Tag: healthy heart tips

Healthy Heart Tips: It’s National Simplicity Day

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

Healthy Heart Tip: National Simplicity Day

What could a little simplicity bring to your life? Simplicity means something a little different for each person and finding the right balance for your life will always be the best path forward.

Tuesday 12th July was National Simplicity Day, an event inspired by the life and work of American philosopher Henry David Thoreau. Here, we explore a few ways to bring more simplicity to your everyday life.

Acknowledge Positive Emotions

Keep in mind that joy can be found in the little things. This could be a scent that reminds you of home, your favourite song on the radio, your morning coffee, or a telephone call with a friend. In these moments, aim to be fully present and be aware of any emotions you feel.

Enjoy Regular Movement

We know that physical activity makes you feel good. So, to feel better, think about what type of exercise you like to do, stick to it, and make it part of your routine! Even a simple walk can boost your mood.

Be Present

It can be easy for our minds to focus on the future, especially when doing tasks we may not particularly enjoy. Yet we know that being present can benefit our minds, increase happiness and reduce feelings of overwhelm.

So next time you are doing your daily chores, aim to direct your mind towards the task at hand and be aware of any changes in how you feel as a result.


There are many more ways you can simplify your living, hopefully this has given you food for thought.

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 Tip: Keep an eye on your waistline

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

Healthy Heart Tip: Keep an eye on your waistline

Your waist circumference is an indicator of your risk of developing heart disease. If you carry too much fat around your middle, your risk of developing heart disease is higher, however this risk can be reduced by losing weight. We explain how to measure your waistline and tips for maintaining a healthy waistline.

What is a healthy waistline?

A healthy waistline for men is anything below 94cm (37 inches) and anything below 80cm (31.5 inches) for women. You are at a high risk if your waist circumference is 102cm (40 inches) or over for men or 88cm (34.6 inches) or over for women. If you are a man from African Caribbean, South Asian, Chinese or Japanese origin, a healthy waist circumference is anything below 90cm (35.4 inches).

How to measure your waistline

Checking your waist circumference will help you to identify whether you are carrying too much fat around your middle. To measure your waist, you first need to find the bone at the top of your hip and your bottom rib. You need to wrap a tape measure around your middle at the centre of these two points. Relax and breathe out when the measurement is taken. Ensure the tape measure is touching your skin, but not pulled too tightly. You can repeat the measure two more times and take the average.

Maintaining a healthy waistline

If your waist circumference is within the healthy range, this is great news. You should keep an eye on your waist circumference by measuring it from time to time. If your waist circumference is above the healthy range, you should try to lose weight through healthy eating and exercise. You can find lots of ideas for healthy eating and physical activity from the healthy tips and recipe pages on our website.

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: 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/.

Why not find out if you’re at risk by measuring your waistline today. There are many steps you can take towards a healthier heart.

Healthy Tip: Ball Game ideas for young children

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

Healthy Tip: Ball Game Ideas for Young Children: Ball games main

Healthy Heart Tip: Ball Game Ideas for Young Children

Ball games are fun at any age, and a great way to get our hearts pumping! Here we explore some games you can enjoy with the little ones in your life, whether they are babies, toddlers or pre-schoolers.

Don’t forget to praise their efforts and show them that you enjoy the games you play together, too!

Babies

Even babies can enjoy playing with a ball. When a baby can hold up their head while lying on their tummy, encourage them to reach for the ball, by placing it just out of reach. This will encourage them to explore their surroundings, reach and grab.

Toddlers

Encourage your child to throw, kick and roll the ball to you. Make this easier at first by sitting or standing close to each other. Practice makes perfect – don’t expect your little one to catch straight away. You could even use a cardboard box or washing basket as a goal.

Pre-schoolers

Show your child how to use their hand as a bat. Bowl the ball to them and encourage them to hit it! As your little one improves; change the rules so that they must run from one base to another after a hit. The next step is rounders or cricket!

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 Tip: Understanding Dietary Fats

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

A small quantity of fat is an important part of a healthy diet, but not all fats are the same. Saturated and trans fats can raise ‘bad’ cholesterol in your blood, increasing your risk of heart disease.

Here are some tips to help you manage the amount and type of fat in your diet:

Choose products with a lower total fat content

All fats are high in energy and too much can lead to weight gain. By reading the fat content on food labels you can choose products that are lower in fat. For example, you could switch from cheddar cheese (34g fat per 100g) to low-fat cheese spread (11g fat per 100g) or cottage cheese (5g per 100g).

Switch from saturated and trans fats to unsaturated fat

Foods high in saturated fat include fatty meats, hard cheeses, coconut oil, palm oil, butter, ghee, lard and cream. Trans fat is present in hard margarine, fried food, biscuits, cakes and pastries.

Saturated and trans fats can increase the ‘bad’ cholesterol in your body, increasing your risk of heart disease. Look after your heart by switching to unsaturated fats, such as oily fish such (e.g. salmon, mackerel and sardines), rapeseed oil, sunflower oil, olive oil, unsalted nuts, seeds and avocados.

Find healthier cooking methods

If you fry your food, why not try baking, grilling, boiling or steaming instead? Rather than roasting potatoes in fat, switch to boiled new potatoes or a baked potato. Cut away visible fat from fatty meats, such as bacon and lamb. Use a small amount of unsaturated oil for cooking, such as rapeseed oil, rather than butter, ghee, lard or goose fat.

By cutting down on the amount of fat in your diet and switching from saturated or trans fats to unsaturated fats, you will take an important step towards reducing your risk of heart disease.

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 Tip: Mental Health and our Hearts

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

This week is mental health awareness week. We know that each year one in four of us will experience some sort of mental health problem.

Long-term mental health problems can increase our risk of developing heart disease, which is one of the reasons why it is important that we look after our mental health by combating stress, maximising our ability to cope, and seeking support.

Here are some tips to keep our mental health in check:

Create Balance

  • Aim to balance your day-to-day demands with regular exercise, me-time and a good sleep routine to increase your resilience levels

Use your Support Network

  • Having someone you can talk to about your mental health can help you to better deal with any problems you are experiencing. This could be a friend, family member, or mental health professional.

Check-In

  • Checking in with ourselves and noticing trends in our behaviour and the way we feel can help us to know when we may need to seek help or put something in place to support our mental health. Apps such as Formscore, Thought Diary or Daylio offer an easy way to track our wellbeing over time.

Ask for Help

  • If we feel any of the signs and symptoms of a mental health problem, it is important to ask for help. You can speak with your GP or use a mental health charity support line such as Samaritans.

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 Tip: Walking

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

Healthy Heart Tip: Walking

May is National Walking Month, which encourages us to leave the car at home and find ways to incorporate more walking into our days. Walking a little each day can offer a great benefit to our overall health and wellbeing, including our heart.

It is a low-impact form of exercise so most people can give it a go. Right now is also the perfect time of year to get outside as the evenings lighten and temperatures start to warm up.

Here are some ideas to help you clock up more steps this May (and beyond!):

Set a Goal

  • This can really help you make walking a daily habit. A good example would be aiming to walk for twenty minutes a day, five days a week. Plan your week every Sunday evening and schedule in you walking times to make sure they happen. You could even ask a friend to commit to walking with you to help you stay motivated.

Set up Walking Meetings

  • For those of us working from offices, swap your usual desk-based meetings for walking ones. This can be done in person with colleagues, or on the telephone, using headphones.

Make it Fun

  • Get the kids involved by going on a scavenger hunt or wildlife spotting walk. You could simply head out with the family and look out for certain colour cars, anything to add an element of fun!

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 Tip: Alternatives to chocolate for a healthier Easter

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

Easter weekend marks the end of Lent and this is a time when chocolate eggs are traditionally exchanged with family and friends.

Chocolate is high in fat, saturated fat and sugar and consuming too much can increase your risk of weight-gain and heart disease. In this healthy tip, we provide ideas for cutting back on chocolate this Easter.

Avoid temptation when shopping for groceries


Long rows of chocolate eggs appear in supermarkets several weeks before Easter and it can be difficult to avoid temptation. Easter-themed treats are often heavily discounted in the weeks following Easter, which adds to the temptation. Avoid visiting the Easter-themed aisles in supermarkets and try to stay focused on your grocery shopping and finding healthier snacks.

Buy non-edible Easter gifts

A large Easter egg can contain your entire daily energy requirement. Replacing Easter eggs with non-edible gifts, such as toys, games, books, egg cups or flowers, can be a way to help your loved ones avoid over-indulging this Easter.

Get outdoors and step away from the chocolate

Make the most of the Spring weather and get outdoors. Remember to leave the chocolate and other high-calorie Easter treats at home.

Going for a walk, run or bike ride can be a good way to shift your focus away from food and stay healthy.  

We hope you have a happy and healthy Easter holiday!

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 Tip: Managing Stress

Stress can indirectly affect our heart by reducing motivation to eat well and exercise. Feeling stressed can also increase the likelihood that we will use negative coping strategies such as increasing the amount of alcohol we drink.

Stress occurs when we feel that we are unable to cope with the demands placed on us. We can address stress by assessing and changing our demands, and by changing our relationship to the things that cause us stress.

Here are some top tips for helping to manage your stress:

Keep Moving

  • Regular exercise has been shown to positively influence our ability to manage stress and reduce symptoms of some mental health conditions.

 Take Time to Re-Charge

  • Managing our energy levels throughout the day by taking moments to re-charge can help us to better deal with the demands placed on us. This could be taking regular breaks from work, relaxing through meditation, or even a short powernap!

Challenge your Thoughts

  • The way we think about our demands will influence how stressed we feel. You can ask yourself questions such as “how would I advise a friend in my situation?” to help re-frame what is going on in your life.

Break it Down

  • When we have lots to do, it can be easy to feel overwhelmed. When this happens, it can be useful to break down your tasks and plan how you will tackle a situation.

Seek Support

  • It is okay to ask for help. It can help to share stressors with a friend or contact a mental health professional via your GP or another service such as Samaritans.

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 Tip: Healthy Snacking for Children

Nutritious snacking can help children curb hunger throughout the day, as well as provide energy and important nutrients. Getting children off to a good start with healthy snacking is a behaviour that will stick with them for a lifetime!

Here we share some ideas:

Encouraging Healthy Snacking

  • By involving children in the preparation or purchase of healthy snacks, you are encouraging healthy snacking as well as independence. The more exposure children have to healthy foods the better! Have healthy options readily available such as ready-to-eat veggie sticks in a box for when you are out and about, fresh fruit available in a bowl in the kitchen and wholegrain cereal and canned fruit in your cupboards.

Timings

  • Having regular meals at set times, with two or three snacks per day is ideal. Try not to allow snacks too close to mealtimes as this can cause children to fill up. If your child is not eating well at mealtimes, try looking at the amount and type of snacks they are having; they could still be full from their last snack!

Ideas

  • Where possible, try to combine snacks from at least two food groups, for example vegetables and houmous or fruit and sugar free yoghurt. Other healthy snack ideas include wholegrain foods such as bread, toast and breadsticks. This will provide extra nutrients and be filling for your little one.

Dividing up packaged snacks

  • If packaged foods are given to children, they may need to be divided up and shared. This is because packaged foods are normally designed for adults. As a general rule, one portion is roughly the amount that a child can fit in the palm of their hand.

We know childhood is a particularly important period for forming positive behaviours related to nutrition, so we hope this article has given you a few ideas.

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 Tip – Salt: We consume 40% more than what is recommended

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

Healthy Heart Tip: Salt Awareness

14th to 20th March 2022 is Salt Awareness Week. It is estimated that in the UK we consume around 8.4g of salt a day which is 40% more than the recommended 6g a day. Too much salt in your diet can have a negative effect on your health and can increase the risk of water retention, cardiovascular disease, high blood pressure and kidney disease.  Here are some tips to help you reduce your salt intake:

  • Reduce salt gradually

By gradually reducing the amount of salt in your food, your taste buds will adapt over time. Try tasting your food before you add salt. You may find that your food is tasty enough. You could try experimenting with different flavours to replace added salt, such as herbs, spices, lemons, or limes.

  • Check food labels

Around 75% of the food we eat contains hidden salt. Food labels use a traffic light system, which allows us to see if a product contains a low (green), medium (amber), or high (red) amount of salt.

Check the labels to see how much salt is in your food before you buy. Different brands of similar products contain varying amounts of salt, so look at the label and choose products that contain less salt. Salt is made up of sodium chloride and sometimes the label will list ‘sodium’ but not ‘salt’.

You can work out how much salt is in a product by multiplying every 1g of sodium by 2.5.

  • Make a swap

Swap your high salt foods with foods lower in salt. Try snacking on fruit and vegetables, plain rice cakes, unsalted nuts and seeds or lower salt alternatives to your usual snacks.

Foods such as processed meats, stock cubes, ready-made sauces and powdered soups can contain high amounts of salt. Try swapping these for lower salt versions or make your own soups, with little or no added salt. You can also reduce the amount of salt in your diet by having smaller portions of foods that are higher in salt.

Adopting these tips can be challenging, but reducing your salt consumption gradually over time can help to reduce your risk of high blood pressure and coronary heart disease.

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/