Balanced diet 'reduces the risk of heart disease'

Those who stick to a healthy, balanced diet are less likely to suffer from heart disease in later life, one expert has explained.

Katharine Greathead, lifestyle officer, Heart Research UK, says: ""Eating a diet that is low in fat-saturated fat in particular, low in salt, [contains] wholegrain and high in fruit and vegetables, and oily fish, can really help to reduce your risk of heart disease and reduce your risk of getting high cholesterol, blood pressure later in life."

She adds that evidence proves that eating a balanced, yet varied, heart-healthy diet is the best way to ensure a person's cardiovascular system keeps in good health.

Ms Greathead suggests that Heart Research UK is currently focusing on promoting the importance of lowering the amount of salt and fat present in meals, as they have the biggest impact on a person's arteries.

Her comments come after the Journal of the American Medical Association recently advised that measuring the levels of calcium in the coronary arteries of the heart could help to predict a person's chances of developing heart disease in later life.

However, Ms Greathead says that lifestyle factors, such as smoking, diet and exercise will have the biggest impact on the likelihood of getting heart disease.

She suggests that by stopping smoking, people can halve their chances of suffering from a heart attack, while more than one-third of all coronary heart disease-associated deaths are due to physical inactivity.

According to the British Heart Foundation, cardiovascular disease is the UK's biggest killer, with approximately 2.6 million currently living with the condition.

Written by Max Felixson