It’s hard to make healthy meals for seniors, or anyone of any age, when recommendations seem to change from one week to the next. We’d been informed that saturated fats that are found in foods such as red meat, butter and fried food were bad for our health, but later research advised there wasn’t enough proof that individuals who gave up these foods improved their heart health – and for that reason, we were given the thumbs up to choose butter over margarine once more.
And yet, as documented in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology, scientists reveal that the lack of noticeable results in minimizing saturated fat intake is most likely related to poor dietary choices made in place of those fats – such as refined carbs. Subjects who instead replaced saturated fats with more healthy options, such as olive oil and whole grains, did decrease their heart disease risk by as much as 25%.
According to Adela Hruby, a researcher from the study, “We know that people don’t just drop 10% of their calories…and not replace them with other things. What they are adding in to replace what they’re not eating is really important.”
The study, which was led by Dr. Frank Hu of the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, was incredibly in-depth, following nearly 130,000 participants of both genders over a period of 30 years. Keeping track of dietary choices and any heart-related conditions, it was determined that men and women who ate carbohydrates in place of the saturated fats were attaining an almost equal risk of heart disease – a statistic missed in older studies that had determined there was no benefit to reducing the amount of saturated fat in a diet.
So what can we learn from all of this? Better heart health can be met by not only decreasing the amount of saturated fat in a diet, but also by selecting healthier items than foods with a lot of sugar or processed flour-based foods.
Heaven at Home Senior Care, serving the Dallas, TX area is always on hand to plan and prepare heart-healthy meals for seniors that are not only nutritious, but delicious, helping seniors reduce their risk for heart attacks and disease. We can also help make sure that seniors are:
- Making good dietary choices, and can help with obtaining groceries so that healthy, fresh foods are always stocked.
- Taking medications on time and correctly
- Engaging in doctor-approved activity programs
- Safely brought and accompanied to appointments with the doctor and other outings
- And much more
Give us a call at 866-381-0500 or contact us online to learn more.