Tag: cookbook

Healthy Heart Tip: Sleep

Heart Research UK Healthy Heart Tip, written by the Health Promotion and Education Team at Heart Research UK

Healthy Heart Tip: Sleep

Poor sleep can negatively impact our heart health, along with many other areas of our physical and mental wellbeing. Prioritising your seven to nine hours shut eye every day is one of the best things you can do to support your overall health.

During sleep, our body gets to work helping us to recover both mentally and physically, which helps us feel energised, alert, and ready for the day. Sleep isn’t something to overlook, so here are some tips for helping to improve your sleep:

Limit Caffeine

Who doesn’t love a morning cuppa? Whilst a small amount of caffeine early in the day is unlikely to impact our sleep, caffeine can stay in our blood stream for many hours after consumption. This can negatively impact the quality of our sleep and ability to fall asleep. So, say no to caffeine after lunch!

Turn off the Screens

Melatonin is our sleepy hormone, and we need to allow our body to produce lots of it to ensure a good night’s sleep.

Bright lights in our environment can reduce the production of melatonin, specifically the blue light from computer screens, tablets, and mobile phones. Try switching off screens an hour before sleep time and read a book or have a bath instead.

Spend time Outdoors

Research shows that simply being inside during the day, rather than spending time outdoors, reduces our melatonin production at night by 50%!

Grab your trainers and hit the pavement for a walk or run outdoors for at least 20 minutes every day.

Create a Routine

Humans are creatures of habit, and we thrive on routine. Creating a bedtime ritual can help signal to our bodies that it’s time for sleep.

Try to choose low stimulation activities like reading, listening to music, or even having a cup of (caffeine free!) tea such as camomile.

For more tips on how to stay healthy, sign up for our weekly healthy tips at www.heartresearch.org.uk/healthy-tips.

To help keep your heart healthy, why not try out some of our Healthy Heart recipes from our website: https://heartresearch.org.uk/heart-research-uk-recipes-2/.

Or have a look through our Healthy Heart cookbook filled with recipes from top chefs, celebrities and food bloggers:

https://heartresearch.org.uk/heart-research-uk-cookbook/.

Healthy Heart Tips: Sugar Awareness Week

Action for Sugar holds a national Sugar Awareness Week each year, highlighting the dangers associated with too much sugar in the diet and this year is held between 8th-14th November 2021.

Here are some healthy heart tips to ensure you are keeping an eye on your sugar intake.

Sugar Recommendations

  • Consuming too much sugar in your diet can lead to weight gain and becoming overweight or obese. 
  • ‘Free sugars’ are sugars that are added to foods as a flavour enhancement or to act as a preservative (increasing shelf-life of products). This is the type of sugars that adults and children in the UK need to cut down on.
  • The government recommends that free sugars should not make up more than 5% of the energy you get from food and drink each day.

This means:

AgeMaximum free sugar/day
4 – 6 years19g
7 – 10 years24g
Adults30g

Tips to reduce sugar intake

  • Choose products that are labelled ‘no added sugar’ or ‘no sugars’.
  • Reduce consumption of sweets treats such as cakes, biscuits, and sweets.
  • Swap out canned fruit in syrup for fresh fruit.
  • Switch sugary breakfast cereals for unsweetened cereal and add fresh fruit for sweetness.
  • Swap sugary drinks for water, sugar-free or diet alternatives.
  • Limit fruit juices and smoothies to 150ml a day.
  • Cut down on sugar in hot drinks or try adding sweetener instead.

Checking Labels

Nutritional labels can help you reduce your intake of free sugars.

The “of which sugars” figure on the nutrition labels (part of the carbohydrate information) will help you understand the amount of sugar. Labels on the front of the packaging use a traffic light system to distinguish the amount of sugar in a product:

–              Red = high (more than 22.5g of total sugars per 100g)
–              Amber = medium (more than 5g but less than or equal to 22.5g of sugars per 100g)
–              Green = low (less than or equal to 5g of sugar per 100g).

Ingredient list:

Watch out for these names which may suggest there are added free sugars:
•             Glucose
•             Xylose
•             Treacle
•             Honey
•             Dextrose
•             Sucrose
•             Sugar (palm, raw, beet, brown)
•             Cane juice
•             Fructose

Being aware of the amount of sugar in different foods & drinks and following these healthy tips can reduce your sugar intake and consequently, lower your risk of developing health complications such as heart disease!

To help keep your heart healthy, why not try out some of our Healthy Heart recipes from our website: 

https://heartresearch.org.uk/heart-research-uk-recipes-2/

Or have a look through our Healthy Heart cookbook filled with recipes from top chefs, celebrities and food bloggers:

https://heartresearch.org.uk/heart-research-uk-cookbook/