should never be used for frying purposes whereas mustard oil can be mixed with ghee to balance its fat. Experts believe vanaspati to be the most dangerous cooking agent of all.
"Our food habits are such that heart disease becomes common. Even in market, biscuits and bhujias are cooked in vanaspati so that they can be preserved for long. This again leads to intake of trans fats, a leading killer," Mishra told IANS.
Experts at AIIMS shared that only 13% of educated individuals in the country pay attention to their diet and what they are consuming on an everyday basis. While the number of bypass surgeries have seen an increase in the country, the number of young adults with ailments like hypertension and high cholesterol levels is also rising.
Inputs from IANS