Heart Foundation warns women on cholesterol
With shocking new research1 revealing that Australian women have higher LDLor bad cholesterol levels than men, the Heart Foundation is urging all women to take another look at their lifestyle to ward off heart disease.
Research from Baker IDI Heart and Diabetes Institute has warned that Australian women visiting their GPs have higher cholesterol than Australian men.
High blood cholesterol levels can lead to heart disease. Long considered a "man's disease", heart disease and stroke are actually the leading causes of death in Australian women, and in 2008 was responsible for the deaths of 25,700 women compared to 22,755 men. These risks increase further when combined with high blood pressure and diabetes.
"In the main, blood cholesterol levels are directly linked to diet. With changes that are very simple and cost effective to make, we can remove substantial amounts of saturated fat from our diets, lower our blood cholesterol levels and still enjoy many of the foods we love. So these findings are particularly frustrating, said Susan Anderson," National Director Healthy Weight Heart Foundation.
The research results were consistent between all socio economic groups and slim women cannot be complacent either - a recent report from the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare2 confirms that 48% Australian women are living with high bloodcholesterol, making it an important health issue for many women.
This is largely about diet and not weight. If your diet is rich in saturated fat, whether overweight or not, you re still putting yourself at risk of heart disease, explained Ms Anderson.
These simple and relatively minor changes that each of us can make from today, will remove 10kg of saturated fat from the diet over the course of a year. Now, think of that over a lifetime! The reality is that with these changes, in seven years the average woman has saved her own body weight in artery clogging saturated fat, said Ms Anderson.
Five easy ways to beat blood cholesterol:
- Swap butter for margarine, starting with your morning toast and sandwiches. This change alone can save almost 3kg of saturated fat from your diet over a year.
- Switch to reduced, low or no fat dairy products and wipe another 4kg.
- Ask for skinny cappuccinos based on one a day, this removes 1kg of saturated fat over a year.
- Instead of biscuits or cakes for your mid-morning snack, choose raisin bread or toast with margarine doing this will save at least another kilo of sat fat from your diet over a year.
- Take the salami off your sandwiches and replace with lean ham to save 1.25kg of saturated fat (choose one with the Tick to save on salt, too).
1 Baker IDI Heart and Diabetes Institute. 2010. Australia s Cholesterol Crossroad: an analysis of 199,331 GP patientcholesterol records from 2004-2009
2 Australian Institute of Health and Welfare 2010. Women and Heart Disease: cardiovascular profile of women inAustralia. Cardiovascular disease series no 33 Cat no CVD 49. Canberra
For more information, visit www.heartfoundaton.org.au
