The Queen of Health

Love Your Heart ~ Feed it Right!
By Tami Hulcher, Contributing Writer

It was June 22, 1984, a few days after Father’s Day when I received the call from mom. “Daddy had a heart attack”, she said quietly. I asked how he was doing. She said, “He’s dead, honey.” Daddy died of a massive heart attack at age 58!

Daddy was from the south, so you can imagine what his diet consisted of: lots of fried foods, gravy, biscuits, white flour, sugar, etc. Daddy loved food, but the food didn’t love his heart.

If I had known then what I know today, I could have possibly saved my daddy’s life. This is one of the reasons I’m so passionate about disease prevention. Let’s stop the disease before it starts!

I was recently invited to speak at a luncheon for the American Heart Association. They asked me to talk about the importance of fruits and vegetables in relation to heart disease and its prevention. So for the sake of this article, I’ll stick to the fruits and veggies, although there is much about diet and exercise in the prevention of heart disease.
Before we begin, I’d like to share some cardiovascular trivia with you:
• Did you know that the 2 major tasks of the cardiovascular system are to deliver oxygen and nutrients to body organs, and to remove waste products of metabolism from tissue cells?
• The adult human heart is about the size of 2 clenched fists.
• The oxygen and nutrients transported in the bloodstream and delivered with each beat of the heart nourishes 300 trillion cells.

So, you can see why we need to “feed our hearts” with the proper nutrients! And you’ll get lots of great ones from fresh fruits and vegetables.

More and more research shows that there is a direct correlation between nutrition and disease, so why aren’t we paying attention?

Let’s look at some alarming statistics, and perhaps I can get your attention:
• Heart disease is the number one killer in the U.S.
• Cardiovascular disease killed over 900,000 Americans in 2000.
• 1.1 million Americans have a heart attack every year.
• This year an estimated 650,000 Americans will have a new coronary attack. About 450,000 will have a recurrent attack.
• Stroke is the third leading cause of death among Americans.
• Americans spend $330 Billion per year on heart disease!
• 40 million American children have abnormally high cholesterol levels.
• By the age of 3, children have fatty deposits in their arteries.
• By age 12, 70% of our children have developed beginning stages of hardening of the arteries.

So what can we do? How can we start eating ourselves back to good health? We need to get into the prevention mode.

Medical and scientific professionals sometimes disagree on treatments, but one thing they always agree on is to increase your daily fruit and vegetable consumption.

We are not vitamin deficient here in the U.S. We are not aspirin or Lipitor deficient, we are whole food deficient, especially fresh fruits and vegetables, and whole grains.

Every major medical organization (American Heart Association, American Medical Association, American Diabetes Association., The National Cancer Institute, and the American Cancer Society) says that the risk of these diseases may be reduced by 50% or more by consuming 7-9 servings of fruits, vegetables and grains.

In summary ~ remember that food is fuel and that fruits and vegetables have healing effects, and will reduce your risk of many degenerative diseases, including heart disease.

Food provides our bodies with the nutrients it needs for cellular repair, maintenance and growth. We have trillions of cells; brain cells, bone cells, heart cells, lung cells, liver cells. Take care of them…feed them right! So listen to your mother and eat your fruits and veggies. Your body and your heart will love you for it!

(Tami Hulcher is a health educator, motivational speaker, writer, and president of Ola Loa, Inc. She has made appearances on NBC’s Today in L.A. show, KTLA’s Morning Show, and KESQ-ABC TV. Her popular lecture series “Getting You and Your Kids To Eat Right” has been featured in many schools, businesses, churches, health spas, and she has appeared in many magazines. Tami is also the former Mrs. California~America 2002.)