Posted Mar 3, 2009
Mary Jo Rutherford was having trouble with her blood pressure and decided to make some changes in her diet by concentrating on foods with less cholesterol.
Now she eats chicken, fish and turkey instead of beef and has increased the amount of vegetables she eats.
“I feel a lot better,” said Rutherford, an administrative secretary at Fairmont State University and Pierpont Community & Technical College.
Rutherford learned better eating habits and stress relief techniques such as yoga by attending a class at United Hospital Center. But coincidentally, she works with Pam Hamilton, a registered and licensed dietitian who also serves as an associate professor at Pierpont Community & Technical College.
When Hamilton teaches people how to eat in such a way as to avoid plaque build-up in the arteries, she tells them not to concentrate as much on cholesterol as saturated fats and trans fats.
“A lot of people are misinformed,” she said. “It’s not the cholesterol in food that’s responsible for our blood cholesterol. It’s more attributable to the saturated fat and the trans fat in the food.”
And while some might think that requires a master’s degree in science to figure out which foods to embrace and to avoid based on different types of fat, Hamilton notes that it’s really not that difficult.
“Saturated fat is easy to recognize,” she said. “When you think about fats that are more solid at room temperature, like butter and lard, those are the things that are more saturated.”
Typically, Hamilton said, saturated fats will come from animal products, such as the fat on meats as well as from certain dairy products.
As for trans fats, some of those occur naturally while others have been created. Trans fats can be found in many baked products, fried foods and snack foods such as Chex Mix.
“They have a similar structure to saturated fats so therefore they can be as unhealthy, if not more unhealthy, than saturated fats,” Hamilton said.
Trans fats have been created by adding hydrogen to an item, which will make the substance harder, Hamilton said.
“The more hydrogens you put in it, the more solid it will be,” Hamilton said. “So, for instance, the stick margarines that if you leave them on the counter and they stay solid, those contain more hydrogen and are higher in fat.
“It’s hard to explain but it’s good for people to understand.”
It’s also good for people to know how to embrace foods that are lower in saturated and trans fats and therefore easier on the arteries.
That’s where fruits and vegetables come in, along with foods that are higher in soluble fiber, which helps reduce the risk of heart disease.
“Good examples are oatmeal, which is high in soluble fiber, as well as a lot of fruits,” Hamilton said.
Of course, some types of oatmeal are better than others. Some have added sugars, so while the oatmeal still does its job as a heart-healthy choice, the calories are higher.
Hamilton recommends sticking with the plain oatmeal but adding something to it, such as some nuts.
“Nuts are good in terms of heart health and are definitely lower in the bad cholesterol,” Hamilton said. “But you have to be careful because while nuts are healthy, they are high in calories, so you need to consume them in small amounts. A few nuts in oatmeal or on cereal or a handful is good.”
Other handy tips for making food healthier include taking fat off chicken or buying boneless, skinless chicken breasts.
“It’s the same thing with meats,” she said. “Certain cuts of meat are higher in fat, such as a filet or a Porterhouse or sirloin. That’s going to have more marbling so it will have more fat. It makes it tender but it’s a higher fat source.”
Then the consumer also should prepare chicken and meat in a healthier way, such as by baking, grilling or broiling.
Toni Marascio Williams, associate health coordinator at UHC where Rutherford took her classes, recommends that her students avoid red meat all together and people who are trying to reverse plaque in arteries avoid all meat. That’s the Dean Ornish program that Marascio Williams has taught in the past.
In general, Marascio Williams advises people who want to be heart healthy to change their portions of food.
“Most people fill up with meat,” she said. “They should start out with vegetables. Half of that plate should be vegetables. That changes the whole focus.”
A fourth of the plate can be fish the size of a checkbook or chicken the size of a deck of cards; while the remaining portion of the plate can go toward a starch or a complex carb, such as whole wheat pasta or brown rice.
“People should go away from the white starch to the colored starch,” she said. “A white potato is fine, but a sweet potato is better.”
Marascio Williams also recommends using a cooking spray such as Pam instead of a vegetable oil. She often uses white wine.
“The alcohol cooks out and it gives your food a more full-bodied flavor,” she said. “And sometimes we use vegetable stock to saute foods. That way it gives it some flavor. Sometimes people think when you are eating healthy it has to be bland, but that’s not true. We use lots of spices.”
E-mail Mary Wade Burnside at mwburnside@timeswv.com.
Date: Feb 25, 2009
To see more of The Times West Virginian or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.timeswv.com/.
Copyright © 2009, The Times West Virginian, Fairmont
