Healthy Heart

Heart and circulatory disease is the UK’s biggest killer – so it’s really important to look after the health of your heart.

How do I keep my heart healthy?
What we eat and drink can play a big part on how healthy our hearts are. The Government advises eating a diet rich in fruit and vegetables, high in fibre and low in salt and fat, especially saturated fat, to help reduce our chances of developing heart disease. There are other factors that can influence your heart health, including stress, diet, smoking, weight, alcohol, activity and family history.

Being a healthy weight and keeping active is important not just for your heart health, but for your general health as well. You can find out if you’re a healthy weight by looking at our section on Healthy Lifestyle.

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Hearth health & cholesterol?
Nearly half of all deaths from heart disease in the UK are due to raised cholesterol. Cholesterol is made by the body, but it’s also found in some foods such as shellfish, eggs, dairy products, poultry, and offal (liver or kidney, for example). Foods containing cholesterol have little impact on blood cholesterol level, though, and most people don’t need to reduce cholesterol-containing foods unless advised by their GP to do so.

Cholesterol in the body
Cholesterol is essential for making nerves and hormones as well as helping us digest fat. It is made in the liver and is transported around the body by lipoproteins. There are two different types of lipoproteins: low density lipoprotein (LDL) and high density lipoprotein (HDL). LDL is ‘bad’ cholesterol, as it’s this type that is associated with an increased risk of heart disease, whereas HDL is ‘good’ cholesterol.
If there’s more than 5 millimoles a litre (5mmol/l) of cholesterol in your blood, your doctor may advise you to make some changes to your lifestyle or diet.

How does my diet influence my blood cholesterol?

  • saturated, or trans fats, can increase your ‘bad’ cholesterol levels, so lowering your intake of these can help to reduce your ‘bad’ cholesterol
  • monounsaturated fats such as those found in olive oil, nuts and seeds tend to have a neutral effect on blood cholesterol
  • polyunsaturated fats, such as fish oils and vegetable oils, can reduce ‘bad’ cholesterol and may increase the levels of ‘good’ cholesterol

    • For more information on different types of fat, please follow this link.

    Blood pressure & heart health

    Blood pressure is a measure of the force created when your heart pumps blood through your arteries. Having raised or high blood pressure can increase your risk of heart disease, kidney disease or stroke. Not everyone with high blood pressure needs to have tablets to control it, as there are changes to your diet and lifestyle that can help.

    These include:

  • limiting the amount of salt in your diet
  • drinking alcohol in moderation
  • eating more fruit and vegetables
  • being a healthy weight
  • being as active as possible
  • not smoking
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    Fruit Salad

    Eating for a healthy heart
    Heart health is not all about limiting what you eat. There are some foods which promote good heart health:

  • oats contain soluble fibre which has been shown to help reduce blood cholesterol, so having a bowl of porridge or muesli is a good way to start the day
  • fruits & vegetables
  • pulses such as beans, peas or lentils
  • soya
  • wholegrains
  • pily fish such as mackerel, sardines, salmon, and fresh (not canned) tuna provide omega 3 fatty acids which help keep your blood healthy

    How we can help..

  • to help you eat healthily look for foods with the eat well sunflower logo, which are either foods you should eat more of as part of a healthy diet or ones which meet strict nutritional guidelines for fat, saturated fat, sugar and salt, based on current government healthy eating recommendations
  • Front of pack traffic lights will indicate whether a product is high (red) medium (amber) or low (green) in saturated fat and salt. Try selecting more greens and ambers through the week
  • In January 2007 we became the first retailer to completely ban hydrogenated fat in all our foods
  • if you need to lose weight, our count on us… range can help, with each dish being less than 3% fat as well as calorie, portion and salt controlled
  • we label foods that are a rich source of omega 3 to make it easier for you to include more omega 3 fats in your diet, plus we stock omega 3-enriched eggs, milk and cheese sticks
  • our reduced fat and low fat alternatives of many foods enable you to make healthier choices