Oatmeal for Heart Disease

♪ [music playing-- no dialogue] ♪♪. Heart disease is the number one killer of Americans today. It is estimated that 71 million Americans suffer from a form of heart disease. Do you know the steps to take to prevent becoming one of them? Hi, my name is Catalina Vlad, graduate student at Eastern Illinois University, and I want to talk to you today about a condition associated with heart disease known as hyperlipidemia. I'm going to talk to you today about what is hyperlipidemia, how it can affect you, ways to prevent it, and I'm going to share with you a recipe that is quick and easy, and you can take with you when you're on the go. So hyperlipidemia is known as having high levels of lipids in your blood. Lipids is another name for fats. So you may hear doctors say that you have high cholesterol, high triglycerides, or high lychoproteins. These are all names for fats that can be found in the blood. What happens is that these fats accumulate in your artery walls and it can lead to a narrowing of these arteries, and over time it can lead to a clog which leads to heart attack or stroke. But there are ways to prevent all of this through diet and excercise. An effective diet and excercise regime can help decrease your lipid levels by 10 to 20 percent. So you can do things like excercise for 30 minutes a day. Do activities that you like such as hiking, biking, walking, dancing, whatever you like, just keep active for 30 minutes. Also there are diet changes that you can make to help improve your lipid profile. For example, limit the fats that you have, especially saturated fats. Saturated fats are found in animal fats. So when you look for meats, look for leaner cuts of meat with minimal marbling. Marbling is the fatty streaks that you find in meat, so the less the better. When you're buying ground meat, look for 90-10 meat, which is 90% pure meat and 10% fat. Also try to limit the amount of cholesterol that you consume. This cholesterol can be found in egg yokes, shrimp, and organ meats. When you're buying dairy products, look for the lower-fat varieties, 2% and if you can, skim milk. Get the recommended amount of fruits and vegetables, five a day keeps the doctor away. And then of course get plenty of fiber in your diet, and you can find these in oats and legumes such as beans and lentils. So today I'm going to share with you a quick and easy recipe for oatmeal. Oatmeal is fantastic. You can take these little packets with you anywhere. You can put them in your purse, in your pocket, and they're a quick and easy snack for wherever you are. This variety right here is actually a high-fiber variety. It has five grams of fiber per packet. To make it, just grab yourself a bowl with some water, rip open the packet,...put it in,...and then stir to make sure that all of the oats get wet. You can also substitute milk for water if you like it more creamy. Then you're going to set this aside, allow it to thicken for about two to three minutes. And then to garnish, you can garnish with some strawberries put on top or any type of fruit that you like. And you get something like this. So remember, hyperlipidemia is when you have elevated lipids in your blood. But there are ways to prevent this by excercising 30 minutes a day and changing your diet to help lower your fat and including snacks like oatmeal can help to do that. This has been Catalina Vlad wishing you a long and happy life. ♪ [music playing-- no dialogue] ♪♪.