Heart disease: Simple food swaps to lower the risk of the condition for 72% of Britons

Heart disease: Doctor explains how to reduce risk

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Heart disease is the leading cause of death worldwide, with more than 160,000 people dying each year in the UK alone. The deadly condition is also linked to artery and organ damage. The good news is that it can be prevented by easy lifestyle tweaks, including food swaps.

Diet is one of the risk factors for developing heart disease.

A poor diet can also lead to health conditions, including high cholesterol and diabetes, which can boost your risk of heart disease, according to the NHS.

Fortunately, turning things around can do the exact opposite.

A new study by Tate & Lyle PLC has found that simple food swaps could cut the risk of heart diseases for 72 percent of the British adult population.

The easy food exchanges they recommend include swapping:

• Jam on toast with almond or other nut butters
• Standard yoghurts with added fibre yoghurts
• White sliced breakfast toast with a fibre fortified cereal
• Milk chocolate treats with a “reduced sugar” version with added fibre.

You might have noticed a common theme in their recommended swaps – fibre.

Indeed, Tate & Lyle advise that opting for products marked as a “source of fibre” or “high in fibre” could help cut the risk of heart disease.

From dairy products to baked goods, enjoying products with higher fibre content could help around 50 percent of Brits to meet their recommended daily target.

Currently, UK adults consume just around 19 grams of fibre per day on average.

The research reports that this is “significantly under” the target which is 30 grams.

What’s worse, only nine percent of Britons are currently meeting the daily target.

Not getting enough fibre is not only bad for your bowel movements but it’s also linked with higher levels of bowel and breast cancer, and diabetes.

On top of that, the peer-reviewed study produced by Tate & Lyle working with company Crème Global reports that it can also reduce the risk of cardiovascular diseases.

Dr Kavita Karnik, co-author of the health and nutrition data modelling study, explained: “Most people understand that eating fibre helps keep bowel function regular.

“But fewer understand that getting the right amount of fibre in your diet is highly beneficial for wider health and wellbeing, including cardiovascular, immunity, skin, brain and gut health.

“However, for most people, it is difficult to get enough fibre into their diet without exceeding their recommended calorie intake.

“This is where fibre fortification could play a highly beneficial role to public health. It would allow consumers to continue eating the products they prefer while potentially, lowering rates of cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes and help maintain a healthy weight across the population.”

In case you are not familiar, Tate & Lyle are a leading global provider of food and beverage ingredients and solutions.

They recently signed up to the UK’s Food and Drink Federation’s Action on Fibre initiative, which is helping consumers to bridge the gap between fibre intake and the dietary recommendation.

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