The Worst Thing to Eat for Your Heart

By Brierley Wright, M.S., R.D., Nutrition Editor, EatingWell Magazine

Heart disease is the leading cause of death among Americans: on average, one person dies every 39 seconds, according to recently published data from the American Heart Association.

I've talked in the past about cutting back on saturated fat (found mostly in animal-based products like red meat and full-fat dairy), added sugars and sodium for better heart health. Keep working at those!

Don't Miss: 3 Ways to Eat Less Sugar
6 Easy Ways to Reduce the Sodium in Your Diet

But one thing that I haven't talked about much happens to be one of the easiest to limit (or avoid) in your diet-and it's quite harmful to your heart health. What is it? Trans fat.

Why are trans fats so harmful?
Like saturated fat, trans fat raises your "bad" LDL cholesterol, possibly even more than saturated fats, according to research. Trans fat also lowers your "good" HDL cholesterol. The American Heart Association recommends limiting the amount of trans fat you eat daily to less than 1 percent of your total calories. If you eat 2,000 calories a day, that translates to about 2 (or fewer) grams.

Related: 6 Ways to Lower Your Cholesterol

How can you limit, or eliminate trans fat from your diet?
The easiest way to avoid trans fat is by skipping foods that contain "hydrogenated oil" or "partially hydrogenated oil" in their ingredient lists. Big culprits include packaged snacks, crackers, bakery goods and some margarines. (Here are 6 packaged foods you can feel good about eating.) Read labels carefully: if a package claims "zero trans fat," the amount per serving may be less than 0.5 g and could have been rounded down to zero, so the only way to be sure you're getting a product without trans fat is to read ingredient lists.

Trans fats are also found naturally-albeit in small amounts-in animal products, such as beef, pork, lamb and the butterfat in butter and milk. Limiting how much beef, pork, lamb and butter you eat and swapping full-fat dairy products, like milk and cheese, for low- or nonfat versions will help too.

Must-Read: What to Eat for a Healthy Heart and a Healthy Mind

Do you try to limit how much trans fat you eat?

By Brierley Wright, M.S., R.D.

Brierley Wright

Brierley's interest in nutrition and food come together in her position as nutrition editor at EatingWell. Brierley holds a master's degree in Nutrition Communication from the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy at Tufts University. A Registered Dietitian, she completed her undergraduate degree at the University of Vermont.

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Top 5 Worst Beauty Habits to Give Up

Our skin is the first thing people notice about us. And no makeup can help if you suffer from various skin problems. It is absolutely essential to find out and eradicate the reason that causes pimples, irritations and other skin problems. The reasons can be really diversified starting from unhealthy diet to our own beauty habits. Let's find out which of your usual yet harmful beauty habits cause skin problems and how to quit them.

Harmful Beauty Habit #1: Sleeping with your makeup on

Sleeping with your makeup on is an absolute no-no if you want to have beautiful, healthy skin. Just imagine you are going to expose your skin to a real torture, sleeping with a day's worth of makeup, grease and oil on your skin is a one-way ticket to clogged pores and as a result serious skin problems.

Harmful Beauty Habit #2: Using expired cosmetics

Very often we don't even think that our fave mascara has a very limited lifetime. The same goes to beauty aids and other makeup products. Carefully follow the use-by date instructions given to one or another makeup product and never use cosmetics more than 12 months after opening it. (The sign below indicates how long cosmetics can be used after opening. Find it on the packaging. )

Harmful Beauty Habit #3: Reapplying your makeup

Never reapply your makeup during the day. You can't even imagine how harmful reapplying of makeup is for your skin. Reapplying of foundation or blush over your morning makeup will clog your pores and as a result cause irritation, pimples and acne. It is better to invest in matte cosmetic tissues that would cleanse your skin and matt at the same time.

Harmful Beauty Habit #4: Overexfoliation

Although exfoliation is a key point in your daily beauty routine, you shouldn't try too hard. Remember, everything is good in moderation, thus overexfoliation can result in intensifying oil production that leading to breakouts and acne. Only gentle scrubs and exfoliators can be used every day.

Harmful Beauty Habit #5: Using dirty makeup brushes

Makeup brushes require proper care and cleansing. Using dirty makeup brushes can run into various skin problems. Makeup brushes accumulate cosmetics particles as well as dead skin cells creating a perfect environment for bacterias.

Worst Sugared Beverages on the Market

It is surprising how much sugar even so called healthy beverages contain.

We all love sweets and for many of us a dose of sugar now and then won't really pose any real health risk. However, for those that are borderline diabetic,diabetic, have a history of diabetes in the family or just trying to lose weight this list details some of the worst beverages for sugar content on the market. Are they currently in your refrigerator? At any rate this is just a small sampling of some of the worst sugared beverages out there. Here's the list of some of the worst sugared beverages on the market, along with an informative video on artificial sweeteners: Worst Sugared Beverages