They are the biggest killers in America: Diabetes, high cholesterol, high blood pressure and heart disease. The most common causes of these deadly conditions are: Physical inactivity, fattening snacks and beverages, obesity, stress, and smoking. The shocking news is that these diseases are so easily preventable.

A frequent cause of blame is the unhealthy food choices people make regularly. It’s okay to splurge once in a while, but it is the habits you follow daily that will determine your overall health. Constantly consuming chips, bacon, cakes, sugary drinks, candy, sausage, and cigarettes will get you nothing but poor health, deadly diseases, and a ticket straight to heaven prematurely.

According to the CDC over 63% (that’s over 180 million) of the US population is overweight or obese and is physically inactive, resulting in tens of millions who have chronic deadly, but preventable, conditions such as high cholesterol, high blood pressure, diabetes, and pre-diabetes. Recently the CDC reported that more than 70% (over 1.7 million) of all causes of death in America are caused by only three preventable factors: obesity, sedentary lifestyles, and smoking. The very fact that these factors are easily preventable is heartbreaking.

One of the major contributors to poor health is the excessive consumption of cholesterol. The body produces over 85% of the cholesterol we need and the sugar stores in our liver and muscles remain saturated due to physical inactivity. Because we are largely a couch-potato society and the food we consume every day is loaded with animal-based fats, the extra fat gets dumped into our arteries, belly areas, and under the skin all over our bodies.

Another major contributor to deadly diseases, poor health, and premature aging and death is physical inactivity. Most of us sit throughout an entire workday then go home and sit in front of the TV for another 5 to 6 hours while consuming large fatty meals, snacks, and sugary or alcoholic beverages that are rich in saturated fats, salt, and sugar, all of which contribute to increased belly fat. Shockingly, belly fat is the most dangerous kind because it causes inflammation in the arteries contributing to plaque build up in the arteries and insulin resistance leading to heart attacks and diabetes.

Yet another common issue is that people are unaware of how unhealthy the foods they consume are. When people don’t read nutrition labels they tend to consume very dense food and sugary beverages that are nutrient deficient. These foods are readily available in fast food restaurants and vending machines and contain loads of sugar, fat, and unwanted calories. Sugary soft drinks (which alone contribute to over 33% of all US obesity), sugary lemonade, sweetened iced tea, smoothies, lattes, and frappucinos, which contain loads of sugar and fat that further contribute to the accumulation of belly fat, make you more of a magnet to all sorts of deadly, but preventable, diseases. One of the worst mistakes people make as well is skipping meals which makes the body more efficient at storing and gaining fat weight.

Fortunately there are important steps to help you make balanced food and activity choices and help you start a lifestyle makeover process which will be your shield against deadly diseases as you age gracefully:

• If you have any chronic disease(s) take your medications as prescribed.

• Eat 3 main balanced meals, reduce your portion sizes, and raise your fiber intake.

• Consume 2 fruit and nuts snacks between meals.

• Switch all sugary drinks to water or diet soft drinks. Sweeten all other hot or cold beverages with artificial sweeteners or sugar-free flavoring powders. Limit all non-water beverages to a couple a day.

• Increase your daily walking activity to over 10,000 steps a day by making more frequent trips at home, the office, while shopping, and anywhere else.

The good news is that diabetes, heart disease, and other chronic diseases can be prevented, managed, and reversed with your own choices, actions and a lifestyle makeover. Now is the time to start putting these tips to good use and begin feeling better and living healthier right away!

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I have just returned from the grocery store where I purposely took the time to investigate the so called high cholesterol sections. This would include, but not be limited to the canned meat, luncheon meat,  fresh meat, and dairy sections. What I found was a wide array of foods very high in saturated fat and cholesterol with only a handful of heart healthy alternatives.

My first stop was the canned meat section where canned chili and spam were reining supreme. My next stop was the luncheon meat section where bologna, salami, bacon, and sausage were holding high cholesterol court. Then on to the fresh meat section where ground beef and marbled steaks were at their fashionable high cholesterol best. And lastly my beloved dairy isle where real butter, not that fake stuff, whole milk, gigantic egg yolks, and multiple flavors of great tasting ice cream were ready and waiting to go home with me, for the right price of course. 

When you examine the list above you will likely find at least one item that is on most people’s  list of favorites. Which foods contain high cholesterol or are the highest in cholesterol is something we may not think about when on a shopping trip. I even caught myself thinking about how great a tender steak with a bowl of vanilla ice cream with toppings for desert would taste but then, with the help of some smelling salts, I was able to snap out of it.

All of the above foods are high in cholesterol and saturated fat, thus increasing the chances of plaque buildup in the arties. But while most people correlate high cholesterol, high fat foods with heart disease many don’t connect the dots to stroke. The most common type of stroke is cerebral thrombosis and it occurs when a blood clot forms in a cerebral blood vessel, blocking the vessel and depriving brain cells of blood and oxygen. According to the AMA, cerebral thrombosis is most common in arteries already damaged or narrowed by plaque. Perhaps more sobering is that stoke is the third leading cause of death in the United States, accounting for one out of every 16 deaths. Only heart disease and cancer claim more lives with someone dying of a stroke every three or four minutes. If that is not bad enough often times mobility and mental health are impacted greatly after a stroke and the rehabilitation process is quite exhausting.  

Most people only think about lowering their cholesterol after a health scare, and they should. But wouldn’t reducing high cholesterol be a good idea before something catastrophic happens?  Lowering cholesterol, in most cases, is about changing old habits, adopting new healthier habits, and enlisting the help of convention medications such as statins or natural cholesterol reducing remedies  if needed. Put simply, this basically means finding ways to increase HDL (good cholesterol) and decrease LDL (bad cholesterol levels) by understanding which foods contain high cholesterol and avoiding them, or consuming them in moderation.

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