Give Your Heart What It Deserves

The number of deaths caused by heart diseases keeps going up every day in the United States. The government recently revealed its new food pyramid that lays more emphasis on physical exercise and a well-balanced diet plan. However, it needs to do much more to improve the health of this nation where nearly 65 percent of the population is obese or overweight, and the health costs keep rising rapidly.

While the exercise component to the pyramid was indeed new, so too was the outlook on a balanced diet. The new pyramid takes into account that not all members of a food group are equal. Certain vegetables might be better for you than others and so it is important to remember that you have to pay attention to which members of food groups you consume. The actual servings are not as important as what is in those servings.

That does not imply that you can continue with the same size of the servings and the traditional 3 meals per day, if you want to reduce weight. On the contrary, you should try to have three fairly light meals with two snacks during the day for best results. This will increase your metabolism and improve your chances for sustained weight loss.

You may ask why keep the metabolism rate high? Metabolism is the pace at which your body engine works. If you have high metabolism rate it would need more energy to keep it going. The metabolism rate reduces when you skip meals or give long breaks between eating. Thus, the body slows the metabolism to conserve energy. However, if you eat meals more often and in smaller amounts the metabolism will keep good pace and lead to a sustained weight loss.

Increasing your metabolism is made easier by working out. In particular, weight lifting is great for the heart and body. This is because muscles burn more energy than any other tissue in your body. The larger your muscles, the more energy you will burn throughout the day and the higher your metabolism will remain.

Apart from work outs, aerobic exercises such as jogging, biking, cross-country skiing and swimming also help maintain a strong heart and healthy body. You may not do them daily. In fact, it is best to perform aerobic exercises three days a week for about thirty minutes for best results. If you push too hard, you may land up with injuries that will discourage you from exercise altogether.

One of the best things that you can do for your heart and overall health is to drink plenty of water every day. Water is a natural purifier and helps remove toxins from your body. It is recommended that you drink half an ounce of water for every pound you weigh. Getting serious about your heart and its health now will lead to big benefits down the road including lowered medical costs, cleaner living, and simply feeling better about yourself than you do now. If you don't want to become another statistic, then make the changes to your diet and lifestyle necessary to a better heart and better living.

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