Cardiovascular Health & Nutrition Education Resources -- 2008 Update

This morning, as part of preparing for tomorrow's stroke clinical pathway subcommittee meeting, I updated my inventory of patient/client and family education tools and resources on cardiovascular health. Here is Part 1 (original PEN and PEN-recommended resources) of the inventory. I'm going to continue working on it over the next day-and-a-half.

Image credit: Colored vegetables by christing-O

Dietitians of Canada's PEN resources (subscription required to access resources):

• Heart Healthy Eating: Cholesterol
• Heart Healthy Eating: Triglycerides
• Heart Healthy Eating: Recipes
• Heart Healthy Eating Sample Menu
• Low Sodium (Salt) Eating
• Low Sodium (Salt) Food Choices
• Low Sodium (Salt) Cooking
• Low Sodium (Salt) Eating Out
• Low Sodium (Salt) Eating Resources
• Reading Food Labels for Sodium (Salt)
• Increasing Your Potassium Intake
• Potassium Content of Selected Fruits
• Potassium Content of Selected Vegetables
• Increasing Your Fibre Intake
• Sources of Fibre
• High Fibre Recipes

Resources recommended by PEN (external sites; PEN subscription not required):

• 5-to-10-A-Day (encourages Canadians to eat more fruit and veggies)
• Omega-3 content of fish, shellfish, fish oils and nuts (table of values for professionals' use but may be helpful in answering clients' questions about which are "best" to eat)
• DASH Eating Plan
• Too much sodium in your diet can contribute to high blood pressure
• What is your blood pressure?

Food, Nutrition, Physical Activity and the Prevention of Cancer

I first read about this report earlier today on Marion Nestle's blog and tonight, every hour since 6 pm I've been listening to news reports about it on CBC Radio.

Because it's such a big nutrition news story, I don't think I can go to bed tonight until I blog about it.

You can find extensive reference and resource material about the report here, and from this page, download the complete report or chapters. 

This evening I downloaded and skimmed through the Introduction (26 pages of small text) and from it I'm posting the 10 recommendations for easy future reference and retrieval. During the next few days I need to read more carefully the public health goals, personal recommendations and justification for each recommendation. These details are important.

1. Body Fatness -- Be as lean as possible within the normal range of body weight.
2. Physical Activity -- Be physically active as part of everyday life.
3. Foods and Drinks that Promote Weight Gain -- Limit consumption of energy-dense foods. Avoid sugary drinks.
4. Plant Foods -- Eat mostly foods of plant origin.
5. Animal Foods -- Limit intake of red meat and avoid processed meat.
   
6. Alcoholic Drinks -- Limit alcoholic drinks.
7. Preservation, Processing, Preparation -- Limit consumption of salt. Avoid mouldy cereals (grains) or pulses (legumes)
8. Dietary Supplements -- Aim to meet nutritional needs through diet alone.
9. Breastfeeding -- Mothers to breastfeed; children to be breastfed.
10. Cancer survivors -- Follow the recommendations for cancer prevention.