<div style="text-align: justify; "><span style="font-size: 1rem;"><b>With our heart health deteriorating with each passing day and the number of heart attacks in young people increasing, it's crucial to focus on little things in our daily life that often skip our attention.&nbsp;</b></span><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">When it comes to a healthy heart, one needs to set certain ground rules and steer clear of toxic habits and addictions that are poisoning our heart slowly. From including healthy fat to limiting portion to staying away from pollution and packaged products, nutritionist Rujuta Diwekar in her recent Instagram post talks about simple dos and don'ts that could go a long way in improving one's heart health.&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">According to WHO, heart diseases and stroke are usually caused by unhealthy diet, physical inactivity, tobacco use and harmful use of alcohol. People who have high blood pressure, raised blood glucose, raised blood lipids, and overweight and obesity are more at risk of heart attacks and other diseases.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Here are 5 dos and don'ts one must follow for better heart health as suggested by Rujuta Diwekar.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify; "><b>1. Get good fat from home cooked food</b></div><div style="text-align: justify; "><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The good fat that you want to include in your diet must come from the food cooked at home using traditional practices. Diwekar says that Omega-3 capsule and other such supplements do not have monopoly on good fat and it should instead come from good cooking practices or traditional cooking practices. Ghee, nuts, pulses, grains, vegetables, fruits all these things in combination are good food practices.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify; "><b>2. Cook in ghee or cold pressed oil; do not air fry</b></div><div style="text-align: justify; "><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The nutritionist busts the myth and says that air frying is not a better technique for cooking than deep frying. She advises to cook in ghee or cold pressed oil of your region.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"If you think air frying is making your mathri, samosa, poori healthier they are not. We may end up eating more portion or quantity of these foods as we do not feel satiated. If you eat deep-fried food, you will reach high satiety and end up eating much less and take in less calories," says Diwekar.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify; "><b>3. Never miss out on exercise</b></div><div style="text-align: justify; "><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Rujuta says exercise is the best drug for your heart and one must include strength training in their weekly plan. "Many people wait for heart attack or their heart health to worsen before starting exercise. It is as important as healthy diet. 150 minutes per week is recommended. Apart from just walking, stretching and resistant training is also important. It will also control cholesterol, blood pressure and other such issues.</div><div style="text-align: justify; "><b><br></b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>4. Stay away from smoking and alcohol</b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Smoking and alcohol harm your heart. They are simply bad for your health. All kinds of cigarettes and alcohol are bad for your heart, brain, body and bones.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify; "><b>5. Avoid packaged food and pollution</b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify; ">The 3 Ps which are bad for your heart are – packaged food, pollution and bad city planning. Just because we are constantly breathing polluted air, many metabolic processes in our body do not work optimally - our heart, lung, kidney, brain, liver, bones - everything gets affected when we keep breathing in air which has high level of polluted matter. Ultra-processed packaged foods - the more you eat, the more they affect heart. Ready to eat and ready to drink foods must be avoided. Source: HT</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify; ">bnbd24/kh</div>