Heart health plays a vital role in our lives. The heart is our national biological engine, which provides blood supply to the entire body. It works continuously, without days off or breaks. Therefore, maintaining a healthy heart and blood vessels is a fundamental task for all of us. One of the most effective ways to ensure your heart health is by following a healthy lifestyle, or HLS.
What is a healthy lifestyle?
A healthy lifestyle, or a healthy lifestyle, is a set of activities and habits aimed at maintaining and strengthening your health. This approach includes several key aspects:
Proper nutrition: A balanced diet plays an important role in maintaining heart health. Avoid excess fat, sugar and salt in your diet. Preference should be given to fresh vegetables and fruits, low-fat dairy products, nuts and fish. Moderate meat consumption is also important.
Physical activity: Regular physical activity helps strengthen the heart and blood vessels. Even just walking for 30 minutes every day can have huge benefits for your cardiovascular health.
Quitting bad habits: Smoking and drinking alcohol are considered major risk factors for heart disease. Giving up these habits is one of the most important steps towards a healthy lifestyle.
Regular Medical Checkups: Carrying out regular medical checkups allows you to identify heart problems at an early stage and take necessary action.
Healthy lifestyle and the heart: Relationship
Following a healthy lifestyle has a direct impact on the health of the heart and blood vessels:
Reducing the risk of heart disease: A healthy lifestyle helps reduce the likelihood of developing cardiovascular diseases such as arterial hypertension (high blood pressure), atherosclerosis (deposition of cholesterol on the walls of the arteries), coronary heart disease (narrowing of the coronary arteries).
Improving the condition of blood vessels: Proper nutrition and an active lifestyle help strengthen the walls of blood vessels, which reduces the risk of blood clots and vascular ruptures.
Cholesterol control: A healthy lifestyle helps maintain healthy blood cholesterol levels, which is key to preventing atherosclerosis.
Improved physical endurance: Regular exercise strengthens the heart muscle, increasing its efficiency and ability to bear stress.
Healthy eating
Key Facts
A healthy diet provides protection against poor nutrition in all its forms, as well as non-communicable diseases (NCDs), including diabetes, heart disease, stroke and cancer.
Unhealthy diet and physical inactivity are major health risks worldwide.
Healthy eating practices are established early in life—breastfeeding promotes healthy growth and improves cognitive development and can have long-term health benefits, such as reducing the likelihood of becoming overweight or obese and developing NCDs later in life.
Energy (calorie) intake must be balanced with energy expenditure. To avoid unhealthy weight gain, total fat intake should not exceed 30% of total energy intake (1, 2, 3). Saturated fats should account for less than 10% and trans fats less than 1% of total energy intake, and when consuming fats, replace saturated fats and trans fats with unsaturated fats (3) and strive to eliminate industrially produced trans fats from the diet (4, 5, 6) .
Reducing the intake of free sugars to less than 10% of total energy intake (2, 7) is part of a healthy diet, and reducing their intake to less than 5% is thought to provide additional health benefits (7).
Salt intake of less than 5 g per day (equivalent to sodium intake of less than 2 g per day) helps prevent hypertension and reduces the risk of heart disease and stroke in adults (8).
WHO Member States have set targets to reduce global salt intake by 30% by 2025 and to halt the rise in diabetes and obesity in adults and adolescents and overweight in children by 2025 (9, 10).
A healthy diet throughout the lifespan helps prevent malnutrition in all its forms, as well as a range of noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) and health conditions. However, the rise of processed foods, rapid urbanization and changing lifestyles have led to a shift in dietary patterns. People are now consuming more foods high in calories, fat, free sugars and salt/sodium, and many people are not consuming enough fruits, vegetables and other types of fiber such as whole grains.
The exact composition of a varied, balanced and healthy diet depends on individual characteristics (such as age, gender, lifestyle and level of physical activity), cultural context, local food availability and dietary customs. However, the basic principles of healthy eating remain the same.
For adults
A healthy diet includes the following components:
Fruits, vegetables, legumes (eg, lentils, beans), nuts, and whole grains (eg, unprocessed corn, millet, oats, wheat, and brown rice).
At least 400g (that is, five servings) of fruits and vegetables per day (2), excluding potatoes, sweet potatoes, cassava and other starchy root vegetables.
Free sugars should make up less than 10% of total energy intake (2, 7), which is equivalent to 50 g (or 12 level teaspoons) for a normal weight person consuming about 2000 calories per day, but ideally to provide additional health benefits, they should account for less than 5% of total energy intake (7). Free sugars are all sugars added to foods or beverages by the manufacturer, cook or consumer, as well as sugars naturally present in honey, syrups, fruit juices and their concentrates.
Fats should make up less than 30% of total energy intake (1, 2, 3). It is necessary to give preference to unsaturated fats (found in fish, avocados and nuts, as well as sunflower, soybean, canola and olive oils) as opposed to saturated fats (found in fatty meats, butter, palm and coconut oils, cream, cheese, ghee). and lard) and trans fats of all types, including both industrially produced trans fats (found in baked and fried foods, pre-packaged snack foods and other foods such as frozen pizzas, pies, cookies, waffles, cooking oils and sandwich mixes) and trans fats naturally occurring (contained in meat and dairy products obtained from ruminant animals such as cows, sheep, goats and camels). It is recommended to reduce saturated fat intake to less than 10% and trans fat to less than 1% of total energy intake (5). You should especially avoid consuming industrially produced trans fats, which are not part of a healthy diet (4, 6).
Consume less than 5 g of salt (equivalent to about one teaspoon) per day (8). Salt must be iodized.
For infants and young children
Optimal nutrition during the first two years of life promotes healthy growth and improves cognitive development. It also reduces the risk of becoming overweight and obese and developing NCDs later in life.
Recommendations for healthy eating for infants and children of other age groups are similar to those for adults, but the following components are also important:
During the first 6 months of life, children should be exclusively breastfed.
Breastfeeding of children should be continued during the first two years of life and beyond.
From six months of age, breast milk should be supplemented with a variety of appropriate, safe and nutritious foods. Salt and sugar should not be added to complementary foods.
Practical tips for maintaining a healthy diet
Fruits and vegetables
Eating at least 400g, or five servings, of fruits and vegetables every day reduces the risk of developing NCDs (2) and helps ensure your daily fiber intake.
Fruit and vegetable consumption can be improved. To do this you need:
always include vegetables in your diet;
eat fresh fruits and vegetables as snacks;
consume seasonal fruits and vegetables; And
consume a variety of fruits and vegetables.
Fats
Reducing total fat intake to less than 30% of total energy intake helps prevent unhealthy weight gain in adults (1, 2, 3). In addition, the risk of developing NCDs can be reduced by:
reducing saturated fat intake to less than 10% of total energy intake;
reducing trans fat intake to less than 1% of total energy intake; And
replacing saturated fats and trans fats with unsaturated fats (2, 3), in particular polyunsaturated fats.
Fat intake, especially saturated fat and industrially produced trans fat, can be reduced in the following ways:
steam or boil food rather than fry or bake;
replace butter, lard and ghee with vegetable oils rich in polyunsaturated fats, such as soybean, canola (canola), corn, safflower and sunflower oil;
Eat reduced-fat dairy products and lean meats or trim visible fat from meat; And
Limit consumption of baked and fried foods, as well as pre-prepared snack foods and other foods (such as donuts, muffins, pies, cookies and waffles) that contain industrially produced trans fats.
Salt, sodium and potassium
Many people consume too much sodium from salt (equivalent to an average intake of 9-12 grams of salt per day) and not enough potassium (less than 3.5 grams). High sodium intake and insufficient potassium intake contribute to high blood pressure, which in turn increases the risk of heart disease and stroke (8, 11).
Reducing salt intake to the recommended level of less than 5 g per day could help prevent 1.7 million deaths per year (12).
People often don't know how much salt they consume. In many countries, the majority of salt intake comes from processed foods (prepared meals; processed meats such as bacon, ham and salami; cheese; and salty snacks) or from foods that are often consumed in large quantities (such as bread). Salt is also added to food during cooking (for example, by adding broth, bouillon cubes, soy sauce, and fish sauce) or during eating (by adding table salt).
Salt intake can be reduced in the following ways:
Limit the amount of salt and high-sodium seasonings (such as soy sauce, fish sauce, and stock) added when cooking;
do not place salt or sauces high in sodium on the table;
limit your intake of salty snacks; And
choose foods low in sodium.
Some food manufacturers reformulate their products to reduce sodium content, and labels should be checked for sodium content before purchasing or consuming products.
Potassium may mitigate the negative effects of excess sodium intake on blood pressure. Potassium intake can be increased by consuming fresh fruits and vegetables.
Sugar
Intake of sugars in both adults and children should be reduced to less than 10% of total energy intake (2, 7). Reducing intake to less than 5% of total energy intake will provide additional health benefits (7).
Consumption of free sugars increases the risk of developing dental caries. Excess calories from foods and drinks containing free sugars also contribute to unhealthy weight gain, which can lead to overweight and obesity. Recent evidence suggests that free sugars have effects on blood pressure and serum lipids.
How to promote healthy eating?
Diets change over time, influenced by many social and economic factors and their complex interactions that contribute to individual dietary patterns. These factors include income, food prices (which influence food availability and affordability), individual preferences and beliefs, cultural practices, and geographic and environmental aspects (including climate change). Therefore, creating a healthy food environment – including food systems that promote diverse, balanced and healthy diets – requires the involvement of multiple sectors and stakeholders, including governments and the public and private sectors.
Governments have a major role to play in creating healthy food environments that enable people to adopt and maintain healthy eating practices. Effective actions by policymakers to create a healthy food environment include:
Ensure coherence of national policies and investment plans, including in trade, food and agriculture, to promote healthy diets and protect public health through:
strengthening incentives for producers and retailers to grow, use and sell fresh fruits and vegetables;
encouraging changes in the composition of food products to reduce the content of saturated fats, trans fats, free sugars and salt/sodium in order to eliminate industrially produced trans fats from food products;
implementation of WHO recommendations regarding marketing of food and non-alcoholic beverages to children;
establishing standards that promote healthy eating practices by ensuring the availability of healthy, nutritious, safe and affordable food in preschools, schools, other public institutions and workplaces;
exploring regulatory and voluntary instruments (eg marketing regulations and food labeling policies) and economic incentives or disincentives (eg taxation and subsidies) to promote healthy diets; And
Incentivize multinational, national and local foodservice providers to improve the nutritional quality of their products - ensuring healthy food options are available and affordable - and to review portion sizes and prices.
Stimulating consumer demand for healthy food products and meals through the following measures:
increasing consumer awareness about healthy eating;
developing school policies and programs aimed at promoting and maintaining healthy eating practices among children;
educating children, adolescents and adults about healthy eating practices;
assistance in the development of culinary skills, including in children as part of school education;
providing support for the provision of information at the point of sale, including through labeling that provides accurate, standardized and comprehensive information on the nutritional content of foods (in accordance with Codex Alimentarius Commission guidelines) and additional front-of-pack labeling to make it easier for consumers to understand this information; And
nutrition counseling at the primary health care level.
Promote good infant and young child feeding practices through the following measures:
implementation of the International Code of Marketing of Breast-milk Substitutes and subsequent relevant World Health Assembly resolutions;
implementing strategies and practices to strengthen protection for working mothers; And
promote, protect and support breastfeeding in health services and communities, including through the Breastfeeding Friendly Hospital Initiative.
WHO activities
In 2004, the Health Assembly adopted the WHO Global Strategy on Diet, Physical Activity and Health (14). The strategy calls on governments, WHO, international partners, the private sector and civil society to take action at the global, regional and local levels to promote healthy diets and physical activity.
In 2010, the Health Assembly endorsed a set of recommendations regarding the marketing of foods and non-alcoholic beverages to children (15). Using these recommendations, countries are developing new and improving existing strategies to reduce children's exposure to unhealthy food marketing. WHO has also developed regional tools (such as regional model nutrient lists) that countries can use to implement marketing recommendations.
In 2012, the Health Assembly adopted the Comprehensive Implementation Plan for Maternal, Infant and Young Child Nutrition and six global nutrition goals to be achieved by 2025, including reducing the number of children stunted, wasting and overweight, improving breastfeeding and reducing the number of children with anemia and low birth weight (9).
In 2013, the Health Assembly agreed on nine global voluntary targets for the prevention and control of NCDs. These goals include halting the rise in diabetes and obesity and a relative reduction of 30% in salt intake by 2025. “Global plan of action for the prevention and control of noncommunicable diseases 2013–2020.” (10) provides guidance and policy options to help Member States, WHO and other United Nations agencies achieve these goals.
In May 2014, in response to the rapid increase in the number of obese infants and other age groups in many countries, WHO established the Commission on Ending Childhood Obesity. In 2016, the Commission proposed a set of recommendations to successfully combat obesity among children and adolescents in global settings (16).
In November 2014, WHO, together with the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), organized the second International Conference on Nutrition (ICN2). ICN2 adopted the Rome Declaration on Nutrition (17) and Framework for Action (18), which recommend a range of policy options and strategies to promote diverse, safe and healthy diets throughout the life course. WHO is helping countries implement the commitments made at ICN2.
In May 2018, the Health Assembly adopted the Thirteenth General Program of Work (GPW13), which will guide WHO's work in 2019–2023. (19). Reducing salt/sodium intake and eliminating industrially produced trans fats from foods are identified in the GPW13 as WHO priority actions to achieve the goals of achieving healthy lives and promoting well-being for all at all ages. To help Member States take the necessary steps to eliminate industrially produced trans fats from food, WHO has developed a road map for countries (REPLACE package) to accelerate action (6).
Sources
(1) Hooper L, Abdelhamid A, Bunn D, Brown T, Summerbell CD, Skeaff CM. Effects of total fat intake on body weight. Cochrane Database Syst Rev. 2015; (8):CD011834.
(2) Diet, nutrition and the prevention of chronic diseases: report of a Joint WHO/FAO Expert Consultation. WHO Technical Report Series, No. 916. Geneva: World Health Organization; 2003.
(3) Fats and fatty acids in human nutrition: report of an expert consultation. FAO Food and Nutrition Paper 91. Rome: Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations; 2010.
(4) Nishida C, Uauy R. WHO scientific update on health consequences of trans fatty acids: introduction. Eur J Clin Nutr. 2009; 63 Suppl 2:S1–4.
(5) Guidelines: Saturated fatty acid and trans-fatty acid intake for adults and children. Geneva: World Health Organization; 2018 (Draft issued for public consultation in May 2018).
(6) REPLACE: An action package to eliminate industrially-produced trans-fatty acids. WHO/NMH/NHD/18.4. Geneva: World Health Organization; 2018.
(7) Guideline: Sugars intake for adults and children. Geneva: World Health Organization; 2015.
(8) Guideline: Sodium intake for adults and children. Geneva: World Health Organization; 2012.
(9) Comprehensive implementation plan on maternal, infant and young child nutrition. Geneva: World Health Organization; 2014.
(10) Global action plan for the prevention and control of NCDs 2013–2020. Geneva: World Health Organization; 2013.
(11) Guideline: Potassium intake for adults and children. Geneva: World Health Organization; 2012.
(12) Mozaffarian D, Fahimi S, Singh GM, Micha R, Khatibzadeh S, Engell RE et al. Global sodium consumption and death from cardiovascular causes. N Engl J Med. 2014; 371(7):624–34.
(13) Te Morenga LA, Howatson A, Jones RM, Mann J. Dietary sugars and cardiometabolic risk: systematic review and meta-analyses of randomized controlled trials of the effects on blood pressure and lipids. A.J.C.N. 2014; 100(1): 65–79.
(14) Global strategy on diet, physical activity and health. Geneva: World Health Organization; 2004.
(15) Set of recommendations on the marketing of foods and non-alcoholic beverages to children. Geneva: World Health Organization; 2010.
(16) Report of the Commission on Ending Childhood Obesity. Geneva: World Health Organization; 2016.
(17) Rome Declaration on Nutrition. Second International Conference on Nutrition. Rome: Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations/World Health Organization; 2014.
(18) Framework for Action. Second International Conference on Nutrition. Rome: Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations/World Health Organization; 2014.
(19) Thirteenth general program of work, 2019–2023. Geneva: World Health Organization; 2018.
resource: https://www.who.int/ru/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/healthy-diet
STAY IN TOUCH
"Best for your heart"
Baitursynov 79A, Shymkent, Kazakhstan
+7 (701) 203 03-88
+7 (707) 713 93-63
+7 (7252) 37-10-22
MAP OF SITE
home
For patients and visitors
Divisions and departments
Center Board
Press service
