Keep in mind that staying healthy requires more than just good nutrition. Regular exercise, getting enough rest, learning to cope with stress, and having regular physical checkups are important ways to help ensure good health. Checkups are especially important for early detection of cancer and heart disease. Another important way to reduce your risks of heart disease and cancer is not to smoke or use tobacco in any form. Controlling high blood pressure (hypertension) can also greatly reduce your risk of heart disease and stroke. Remember, three of the major risk factors for heart disease are largely under your control. They are smoking, high blood pressure, and high blood cholesterol.
 

How Do the Foods We Eat Affect Our Chances of Getting Cancer
and Heart Disease?


There is much still to be learned about the relationship between the foods we eat and our risk of getting cancer and heart disease. The NHLBI and NCI are conducting a great deal of research to find out more about this relationship. There is, however, a lot that we know now. The relationship of diet to cancer and the relationship of diet to risk factors for heart disease are summarized below:

Obesity

*We know that obesity is associated with high blood pressure, high blood cholesterol, diabetes, heart disease, and stroke, Extreme obesity has also been linked to several cancers. This means that if you are obese, losing weight may reduce your chances of developing these serious diseases or conditions. If you already suffer from hypertension and are overweight, weight loss alone can often lower your blood pressure to normal levels. Because fat (both saturated and unsaturated fat) provides more than twice the number of calories provided by equal weights of carbohydrate or protein, decreasing the fat in your diet may help you lose weight as well as help reduce your risk of cancer and heart disease. Today, most Americans get about 37 percent of their daily calories from fat. Many experts suggest that fat should be reduced to 30 percent or less of calories.


Heart Disease

*We know that high blood cholesterol increases your risk of heart disease, especially as it rises above 200 mg/dl (milligrams of cholesterol per deciliter of blood). The evidence is clear that elevated cholesterol in the blood, resulting in part from the foods we eat and in part from cholesterol made in the body, contributes to the development of atherosclerosis, a disorder of arteries that results in their narrowing and in reduced blood circulation. This condition can lead to a heart attack or stroke.

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