Reducing your risk of heart disease could be as easy as changing up the type of carbs you eat -- from refined carbs to whole grains. In fact, according to recent studies, eating just one serving of whole grains can reduce your risk of high blood pressure by 4%. That might not seem like much, but it's a pretty promising result for such a small change in your lifestyle. Imagine the difference you could make to your heart health if you changed all of your grains to whole grains?Cutting your blood pressure risk is as easy as switching from regular pasta to whole wheat, from white toast to whole wheat. You might not like the taste at first but you'll get used to it. I used to live for white bread and now I only eat whole wheat -- it's the only kind of bread I have a taste for these days.
Another thing to keep in mind is to check the labels on supposed 'whole grain' products to make sure they really are. If 100% whole grains isn't the first item on the ingredients list, toss it.
1. My father has been eating 100% whole wheat bread and pasta for several years. Now his doctor has found his potassium and phosphorous levels higher than normal, which is dangerous for the heart as well. He has put him on a diet which includes 60% whole wheat bread and pasta.
Posted at 10:47PM on Sep 17th 2007 by Tom Di Chiazza