By Trina O’Quinn for the NABBW: Before I begin let me define the terms I am going to be discussing. There are two: 1- Chronic Illness and 2- Acute Illness. These explanations come from the Center for Disease Control, DSM-V, and Wikipedia. A chronic condition is a human health condition or disease that is persistent or otherwise long lasting in its effects or a disease that comes with time. The term chronic is often applied when the course of the disease lasts for more than three months. Common chronic diseases include arthritis, asthma, cancer, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD),... Read More

Green Bean Casserole: A Classic Thanksgiving Dish — Now You Can Make It Over to Be Low Fat, Low Cholesterol — And Still Delightfully Yummy. Here\’s How! By Janet Brill, Ph.D., R.D., LDN NABBW’s Healthy Heart Lifestyle Associate What is one of the most popular Thanksgiving dinner side dishes? Green bean casserole has become a staple at most everyone’s traditional Thanksgiving dinner. Unfortunately, the traditional version tends to be loaded with bad fat, salt and calories and is often far from a light and healthy dish. Why not lighten up this Thanksgiving classic and... Read More

Bananas and Chocolate: Two Blood-Pressure Lowering Superfoods That Are a Healthy, Indulgent Prescription For You and Your Family!! Plus Brill Offers a Healthy Cake Recipe By Janet Brill, Ph.D., R.D., LDN NABBW’s Healthy Heart Lifestyle Associate   Half of all American women over the age of 45 have high blood pressure. Considering that high blood pressure is a dangerous condition—a treacherous and silent killer that wreaks havoc on your arteries, predisposing you to stroke, a heart attack, kidney failure and blindness—it would behoove all of us to get those millimeters of mercury down... Read More

SALT! A Recipe to Help Lower Your Intake In Order to Reduce Blood Pressure And Prevent Heart Disease By Janet Brill, Ph.D., R.D., LDN NABBW’s Healthy Heart Lifestyle Associate   Recently I posted an article here on some new recommendations for our salt intake, “The New Salt Message: A Smoking Gun.“ In it, I dealt with a somewhat controversial newly published recommendation on the dietary intake of salt. More importantly, I outlined why I continue to believe it is so crucial for all of us to reduce our salt intake in order to lower blood pressure and prevent heart disease. It’s... Read More

The Perfect Vinaigrette By Janet Brill, Ph.D., R.D., LDN NABBW’s Healthy Heart Lifestyle Expert Why is it that when you eat out, the salad dressing tastes so much better? It’s all in the proportions and ingredients… Start with a good extra virgin olive oil (EVOO) to ensure that the oil base is comprised of the healthiest oil there is. Olive oil, called “liquid gold” by Homer, is the main fat used in Mediterranean diets—the pattern of eating proven to decrease the risk of such diseases and disorders as heart attacks, stroke, type 2 diabetes and metabolic syndrome. EVOO contains... Read More

Fresh Veggie Pita Pocket Sandwich (With Hummus — The Perfect Sandwich Filler To Jazz Up Those Veggies) By Janet Brill, Ph.D., R.D., LDN NABBW’s Healthy Heart Lifestyle Expert It’s Monday and you plan on participating in the National movement to go meatless on Mondays. (Meatless Monday is an international campaign—started by Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health—that encourages people to not eat meat on Mondays to improve their health and the health of the planet.) You’re short on time, need a quick and tasty vegetarian sandwich filler—so you reach for the prepared... Read More

Salsa – The Perfect Nutrition Choice By Janet Brill, Ph.D., R.D., LDN NABBW’s Healthy Heart Lifestyle Expert Celebrate the beauty of the season by eating from Mother Nature’s glorious palette of fruit colors. Salsa is always a perfect nutrition choice for seasoning anything and everything … light, healthy and packed with disease-fighting plant chemicals called polyphenols — this is one condiment that should be a staple in your heart-healthy eating regimen. Grilled Grouper with Fruit Salsa Yield: 4 servings (serving size: one grouper filet with ~ 1 cup salsa) 2 ripe mangoes, peeled,... Read More

LOVE YOUR HEART! 6 TIPS FOR PREVENTING HEART DISEASE By Janet Brill, Ph.D., R.D., LDN NABBW’s Healthy Heart Lifestyle Expert 1. Work with your doctor to learn your personal risk factors. 2. Take action to lower your “modifiable” risk factors: Lose weight if you are overweight (especially if you carry excess weight around the middle); Control your blood pressure if it\’s too high; and stop smoking if you\’re currently a smoker. 3. Eat a heart-healthy diet: Cut back on sodium intake and try and keep it to under 2400 mg/day (the amount of sodium in one teaspoon of salt). 4.... Read More

Surviving Lois Trader www.loistrader.com Reviewed by:  Anne Holmes for the NABBW There\’s a lot to be said for this small (110 pages) book. It packs a big punch. “Surviving” is Lois Trader\’s personal story of how her life was shaken by heart disease, the number one killer of American women. As she says, it is “a personal journey of being diagnosed with heart disease — and learning to live with it!” With warmth, candor, and a huge dose of humor, she shares her story of literally dying of a heart attack, recovering, and, even more important, rising above... Read More