Join our “Love Your Heart All Year Long” webinar, a comprehensive event designed to equip you with practical skills for year-round heart health. Learn cooking tips, including quick demos and healthy plate ideas, discover the importance of heart-healthy fats, and get insight into creating healthy eating patterns. Explore heart-healthy recipes, fresh herb usage, and slow cooker meal planning.
We’ll also cover smart shopping along with heart-healthy habits. Learn about heart-healthy screenings, fitness tips, weight management, and get valuable sleep advice. Lastly, understand the significance of your heart health numbers.
All right. Good afternoon, everybody. Welcome to the February Wellness webinar. This is Lora Maloof-Miller. I’m a Wellness Program manager with Health Net. Kristen Kayla, health Promotion consultant with Health Net is also on the line. Just a couple of housekeeping items before we start to review these.
Usually each time we do a webinar, everybody has been muted. Upon entry. That’s of course to avoid any background noise. At the end of the webinar, there’s going to be a short anonymous survey. So your feedback is greatly appreciated. If you have any questions throughout this webinar,
Please just chat directly to Kristen and everybody who registered for this webinar will receive a link to the recording in just a few days. All right, our topic today is love your heart all year long. So we know that in the midst of our fast-paced lives,
It’s really crucial to prioritize heart health consistently, not just during the month of February or for Valentine’s Day. So today we’re going to explore some simple lifestyle changes and that we ensure that we have a healthier heart becomes a lasting heart of our daily lives. The information provided in this presentation
Is intended solely for the general information of the audience. It’s not medical advice and shall not replace consultation with your physician or other qualified health provider. If you have any health related questions or problems, please seek the advice of your physician or other qualified health provider.
So this is what I’m going to be covering today. What does heart-healthy eating look like? I also have some heart healthy cooking tips. I’m actually going to be doing. Two cooking demos that I pre recorded and I’ll be talking about what a healthy heart-healthy plate looks like. Also the importance of heart-healthy fats.
We’ll take a look at some smart shopping Along with heart-healthy habits, I’ll be talking about some heart healthy screenings including fitness tips, maintaining a healthy weight and the negative effects of stress, alcohol, and sleep on heart health. And lastly, I’ll review what some heart health numbers that you should know.
What does it mean to eat heart-healthy? So I’m going to launch a poll. What do you think it means to eat heart-healthy? Is that avoiding all fat, Becoming a vegetarian? Eliminating carbs? Using larger fried food, or none of the above? So let me see where. Actually… I don’t see my poll.
Kristen, let me see. Oh, here goes, right. OK. All right, folks are joining in on the poll. These are always optional. These are not required, but it’s kind of fun. If you want to do just answer this first question, you may see another question on there, but just answer this first one.
What does it mean to eat heart-healthy? You know, I don’t see your poll. I do see the question with A, B, C, D and E, but I don’t see where we can click on the answer. OK. All right. Well, people are doing it, it looks like. Really? Somebody chat me.
If you cannot to chat to Kristen. Oh, I guess the host and panelists won’t see it, which is interesting because I’ve seen it before in the past, but for some reason today I’m not seeing it. Well, you’re just special today, Christine. I guess, I… Yeah.
Something’s going on in the university for me, I guess. I don’t know. OK, Please forget what I just said. As long as everybody else, that’s what matters. As long as they can answer your poll. OK, so let me put it up here to make sure people can see it.
OK, I’m going to end the poll. And I am going to share the results, so let me know if you can see that. So we have a bunch of smarty pants on the call today. 74% said none of the above and that is the correct answer. That let me stop sharing that. Great.
All right, so you’re correct. None of the above is the answer. And that is because our bodies do need some fat in order to process the fat soluble vitamins. Now you know, eating them more of a plant based diet.
Of course that’s good for heart health, but you don’t have to become a vegetarian and you can have carbs. I am not a fan of eliminating an entire part of your diet. Yes, you can have carbs in lard. Now that is a saturated fat, so we’ll see that
That is not such a good one to cook with for heart health. Right, moving right along. All right, so a healthy diet is one of our best weapons for fighting cardiovascular disease. We want to eat from the rainbow. So you want to make colorful food choices with fruits and vegetables.
You want to go for the whole grain products. And when you go for dairy, go for ones that are low or no fat options. You also want to vary your protein choices, so you want to choose lean cuts of meat, but also fish and plant-based proteins like beans, seeds, nuts, and soy.
Also, eggs are a great source of protein as well. So what you do want to stay away from things that are going to be considered high in cholesterol, saturated fat, trans fats, anything that’s going to be loaded with sugar and poor salt. Now, you can eat a healthy diet that does include fresh,
Frozen, canned, even dried produce. You just want to watch the portion size on things like a dehydrated fruit and that is because the sugars are concentrated in those items. So you want to select canned or frozen fruits and vegetables? You want to get ones that don’t have those salty sauces
Or any of the sugary syrups on them. I personally drain and rinse my canned products to get rid of some of the added salt and sugar before I would add them, maybe to a soup or a stew or even a salad. Hey, here’s my Lora’s Cooking in the Kitchen.
I too am always looking for more ways to add vegetables to my meals, so this is a really simple recipe. Basically, I am topping sliced raw zucchini with pizza toppings. So keep in mind I’m not a five star Michelin chef. Right at the beginning of this video, I left out the word “bites”.
So I’m calling this like zucchini pizza. But really, it’s a zucchini pizza bite. So let me go ahead and launch this video. Hello, I am Laura Malive Miller with Health Net today I am showing you a quick, super easy way to make a appetizer. It’s called a zucchini pizza. Appetizer.
So they’re rounds of zucchini. So what I have done, you know how we eat with our eyes? So this is really versatile. It’s also very flavorful and lots of bright colors, So I simply cut up a zucchini. You can make as much as you want.
Maybe you’re having a party, or maybe it’s just dinner for two. So I simply cut my zucchini, trying to make it about the right size. This was one a zucchini I bought from the store. I knew I was going to be using some pepperoni, so I tried to find a zucchini
That would be about the right size to put a slice of pepperoni on there. If you are a gardener and over the summer you’ve got super large zucchini, this is another way to make a quick meal out of it, so. I’ve got my baking dish here, my cookie pan,
And then I just put some foil on top of it. I cut the zucchini and then I have a lot of different ingredients. Again, you can use whatever you have on hand. So today I’ve got some quarter cup of pizza sauce, just your standard pizza sauce.
Just be careful with the sodium in this. I don’t think I’m even gonna use 1/4 of a cup, but there are 200 milligrams of sodium in this particular brand, so you can find one that is lower in sodium if you are looking for that, or salt. I am using some pepperoni,
So I’ve got the standard size pepperoni. This is Turkey pepperoni I’m also using, thought it would mix it up a little bit. The little mini pepperonis as well to give me kind of a variety. You do not have to use these meats.
This is, these are processed meats, so they will be higher in fat and also in sodium as well, although the Turkey slices are less fat. And sodium in those. But again, you can make it completely vegetarian. However you want to do it.
I happen to have some fresh basil, so I’ll be using that. I happen to have some olives. I sliced up a tomato. I have the mozzarella, the heart skim mozzarella if you were to go with a whole milk mozzarella. Then that would be of course a bit creamier and some additional fat.
So I went with a part skim and then I also happen to have some Romano cheese and so that’s super fun. So whatever you have in your refrigerator, I did of course have some spices. This is a particular pizza seasoning spices. So whichever you prefer to use, even just a little
Basil, dried basil or oregano is totally fine, whatever you want to do. Of course the red pepper in here will also spice it up as well. So basically, all I’m going to do now is top my zucchinis with my pizza sauce.
I’ve got the oven already preheating to 450° and these take like 5 minutes. Super easy, super simple and just topping here with a little bit of the pizza sauce on this if you’ve got a party. Maybe it’s game day or maybe the holidays and you’ve got people that are coming over.
You can, of course, serve this as a quick appetizer. It’s a low carb appetizer compared to something like a bagel bite or something else, so I’m just going to do a few here with my sauce, OK and interest of times. Peel these off in just a second here
So that you can see what I am doing. And so that’s basically it. I just topped them with some of the sauce. I’m gonna spread them out a little bit. And then whatever pizza ingredients you have or that you would like to use.
So I’m going to put a mushroom on a couple of these, like this. I’m going to put some. olives, kind of mix it up a little bit on some of these. Again, you can make it meatless if you would like to do that. Some olives and I tried to…
I got a roman tomato, and I’m trying to find the right size to fit on the top of my zucchini here. So some of these pieces of the tomato is a little bit bigger, but that’s all right. They’ll go kind of over to the side.
So I wanted to just kind of mix it up and not have everything exactly the same. I’m going to put a slice of pepperoni on a few of these here. This for some variety. You can see what I am doing and then I have a little mini pepperoni.
So again, we don’t need too many of those. If you’re watching your sodium or salt, you don’t actually need to even use pepperoni if you don’t want to. And so these are super cute, just like this pepperonis on there, this one with some mushrooms.
Mushroom on top of that one with the tomato that looks super cute. Now I’m going to put some just a little bit of the cheese on the top and these are very quick in the oven, only 5 minutes at a 450° oven. Mix this one up, put some Romano cheese on there.
If you’ve got the Mexican cheese at home, you can use that. What… again, whatever you have. Really, the easiest part of this is the prep. Once you get the prep done, then this goes very quick.
So we’re just going to do like that and then I’m going to add a little bit of my… Pizza seasoning here. This one is just an Italian herb. It’s gonna just sprinkle that on a little bit. Just kind of on the top. Like that.
I actually have another one on here that is garlic and cheese. Now this does not say that it contains sodium, but… And they want to try and find something that is also sodium free, if that is of interest to you. But this does not say this is like a garlic parmesan,
So garlic parmesan cheese, some skim milk. So I’m going to put a little bit of that on a couple of these as well, just for interest. And then I actually like a little bit of the red pepper,
So I’m going to do a couple and I have a little bit of the red pepper flakes on that. OK, so again, these are little pizza, zucchini pizza rounds. I’m going to pop this into my oven at 450° for 5 minutes so I will be right back. I am back.
Look how cute these look. So I… that’s my dog. I cooked them for 5 minutes and then I put a fork in it just to make sure that they were cooked. I didn’t want them super firm so I ended up actually, because I’m not a Michelin star chef, I actually ended up
Putting them back into the oven for about another 4 minutes or so. And of course I had forgotten the basil. I had some fresh basil, but never mind that, that’s OK. All is not lost. I’m just going to top it with the fresh, I have fresh basil.
You can of course use dried basil as well. And so it actually probably works out better to put the fresh basil on the top so that it’s not burnt or crisp or anything like that. So that’s what it looks like. Again. Easy appetizer. Plan for about 20 minutes total 10 to prep,
Chop your zucchini and your other vegetables. Completely versatile, you can use whatever types of vegetables, even fruit like a little ham and pineapple for a little pizza, you can do whatever you prefer. So about 10 minutes for the prep and I’d say about 10 minutes for the cooking.
So in case you’re having a party or if you’re going to like a buffet or something and you want to make sure there’s something healthy for you to have, feel free to bring this as well. Thank you so much for watching. I hope you enjoyed it. All right.
So yeah, not a Michelin star chef. And I only do this in one take. Sorry if I mess up at all. All right, moving on. So here’s another one. This is a frittata that I make for breakfast, but you can, again, really versatile.
You can use this for lunch or for dinner, and I like to cook it on the weekend so that I can have it all week long. For breakfast is it’s easy. You can grab it to go if you’re going into the office or whatever.
I made it with ground Turkey, sweet potato, and spinach. But of course whatever you have in your house is good. Onions would taste good as well. Mushrooms, zucchini, tomato, whatever vegetables you have on hand. As the video starts, it actually cuts out at the word frittata,
Which is in the very beginning of this video. So I do say the word “frittata” several times, but just so that you know, I’m talking about a frittata. All right, let me launch this. Hey everybody. Lora Maloof-Miller with Health Net.
I am going to show you guys today how I will do a frittata. And super versatile. I know a couple of my other videos or actually all of my other videos, I’m not actually cooking, but today I will, I’ll be cooking today. So frittata is an egg based, sort of like an omelet.
So I’m going to be using some eggs. I am going to be cooking with Turkey, ground Turkey. So this is a lean protein. Again, this frittata can be done a million different ways. Super versatile. So if you don’t actually even want a meat product,
You could just keep it completely vegetarian if you would like, but I’ll be browning this Turkey. And then I’m going to be adding some chopped up baby spinach and a sweet potato. So we eat with all of our senses, so the eyes especially.
So when you see what this looks like when it’s done, it’s quite colorful. So you’ve got the bright orange of the sweet potato, you’ve got the bright green of the spinach. Really very appealing to the eye. I will be adding a little bit of cheese.
In there as well, because this is a little bit of a process, I am going to start to brown the Turkey, ground Turkey. I’m going to put a little bit of Pam into my deep saucepan. So I’m going to spray some pan in here and then because it’s a lean meat,
I don’t want it to stick. So put some pam in there and then I’m going to brown that up. I will also be chopping my sweet potato. You can grate it. If you want that type of texture, even just chomping it roughly chopping it.
Once it gets into the oven, it softens and I like the sweetness, sweetness of it. And then I’m also going to be chopping the spinach. So I’ll be right back. In the interest of time and through the magic of television, I’ll be right back. All right, we’re back.
So this is what I did. I browned the ground Turkey. I created some paint. I sprained some pam into the pan and then I browned the Turkey. I also added the spinach so I have been chopping up the sweet potato.
So I was already tired, so I decided not to chop up the spinach. Baby spinach, whatever kind of spinach you want, with a knife. Why use a knife when you have your hands? So I just basically tore them. Of course I had clean hands. I tore the spinach
Into the pan and browned it. OK. Now. Turkey, because it’s a lean meat, doesn’t tend to have a lot of flavor. There wasn’t any fat left in the pan, so there wasn’t anything to drain. So I added some pepper. So, some seasonings. I had pepper. I added garlic powder.
You could add onion powder too. I added some salt as well. If you’re watching your sodium then you cannot add the salt now and wait until it is done to eat it. And if you feel it needs some salt then you can salt it at that time.
But always you know you totally versatile so you can play around with the different seasonings. You could put parsley in there. You could put other seasonings, you could put sage, you could put thyme, whatever kinds of seasoning that you like again. You guys know me.
I don’t even measure anymore, so I just, you know, put it in there as to what I thought my family would like. So, so far it’s worked out well. So, now I am going to add my chopped sweet potato so I am not a Michelin star chef, so I did chop it up.
They’re all different shapes and sizes and thicknesses. But that’s OK. I’m not a professional chef, so I’m just going to toss this into the meat mixture again. If you didn’t know this already is lower on what they call the glycemic index.
So if you have diabetes or you’re watching just your carbs, this is a carb. However it is lower on the glycemic index. The glycemic index is an index that says when you have for each particular food, how does it raise the blood sugar.
So a potato russet potato will raise it much higher than a sweet potato. So if that’s important to you, then, that’s why I’m using sweet potato not only for the flavor but then also it’s lower on the glycemic index. So I’m just mixing this around a little bit.
You are welcome to use whatever kind of potato that you want. I of course peeled it. It was already peeled. I had it in the refrigerator. And that’s another thing. Whatever you have in your refrigerator, that’s what you should use If it’s there to have mushrooms, if you have celery,
If you have asparagus, if you have zucchini. The idea is that to have something a little healthier and appealing to the eye as well as be able to include more vegetables. Into your diet. So I have sprayed this pan, glass pan.
You just kind of figure out how many servings you think you’re going to have. This will last my husband and I all week. That is the great thing about this frittata is you make it on the weekend and it’s ready to go. It’s very simple. It’s in the refrigerator.
You just can have it for breakfast, lunch or dinner. You can actually serve this at the holidays with these bright colors of both the green and the the orange from the sweet potato. Really nice to serve, maybe even during the holiday time. OK? So, I’m just going to put this.
I have sprayed this glass pan with the cooking spray. And so I’m just going to put it in here. So you use whatever kind of seasonings you want, just kind of spread it out. And then I have in this bowl here I have cracked 8 eggs. And actually I think at this point
I’m going to add a little bit of cheese to the egg mixture. I’ve got the oven preheated at 350°. And really you just want to cook this for maybe about 40-45 minutes or so, just until it’s firm and set. So just again, eyeballing it,
However much cheese you like, horse cheese is not in fact, but it’s also a dairy, so it’s got some calcium in there as well. So I’m just going to kind of mix this around here. Just like that. So I poured it into my egg mixture and actually I think I’m going
To add some pepper to the eggs as well. And maybe I’ll throw in a little of the garlic salt too. This is garlic powder. All right, so you season as you like, use whatever seasonings you like and that taste good to you. Then I’m just going to pour this over the top
I don’t know if you can see that on the camera. Pouring this egg mixture over the top, OK. And then I’m just going to kind of. makes things sorted together, I’m just kind of pushing it down. That’s a culinary technical term, pushing it down into the egg mixture. Just like that.
OK, see, that’s pretty good. All right, so that’s what I think. So cute. They got the brown of the Turkey, you got the bright colors, you got the cheese, you got the orange, you got some green in there. So super cute.
I am now going to put this in the oven and when I come back, it’ll be done. All right. Through the magic of television, I literally just took this out of the oven. So it’s got those bright colors on it, the bright orange and the green from the spinach.
You can also see some of the melted… don’t know if you can really see that or not. The melted cheese is also on the top so this is just, looks quite yummy and smells really great. I wanted to make a comment about this is an egg dish.
And sometimes people are worried that this is high in cholesterol. The eggs do have cholesterol. The yolk is where the cholesterol is. But that type of cholesterol does not raise the bad cholesterol or the cholesterol that would collect in our body. So eggs are a great protein.
So this is a high protein dish. This is something you could use before going to work as a breakfast item. I would maybe pair this with maybe half a cup of fruit. Because it’s so high in protein that it’ll last you, you won’t be hungry. You’ll be able to get through your meetings,
Through your morning for lunch time. If you wanted to serve this for lunch or as a party for a brunch, I would pair this with, maybe, like a side salad. And then of course, who says you can’t have breakfast for dinner? Of course you can.
So sometimes if we’re going out to parties or for a brunch, a Super Bowl game, whatever, holidays, you’re wondering, hey, will there be anything that I can have there if I’m… kind of watching what I’m eating, and I know I will splurge. Bringing a dish like this, which serves several people,
Guarantees that you’ll have something that you can have. And of course it being like I said, high protein it will… you won’t be [INAUDIBLE] last you. So, anyway, thanks again for watching and I will attach a copy of the recipe to this. And again, super virtual, super versatile
So you can use any other types of seasonings or fresh herbs. Or you can make it just completely vegetarian. Whatever you prefer. Thanks so much for watching. Bye. All right, so OK, moving right along. Again, you are going to all get a copy of these recipes.
When it comes to salads, making your own salad dressing. Now, this can be really simple and also effective way to eat heart-healthy. You know, a lot of those store bought dressings, those can be really high in sugar, unhealthy fats, also sodium, which you know
Could contribute to heart related issues if they are consumed in excess. So by, you know, creating your own dressings you have control over the ingredients. Super simple. Basically what you need to do is start with a heart-healthy oil. Something like olive oil, avocado oil, flaxseed.
You know those are for going to be for your beneficial fats. Any of the oils that are liquid at room temperature are going to be either Poly or monounsaturated. So that’s a good oil. Then of course you want to add some flavor, so things like herbs, spices, garlic,
Ginger, use those instead of salt. Also you want to maybe opt for like a balsamic vinegar or an apple cider vinegar or even citrus like lemon. So that’s going to add to the tanginess without extra calories, you want to try and of course minimize any added sugars.
You may want to use something like honey or maple syrup sparingly. Or you can opt for these natural sweeteners as well, sometimes even adding like a Dijon mustard or a whole grain mustard. That’s going to add some tangy flavor to it as well.
You just need to be mindful, of course, of the portion sizes to avoid any excess calories. So maybe you want to dip your salad into the dressing that’s on the side. Or maybe you want to gently toss the dressing in the salad for just kind of a light a light coat.
OK, and you will actually, you’ll get a copy of these recipes. Now when we go grocery shopping, sometimes navigating the aisles of the grocery store with a focus on heart health. Entails making informed choices. You want to opt for the nutrition packed items that promote cardiovascular health.
Think of full foods rather than the highly processed foods. Now if you eat meat, you want to select lean cuts of beef and pork, especially cuts with the words “loin” or “round” in their name. Of course you want to drain off any fat that’s cooked, like from cooked ground meat.
You want to trim any excess fat before cooking. You also want to cut back on those processed meats because those are going to be high in saturated fat. Things like hot dogs, salami, bacon. You want to just use those kind of sparingly. When you choose canned foods,
Look for reduced sodium or no salt added. And then of course you want to rinse them before using them. Think about is there a part of your diet you could realistically make plant-based. Filling maybe half your plate with vegetables at lunch and dinner, make meals with a focus more on the vegetables.
This actually helps us to use smaller portions of meat. Maybe try Meatless Monday or some other vegetarian meals during the week. Read the nutrition label. So, learning how to read and understand food labels can help us make the healthier choices. We usually have a lot of different options,
So you want to be able to compare the nutrition facts. Also, pay attention to the portion size. Some products like a can of Progresso soup, that’s actually two servings. So when you open it and you pour that whole can into your bowl,
You’re going to need to double the calories, the sodium, and the fat. If you need some inspiration, I like to look at recipes from the American Heart Association or skinnytaste.com or eatright.org. Now, anything you get from a fast food or a restaurant
Is likely to have more calories, sodium, and fat then you would make at home. So cooking at home you take control over what goes into your body. Now whether you grow your own herbs or you buy them at the farmers market, or the grocery store,
Fresh herbs can wake up any recipe along with your taste buds. So they taste fresh. They have a bold flavor without adding any salt. So basil is sweet and fresh. Remember I used it on the zucchini pizza bites. It has… the leaves are delicate, so you have to use a sharp knife.
Typically, you roll the leaves tightly and then you slowly slice or chop them. And you do want to add this to the dish right before serving it. Pairing this with a tomato sauce or on pastas, salads, pizzas, bruschetta, chicken, and fish. Those are also good options for this one.
And then we’ve got a cilantro. So this is refreshing. Although some people think it tastes like soap, and that’s because of their genes or how the brain processes the smell. It is also very delicate, so it needs to be gently chopped. You would want to pair this with things like beans or tomatoes.
It’s great. And guacamole. It’s really good for a marinade for chicken, or fish, or vegetables. Some folks like to put it in a low fat yogurt sauce or a chimichurri sauce. I add it to homemade salsa. Mint. Now that’s sweet and cool, just like basil.
It needs to be prepared in the same way, just chopped. But you want to pair this one with fruit cups, carrots, cucumbers, peas. It goes well with lamb. Some people like it with their desserts or even putting it in unsweetened iced tea, also on water.
Oregano. So this is a kind of an earthy flavor. You strip the leaves from the stem, you just start the stem and then you firmly chop the leaves right before using them. You want to pair this one with things like zucchini or potatoes. Even put it in eggs, oily fish, chicken.
It really tastes good in a marinara sauce. Also herb roasted potatoes. That’s a good use for this one. Parsley. It’s light and fresh, but there’s two different kinds. There’s an Italian flat leaf parsley, and there’s also one that’s a curly parsley and that one tastes actually slightly peppery.
You gently chop both the stems and the leaves. You want to add it to the dish just during the final minutes of cooking or right before you serve it. Great with chicken, egg dishes, seafood. Think of things like parsley, potatoes, risotto, chicken, shrimp. You can even add it to like an herb butter.
Rosemary. Again, woodsy and lemony, and all you do is pinch your finger at the top. And then you just pull down and you leave the branches, but it removes the little leaves, so you just chop the leaves. Rosemary goes really well with roasted root vegetables, cabbage, shrimp.
It’s good in fiber-rich whole grain breads as well. And thyme. This thyme is lemony and light. So again, remove the leaves similar to how you prepare the Rosemary. It’s pretty delicate. Thyme is… the leaves are super tiny, so you don’t even need to chop them.
But you want to add this to the beginning of a cooking process for the best flavor. So again, you could pair it with things like carrots or corn, mushrooms, green beans. It goes well in chowders and also in stews. Really goes well with salmon and also risotto as well. Slow cookers.
Now this is great for… we’re in the winter time, so winter cooking you think of Chili’s or soups or stews, but actually you can use the slow cooker all year round. Unlike the oven, the slow cooker gives on very little heat beyond the base,
So you could keep your kitchen nice and cool if it’s hot outside. After the prep work is done, really, the slow cooker just cooks everything for you. So if you’re at work or you’re busy doing other things, this means minimal time spent in the kitchen.
What you want to do is prep the ingredients in advance. So chop those vegetables or soak beans, trim the meats, and then just be sure to try to get pieces that are sort of uniform. That helps with the even cooking. You can keep things in an airtight container
Or zip lock bag until you’re ready to use them. If you’re a slow cooker, most of them do have a removable insert. Then you can put all the ingredients like maybe the night before. And then you just refrigerate the entire insert overnight. It’s versatile, so if you’re cooking a recipe,
You can maybe like you’re going to do a roast or something, you can have leftovers for one day, but you can also use that for quesadillas or sandwiches. So it’s reinventing kind of the the leftovers for that. All right. When we’re talking about fats and cardiovascular health,
The good fats are going to be your unsaturated, so your mono and polyunsaturated. These lower the rates of cardiovascular disease. They lower the bad cholesterol and the triglycerides. That’s another fat that can be found in the blood. And it also provides essential facts that your body needs, that it can’t produce itself.
So when you think of these, think of monounsaturated, you’re thinking of like vegetable oil, olive, canola, peanut, safflower, sesame oils. When you think of foods that are high in monounsaturated fats, you think of avocados or peanut butter. Think of almonds, hazelnuts, pecans, sesame seeds, things like that.
Now, the vegetable oils that are wholly unsaturated, that’s going to be like canola, corn oil, soybean, sunflower oil. And foods that are going to be high in polyunsaturated fats are going to be things like fatty or oily fish. Anchovies, so, herring. Think of salmon. Think of sardines, striped bass.
All these fish are high in omega-3 fatty acids. It’s good for heart health. Also some nuts and seeds. So think of walnuts, flax seeds, sunflower seeds. Also tofu or soybeans. The bad fats, OK, that’s gonna be the saturated fats. You definitely wanna limit that.
That is going to increase your risk of cardiovascular disease. It also raises the bad cholesterol. So saturated fats, those are gonna be found in our animal based foods. Beef, pork, poultry, your full fat, dairy. Also the tropical oils like coconut and palm.
And then we have the ugly, which is going to be your artificial trans fats and hydrogenated oils and tropical oils. Again, increase the risk for heart disease and raise the bad cholesterol levels. So the primary dietary sources of trans fats, you’re going to find those
In processed foods, things that will say partially hydrogenated oils, trans fats, they’re in a lot of foods we like to eat. Things like fried foods, like donuts, baked goods, cakes, pie crust, biscuits, frozen pizza, cookies, crackers, stick margarines and some other spreads. So really limiting those or not
Using those at all would be best for heart health. We’ll talk quickly about some other factors that contribute to the development of heart disease, so we’re going to look at stress, alcohol and sleep. Now, more research is needed to determine how stress contributed to heart disease.
But stress may affect our behaviors and factors that increase the disease risk, which could increase high blood pressure, cholesterol levels, smoking, physical inactivity and over-eating. So you guys know about the fight or flight response that is stress, so a stressful situation. Sets off a chain of events.
Your body’s gonna release adrenaline, which is a hormone that temporarily causes your breathing and your heart rate to speed up and your blood pressure to rise. Usually that’s not a problem because the stress goes away, but if the stress is constant then unfortunately your body remains
In that high gear on and off for days or weeks at a time. So these are just some tips on what you can do to get out of stress. Pretty quickly, just taking some deep breaths, going for a walk, maybe doing a quick meditation, sleeping on it, not responding.
Literally walking away from the situation until you’ve calmed it down. Listen to some music, taking a break to pet your dog or hug a loved one. Exercise is a great one for reducing stress as well, but you should identify stress, the sources of stress
In your life and look for ways to reduce or manage them. You may want to seek the help of your health care professional. Now, we’ve all seen the headlines and studies about associating light or moderate drinking with health benefits and reduce mortality. Some researchers have suggested that the health benefits from wine,
Especially red wine, that a glass a day can be good for your heart. Well, unfortunately, there’s more to the story. Now, research has not showed or proved a cause and effect link between drinking alcohol and better heart health. Now the components of red wine, like flavonoids and other antioxidants,
Those can potentially reduce heart disease risk. But you know what? Those can also be found in grapes, red grape juice, and in blueberries. Now, the best known positive effect of alcohol is a small increase in HDL or the good cholesterol. But you know what? Regular physical activity
Is a more effective way to raise the good cholesterol. Science is telling us that drinking too much alcohol can raise the triglycerides, so that’s another fat in the blood and that’s associated with fatty buildup in the artery walls. Excessive drinking can lead to high blood pressure cardiomyopathy,
Which is a chronic disease of the heart muscle, even a heart cardiac arrhythmias, which is an irregularity in the heartbeat. Heavy drinking can also prematurely age the arteries over time, plus the extra calories from drinking alcohol that can actually lead to obesity and a higher risk of developing diabetes.
So basically, the bottom line is: drink alcohol beverages in moderation, if at all. Understand the potential effects on your health, and don’t start drinking for unproven health benefits. Sleep. So studies show that short sleep duration or poor sleep quality is associated with high blood pressure, elevated cholesterol, and atherosclerosis.
That’s when the fatty material builds up inside of the artery walls. So not getting enough sleep may affect that part of the brain that controls hunger. Sleepy people are hungrier. What they grave? High fat, high sugar foods. So why would lack of sleep affect the hormones and glucose metabolism?
Well, researchers have found that part of the answer might lie in the slow wage sleep. When a person enters the slow wave or deep sleep, the nervous system activity goes down, the brain uses less glucose, and there’s other changes like an increase in growth hormone and a decrease in the stress hormone. Cortisol.
So that’s why it’s really important. Sufficient deep sleep is thought to be very important in the regulation of glucose in the body. Also, people with common sleep disorders such as sleep apnea or insomnia are far more likely to have heart issues than the general public.
So if you have sleep issues, work with your health care provider. How many people have difficulty losing weight? For those we want to have a healthy weight. Sustained weight loss about 3 to 5% of your body weight can lead to significant reductions in risk factors.
But you want to set yourself up for some short term goals. You want to maybe like for success. I will walk for 20 minutes three times a day, keeping a food diary, finding out what are you eating. How much are you eating and why? Why are you eating?
Ask yourself: Are you really hungry? Or you’re just thirsty, or tired, or bored? So this helps to avoid emotional eating. Using smaller plates helps as well. Filling those plates half of it with vegetables, 1/4 with protein and 1/4 with whole grain carbohydrates, and learning to make some smart choices
And some simple substitutions. And when people have lost weight, this is how they have modified their eating habits and they increased their physical activity. Knowing your heart numbers through home monitoring and regular visits with your health care provider, you can track your blood glucose, blood sugar, your blood pressure,
Your blood cholesterol, and your weight. Check with your doctor to see if maybe you’re due for what’s called a fasting lipid profile blood test. You’ll get some really great results. You’re going to get a total blood cholesterol, which should be less than 200 milligrams per deciliter. You’ll also get what your LDL is.
That’s the bad cholesterol, which should be less than 100. And then HDL, which is the good cholesterol, we want that to be greater than 60. And then your triglycerides, those that’s another fat in the blood that should be less than 150 milligrams per deciliter. Also, your body mass index.
That’s how tall you are versus how wide you are. So your height versus your weight that should be between 18.6 and 24.9. Blood pressure should be less than 120 / 80 and your fasting blood glucose, The target rate when you’re fasting is up to 100 milligrams per deciliter,
Between one 101 and 125 points to pre-diabetes. Anything above 125, it does fall in the diabetic range. So, again, work with your health care provider to determine what should be your levels. What are, you know, you and your health care provider really should be able to best interpret your numbers
And develop a personalized plan for your heart health. This is sort of a summary slide on what we can do to keep our heart-healthy all year long. We talked about eating a healthy diet, rich in wholefoods and less processed foods, exercising about 30 minutes most days of the week,
Keeping an eye on your fasting blood sugar, and if you haven’t had it tested, just talk with your doctor about it. And reaching and maintaining a healthy body weight. Having your cholesterol checked. Again, talk with your health care professional to see what when you should have yours checked
And also check your blood pressure regularly. We know that high blood pressure can make the heart work a lot harder. Watch out for smoking, so don’t smoke, vape, or use any other tobacco products and try to avoid around being around second hand smoke as well.
And we talked about 7 to 9 hours of sleep, if you can get that. It’s really great for your heart. And then also managing the stress. Now these next slides you need to exit the webinar at this time you can. These next slides are on programs that help our Health Net members
Build healthy habits. Our members can log on to our Wellness programs and resources on their Health Net account. The health risk assessment that’s designed to give a snapshot of your health status. So our assessment is called the Real Age Test. It takes about 20 minutes to complete.
It’s easy to download it and share the results with your physician. Sometimes, we need help changing habits, so, health coaching is a great way to get support when we’re trying to make lifestyle improvements. Trading to quit. This is Health Net’s Tobacco Cessation Program, and it’s designed to help users
Who are ready to quit to permanently break their addiction to tobacco. Eat Right Now. This helps participants with healthy eating habits. It’s not dieting, so it takes a look at triggers, cravings, healthy habits and emotional eating. And life is stressful. So this program, Unwinding, has tools and videos and modules
That will help you build resilience and decrease chronic stress. As you can see, it’s open to everybody, Health Net members and non Health Net members. We have discounts for our members on Weight Watchers, chiropractic and acupuncture services, some additional, maybe some prescription sunglasses or computer glasses.
Also discounts to hearing AIDS and screenings, and the fitness clubs through Active&Fit. We have some online challenges every month, usually on stress steps and sleep. They are open to everybody. So, again, you can log in. It’s open to everyone in the springtime March next month.
We’ve got a lot of different challenges aimed at springing forward or eating healthy, managing stress, taking action with some steps, 90-day steps challenge spring into action. Health Net members, we have one additional one that’s specific for you. And that is called veg out. It’s a one week nutrition challenge.
Next month, we’re going to be talking about intermittent fasting and other hot nutrition topics, so hopefully you will join us for that next month. Thank you so much for your time today. Again, everyone who registered will receive a link to the recording along with copies of the recipes included in this presentation today.
Feel free to exit the webinar at this time. Bye, bye.