10 Simple Food Choices That Can Help Your Heart

1. Eat fruits and vegetables: Eat a variety of fruit and vegetable servings every day. Dark green, deep orange, or yellow fruits and vegetables are especially nutritious. Examples include spinach, carrots, peaches, and berries.
2. Eat a variety of grain products every day: Include whole-grain foods that have lots of fiber and nutrients. Examples of whole grains include oats, whole wheat bread, and brown rice.
3. Eat fish at least 2 times each week: Oily fish, which contain omega-3 fatty acids, are best for your heart. These fish include tuna, salmon, mackerel, lake trout, herring, and sardines.
4. Limit saturated fat and cholesterol: To limit saturated fat and cholesterol, try to choose the following foods: beans or tofuo Fish, vegetables, beans, and nuts, canola and olive oils, to replace saturated fats, such as butter.
5. Read food labels and limit the amount of trans fat you eat: Trans fat raises the levels of LDL ("bad") cholesterol and also lowers high-density lipoprotein, HDL, (or "good") cholesterol in the blood. Trans fat is found in many processed foods made with shortening or with partially hydrogenated or hydrogenated vegetable oils. These foods include cookies, crackers, chips, and many snack foods.
6. Choose healthy fats: Unsaturated fats, such as olive, canola, corn, and sunflower oils, are part of a healthy diet. But all fats are high in calories, so watch your serving sizes.
7. Limit salt (sodium): Limit sodium intake to less than 2,300 milligrams of sodium per day (about one teaspoon). Choose and prepare foods with little or no salt. Watch for hidden sodium in foods.
8. Eat only as many calories as you need to stay at a healthy weight: Learn how much is a serving, and then check your portion sizes. Limit drinks with added sugar and high-fructose corn syrup. If you want to lose weight, increase your activity level to burn more calories than you eat.
9. If you drink alcohol, drink in moderation: Limit alcohol intake to two drinks per day for men and one drink per day for women.
10. Limit added sugar: Limit drinks and foods with added sugar.

10 Risk Factors for Heart Disease

• Age: More than 83% of people who die from coronary heart disease are 65 or older. Older women are more likely to die of heart attacks within a few weeks of the attack than older men.
• Being male: Men have a greater risk of heart attack than women do, and they have attacks earlier in life. Even after menopause, when women's death rate from heart disease increases, it's not as great as men's.
• Family history. Those with parents or close relatives with heart disease are more likely to develop it themselves.
• Race: Heart disease risk is higher among African Americans, Mexican Americans, American Indians, native Hawaiians, and some Asian Americans compared to Caucasians.
• Smoking: Cigarette smoking increases your risk of developing heart disease by two to four times.
• High cholesterol: As blood cholesterol rises, so does risk of coronary heart disease.
• High blood pressure: High blood pressure increases the heart's workload, causing the heart to thicken and become stiffer. It also increases your risk of stroke, heart attack, kidney failure, and congestive heart failure. When high blood pressure exists with obesity, smoking, high blood cholesterol levels, or diabetes, the risk of heart attack or stroke increases several times.
• Sedentary lifestyle: Inactivity is a risk factor for coronary heart disease.
• Excess weight: People who have excess body fat—especially if a lot of it is at the waist—are more likely to develop heart disease and stroke even if they have no other risk factors.
• Diabetes: Having diabetes seriously increases your risk of developing cardiovascular disease. About three-quarters of people with diabetes die from some form of heart or blood vessel disease.

Global Warming - What Can We Do

By the summer of 2050 temperatures will have risen by around 2 degrees or more in England and Wales, 1 to 2 degrees for Scotland and Northern Ireland. Just a small rise in temperature will result in more hot days in cities (temperatures over 30C).

Drier conditions are also expected, especially in the Southeast. However heavy rainfall events are likely to be more frequent. Winters are expected to be milder, so there will be a reduction in the number of frosty nights.

It's difficult to ascertain whether the world weather is becoming or will become more extreme. The scenario of more storms, hurricanes, tornadoes etc is far from proven, although indications from the Hadley Center are for a greater frequency of deep Atlantic depressions.

The consequences of these changes are far reaching. Consider for example that floods and droughts are likely to increase in number and severity. Diseases, such as malaria, spread by mosquitoes depend on local climate, especially temperature.

Different flora and fauna flourish under various climate regimes, but cannot respond quickly to change. Nature reserves, often established to protect particular species may no longer be located within a climate hospitable to that species, making them prone to disease and pests.
Humans are more adaptable to different climates, but heat and water stress are likely to become more of a problem.

Uncertainties in future predictions arise due to imperfect estimates of future emissions of greenhouse gases and sulfur, which in turn depend on population growth, energy demand, economic factors.

What can we do to slow down this warming?

By sharing technologies, experience and resources we can hopefully lower the greenhouse gas emissions and reduce the threat of global climate change. Choose clean energy options where available, such as wind, solar and wave power, these do not emit greenhouse gases and are renewable. Individually, we can recycle material, insulate our homes, take public transport and think about energy efficiency in the home.

The effects of global warming and a changing climate will not be felt equally across our planet. Poorer nations are generally more vulnerable to the consequences.

We are confident that putting more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere will lead to a continued warming of the earth's surface. However there will be consequential changes in the climate system which will either magnify or reduce the rate of warming. Our incomplete understanding of this feedback leads to substantial uncertainty in the predictions.

So what has been written here is more an indication of what change can be expected as opposed to a firm forecast. A balance is needed between the needs of the living and our obligations to future generations.