Fish Heads, Fish Heads, rolly polly...

...just kidding, you don't have to eat the heads, but eating some fish is good for you.

The following is information gleaned from the July/August Run Midwest magazine, in an article by Nancy Clark, titled The Beat Goes On: Heart Health and Nutrition.

The following foods are good for lowering your LDL (bad cholesterol): oats, barley, soy, beans, almonds/nuts, and plant sterols/stanols added to margerines (check the package). Combine these in your daily diet and you have the potential to make a huge impact on your cholesterol numbers.

Beans and nuts are great sources of protein and filling up on them can steer you away from sources of saturated fat, such as steak.

To reduce the inflammation caused by cholesterol filled plaques in blood vessels eat salmon or other oily fish, walnuts, fiber-rich whole grain, fruits and vegetables, and my favorite inflammation fighter, dark chocolate.

In the fruit category, apricots, bananas, oranges, tomatoes, broccoli and spinach are the "Big Six". This was great news to me. Bananas are some of the cheapest fruits to buy and every time I order the seasonal vegetables when eating out, I always get broccoli. It doesn't seem to matter the season or the part of the country I'm in.

When it comes to fish, 8 ounces per week of salmon, mackeral, sardines (yuck) or herring (cold water fishes rich in Omega-3 fats) can reduce the risk of death from heart disease by 36% and can even up your odds of surviving a heart attack should you have one. Plan at least one lunch with some tuna (low fat mayo) and one salmon dinner entree per week. If you've heard the concerns about PCBs in farm raised fish, you might like to know that Dr. Charles Saterre of Purdue University says the risks are tiny when compared with the benefits, just don't eat the skin, fat, or fat drippings. (why would you eat fat drippings?)

Now that you're eating right, don't forget to exercise. Yes, you need to exercise, but you don't have to kill yourself. Heart health benefits peak at around 2000 calories per week, or the equivalent of running 4 miles per day five times per week. No, you don't have to run. Just be sure to keep an eye on your heart rate and your calories burned and make sure you turn in some quality workouts that total up to at least 2000 calories per week.