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:

o Lean meats and meat alternatives like beans or tofu

o Fish, vegetables, beans, and nuts

o Nonfat and low-fat dairy products

o Polyunsaturated or monounsaturated fats, like canola and olive oils, to replace saturated fats, such as butter

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.

Global Warming – What can we do - By Helen Willetts

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 Centre 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.