After sitting down to enjoy Christmas dinner, many of us head straight to the sofa to spend the remainder of Christmas Day watching TV, playing board games, snacking or taking a nap.
It is estimated that the average person in the UK consumes two to three times their recommended calorie intake on Christmas day, so why not get off the sofa, get moving and burn off some extra calories this Christmas?
Get on your bike
In 2020, there was an increase in bicycle sales. If you own a bike, why not get out for a Christmas Day cycle and make the most of the roads being quieter than usual. If your kids got bikes for Christmas, why not join them for a cycle around your local area.
Walk the dog
Dog ownership also increased in 2020. If you or your family have a dog, try not to miss out on your usual walk on Christmas Day. If you normally do two walks, try to stick to the plan and don’t skip one of them. You could even increase the distance of your walk to burn off a few extra calories on Christmas Day.
Dance the day away
Dance floors may have been out of bounds in 2020 due to COVID-19, but don’t let this stop you from getting your groove on! Why not put on your favourite tunes and dance around the kitchen as you prepare Christmas dinner. You could put your favourite 2021 music videos on and get your household dancing in the living room after dinner.
To help keep your heart healthy, why not try out some of our Healthy Heart recipes from our website:
A research project at the University of Edinburgh, led by Professor Gillian Gray, has been awarded £88,000 by Heart Research UK. Prof Gray’s team has discovered that a drug originally developed to treat obesity and diabetes also promotes repair of the heart after a heart attack and reduces the development of heart failure.
Now the team will use ‘mass spectrometry imaging’ (MSI) to look in more detail at the effects of the drug on the heart muscle.
Heart attacks occur when the blood flow to the heart is interrupted, causing damage that can weaken the heart and lead to heart failure. The new drug that has been discovered acts early after heart attack to prevent the spread of injury in the heart muscle and therefore has the potential to benefit many patients.
As obese and diabetic people are at higher risk of heart attack, the combined actions of the drug on the heart, fat and insulin make it particularly appealing.
The drug has already undergone safety tests in volunteers, so could now rapidly progress to human trials. However, the research team will first need to show that this new drug offers benefits over existing drugs used to treat heart failure.
To do this, the team will use MSI to further investigate the effects the drug has on the heart. It is anticipated that this will provide unique evidence that the biochemical pathways in the heart muscle affected by the drug are distinct from those affected by drugs already used to treat heart failure.
MSI uses a laser to collect samples from slices of tissues. Levels of substances in the body like cortisol and cholesterol breakdown products, that we expect to change after a heart attack and in response to the drug, can be measured in each spot targeted by the laser. This information can then be used to build a map of where they are found.
The MSI group, led by collaborator Professor Ruth Andrew, have already used this technique to visualise and measure activity of the enzyme targeted by the drug in the brain, liver and kidney.
They will prepare thin sections of heart muscle and use the laser to capture samples from injured areas and compare these to samples from healthy areas. MSI has enormous potential for helping to understand biochemical pathways in the heart but has never been systematically applied to heart tissue before.
Kate Bratt-Farrar, Chief Executive of Heart Research UK, said: “We’re very happy to be able to award one of our Novel and Emerging Technologies Grants to Professor Gray and her team.
“This project will generate novel MSI data from heart tissue which will provide vital information on how the drug affects the heart, and we’re proud to be a part of it.”
You can read more about and apply for Heart Research UK’s Research Grants here.
Heart Research UK campaign seeks to educate people on the risk of heart attacks over the winter period
Reports have found that the risk of heart attack rises approximately 15% over Christmas time. To highlight the dramatic effect the festive season can have on heart health, national heart charity Heart Research UK has created a special Christmas awareness campaign that aims to inform the public and raise vital funds that will benefit life-saving research.
Research from the UK and Sweden has shown that Christmas can put a huge strain on our hearts, with approximately a 15% increase in heart attack risk at Christmas time. Seasonal changes and the rise in contagious illnesses including influenza can contribute to a person’s increased risk of death from cardiovascular disease and it’s especially dangerous for the elderly and those with certain underlying health conditions.
Reports show that deaths due to cardiovascular disease and coronary heart disease increase during the winter months with heart attacks (myocardial infarction) being more prevalent.
In 2019/20 in the UK, there were 6,661 excess winter deaths due to cardiovascular disease which included 2,820 deaths due to coronary heart disease. In addition to this, research from Sweden found that the risk of heart attack increased by 15% during the Christmas and New Year period.
It is therefore easy to see why Santa Claus finds himself the subject of Heart Research UK’s latest campaign. With his stressful job, poor diet, irregular exercise and fondness for mince pies and sherry, Santa fits this profile of someone who needs to be aware of their heart health over the Christmas period.
Introducing ‘A Healthy Heart Christmas’– a new campaign from Heart Research UK designed to raise awareness of the risk of heart disease during the winter months.
The campaign highlights the increase in risk of heart attack over the winter months and highlights the dangers of a sedentary lifestyle, poor diet, excessive alcohol consumption and stress whilst providing a number of handy resources via their website to help everybody enjoy a heart healthy and stress-free Christmas.
To accompany the campaign, Heart Research UK has partnered with thortful, the UK’s largest online card marketplace, to create a set of hand-drawn, limited-edition Christmas cards showing traditional festive scenes. Proceeds from sales of the cards will go towards funding Heart Research UK’s lifesaving research.
“We are extremely grateful to all the thortful customers for their generous contributions. The donations from the Christmas card sales will help us raise much-needed funds for our pioneering medical research into the prevention, treatment and cure of heart disease. We are so thankful for their support. Together we can take on heart disease.” says Kate Bratt-Farrar, Chief Executive at Heart Research UK.
Finally, as part of a radio spot promoting the campaign, BAFTA-winning actor and Line of Duty star Mark Bonnar has lent his distinctive voice to a special retelling of the iconic Christmas poem ‘A Visit from St Nicholas’, leading with the famous ‘Twas the night before Christmas’ verse before encouraging people to visit Heart Research UK’s website and donate.
Anyone who wants to donate towards their life-saving research or learn more, can visit the Heart Research UK website (https://heartresearch.org.uk/), where they can access a range of useful tips and guidance on how to take care of their heart and make little changes to their lifestyle and diet over the holidays.
Mindful eating is an approach to food where you pay full attention to eating. Research has shown that eating mindfully can improve digestion, help regulate appetite and helps us enjoy our food much more.
Here we share some simple ways to incorporate mindful eating into your daily routine:
Preparing your food For many people, cooking can feel like a chore but it doesn’t have to be a rushed experience or something we do on autopilot. Whether you’re chopping, slicing, or marinating, the art of being mindful when you are cooking is an ideal opportunity to focus your attention on textures, sounds and smells. If your mouth waters – you know you’re on track!
Slow down Taking the time to eat and chew your food thoroughly will enable you to taste the essence of the food. During a meal, you could practice taking smaller bites of food and try to put down your knife and fork between mouthfuls. You may be surprised at all the flavours that are released that you may not normally notice.
Eating around the table When life gets busy, it can be easy to slip into the habit of eating on the run and neglect taking time to sit down together. Trying to factor in time for sitting around the table can be beneficial for all members of a family or household. It can help everyone switch off from the stresses of the day and provide an opportunity to reconnect over a meal.
No distractions We tend to eat more mindlessly when we are distracted. We also don’t taste and experience the food as much because our mind is elsewhere.
Try eating with no distractions; this means eating without your laptop or phone, or when reading or watching TV so that you can relax and enjoy your food in the moment.
Mindful eating takes practice, and the more you practice, the more natural it will feel!
Insulin is an important hormone that allows sugar to move from our blood, after digesting food, into our muscles and fat cells to be either burned or stored.
Diabetes, is the name we give to the disease related to problems with our insulin. Whilst some types of Diabetes are caused by factors out of our control, Type 2 Diabetes can usually be prevented in younger individuals by adopting a healthy lifestyle. What’s more, most of the lifestyle actions we can take to limit our diabetes risk will also help to improve our heart health!
With this in mind, here are some tips for doing just that:
Eat more Fibre
Fibre can not only help to reduce cholesterol levels but also helps to slow down how quickly our blood sugar levels increase. Try and swap white pasta and bread for wholegrain options, eat more fruit and vegetables, and snack on unsalted nuts and seeds.
Create Activity Opportunities
Staying active is one of the most effective ways to maintain our weight and lower blood pressure. Consider how you can incorporate a minimum of one ‘activity opportunity’ every day, whether it’s walking the dog, cleaning your house, or dusting off your old bike. Remember to keep it fresh and do something you enjoy!
Take the 5% Challenge
Reducing our bodyweight by more than 5% is an effective way to positively manage our future health, however any weight loss is beneficial, so start small and build on your success! Remember to set a goal over a realistic timeframe; 0.5-2lb per week is sustainable.
Know Your Numbers
Eating excessive amounts of sugar over many years can be harmful to our health. Try and opt for foods with less than 5g of sugar per 100g most of the time, and limit high sugar foods such as fizzy drinks and sweets to less than twice per 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:
Age
Maximum free sugar/day
4 – 6 years
19g
7 – 10 years
24g
Adults
30g
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:
Heart Research UK has raised over £70,000 with the fourth instalment of their ‘anonymous heART project’, auctioning mystery pieces of A5 art produced by a host of internationally acclaimed artists, musicians and celebrities.
Heart Research UK Patrons Robert Smith (The Cure), Paul Insect and Christopher Kane have joined the likes of Chvrches, Jamie Hewlett, Annina Roescheisen, Anna Tsvell, Ralph Steadman and hundreds of international artists to create over 450 pieces of unique artwork, that were auctioned on eBay between the 22nd – 31st October.
The online auction, sponsored by international law firm Walker Morris included 471 pieces which were all sold anonymously. Prior to the auction, a full list of contributors was available, however the artist of each piece has been kept a secret, only being revealed to winning bidders now that the auction is over.
When the virtual hammer came down on Sunday evening at 8:00pm, the auction had proved to be an enormous success, raising a record amount and bringing the total amount raised for the ‘anonymous heART project’ across the 4 years to over £200,000, which will be helping to fund Heart Research UK’s life-saving work.
Following on from previous auctions, iconic rockstar and frontman of The Cure; Robert Smith contributed four beautiful pieces with the best-selling artwork fetching a stunning £5,900 in the online auction.
The piece, entitled “IT’S JUST THE WAY I SMILE…YOU SAID…” was highly sought after and all four pieces were included in the top 10 best-selling artworks.
Heart Research UK Patron Robert Smith commented:“The anonymous heART auction is a great idea and a great event, a wonderful opportunity to own a unique piece of art whilst supporting one of the UK’s best charities.
“The generosity of the bidding this year was overwhelming and I am very proud of everyone who got involved. I can’t wait for next year’s auction!”
Ahead of its fifth anniversary in 2022, the ‘anonymous heART project’ has seen over 1,800 artworks sold, raising over £200,000 for Heart Research UK’s pioneering research into the prevention, treatment and cure of heart disease.
Kate Bratt-Farrar, Chief Executive of Heart Research UK, said:“Everyone at Heart Research UK has been truly overwhelmed with the generosity of both the artists and people bidding on this year’s ‘anonymous heART project’.
“We knew that it would be tough to beat the previous year’s total but we managed to exceed all our expectations and could not be more grateful to everyone involved. We are indebted to all the contributors and would particularly like to thank our Patrons Robert Smith, Paul Insect and Christopher Kane, who all picked up their paintbrushes and donated their time, effort and support to the campaign.
“At Heart Research UK we like to use fun and innovative ways to raise funds and the beauty of the ‘anonymous heART project’ is that it allows people to support ground-breaking medical research, while at the same time obtaining a beautiful piece of art in return. It really is making high-class art available to all and we’re thrilled with the success of this years’ campaign.
“Each and every year, we try and make the ‘anonymous heART project’ even more special and we are already working on some exciting plans for the big five-year anniversary in 2022.”
To find out more and to register your interest for the fifth-year anniversary of the anonymous heART project, please visit heartresearch.org.uk/anonymous-heart/
Or follow the @he.art_project on Instagram for more updates.
Diwali, known as the festival of lights, is a five-day religious festival celebrated around the world. The festival is celebrated by many different faiths, bringing family and friends together.
Here are some tips to help you enjoy a healthy Diwali:
Celebrate with healthier food choices
Traditional sweet treats and flavoursome food is a key part of the Diwali festivities, and it is fine to allow yourself to enjoy some of your favourite dishes. Avoid over-indulging for a prolonged period and try to make some healthier food choices, such as fresh fruit and unsalted nuts, rather than fried foods and sweets.
Healthy Food Preparation
If you are responsible for preparing food for the festivities, look after the health of your loved ones by avoiding too much fat, salt or sugar in your cooking. Include plenty of heart-healthy ingredients such as fruit, vegetables and wholemeal foods, for example wholemeal chapatis, brown rice and wholemeal pita bread.
Move more during Diwali
Take the opportunity to get more active during Diwali. Keep your normal routine going as well as finding opportunities to include more activities, such as walking and dancing.
If you know you will be consuming more calories during Diwali, why not build a workout in at the start of the day to compensate.
Halloween happens every year on 31st October and is a day filled with various traditions around the theme of scary stuff! One key ingredient of a great Halloween celebration is a carved pumpkin (it used tae be a turnip! – Ed.).
Yet in-fact, pumpkins not only look great in your window, but are a versatile veg, full of fibre and vitamins.
Here are some ways you can use your left-over pumpkin this Halloween:
Make a Soup Find our Pumpkin Soup recipe at the bottom of the page. This recipe contains plenty of heart-healthy fats, is low in salt to improve blood pressure and contains two of your 5-a-day!
Roast It Roasting is a quick, healthy, and easy way to cook pumpkin. Simply peel, deseed, and slice into 1cm slices, then add a little olive or rapeseed oil and place in a heated oven at 200oC for approximately 40 minutes.
Swap it Out A great way to use up left-over pumpkin from Halloween is to make some swaps. You can use roasted pumpkin as a great side-dish or substitute it for potato, pasta or rice for a more vegetable-filled plate with a flavour twist
Use the Seeds Pumpkin seeds are a great source of protein and fibre and are low in saturated fat. To cook, run water over the seeds to remove any excess pulp, boil for 5-10 minutes, drain and spread over a baking tray, adding a little oil, then roast at 180oC for 8-10 minutes.
Hearty Pumpkin Soup
Ingredients:
Light spray + 1 tsp of heart healthy rapeseed oil
2 white onions, finely chopped
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
Finely chopped parsley
100g chopped tomatoes
800g chopped pumpkin
100g split red lentils
½ tbsp dried thyme
1 litre hot vegetable stock (go heart healthy with a low salt variety)
50g half fat or reduced fat crème fraiche
4 slices of wholemeal bread (toasted)
Optional black pepper for seasoning
Method:
Step 1: Heat the oil in a large casserole dish and fry the onions over a medium heat until translucent and turning golden brown. Add the garlic (keep the pumpkins to one side), lentils and dried thyme. Fry together for a minute.
Step 2: Add the vegetable stock then season with pepper and then cover. Let this simmer for 20- 25 minutes until the vegetables are cooked.
Step 3: Wash and dry the pumpkin seeds before heating up the teaspoon of oil. Add the seeds and fry them until they start to pop and jump. Cover and stir frequently. When the seeds look toasted, remove them from the heat.
Step 4: Blend the cooked lentils and pumpkin mixture with a hand blender until smooth. Add the crème fraiche and give it one last blend. Taste the soup and season with pepper if needed.
Step 5: Toast the bread and slice into croutons.
Step 6: Serve the soup in a jar or a mug with toasted seeds, parsley, and croutons on top.
National Cholesterol Month: The benefits of a healthy diet
October is National Cholesterol Month. Cholesterol is a fatty substance which is needed in the cells of your body. Too much cholesterol in your blood can lead to a build-up in your arteries and this increases your risk of having a heart attack.
We provide simple dietary tips to help you keep your cholesterol levels in check.
Eat foods that are high in fibre
A diet that is high in fibre will reduce your risk of heart disease and help to keep your cholesterol healthy. Eat a minimum of five portions of fruit and veg each day and choose wholegrain versions of bread, pasta and rice.
Oats for breakfast
Oats contain a type of soluble fibre known as beta-glucan, which can lower your cholesterol. As the weather gets cooler, you could start your day with a bowl of porridge with healthy toppings such as mixed berries, chopped apple or banana and a sprinkling of toasted chopped nuts, seeds or cinnamon.
Eat healthier fats
Saturated fats can contribute to high cholesterol and these fats tend to come from animal sources (e.g. fatty meats, cheeses, cream and butter). Coconut oil is also high in saturated fats. Swapping saturated fats for unsaturated fats, such as oily fish (e.g. salmon and mackerel), extra virgin olive oil, rapeseed oil and avocados, can help to increase your levels of good cholesterol.
To help keep your heart healthy, why not try out some heart healthy recipes from our website:
