Make your favorite recipes heart-healthy

A steaming bowl of fettuccine Alfredo for dinner followed by your mom's famous gooey chocolate chip cookies for dessert—your favorite guilty-pleasure meal. But what if there was a way to indulge in your favorite treats without all the sugar, fat and guilt? Visit Deborah Heart and Lung Center Health Hearts Ambassador Walter Staib's page to find heart-healthy recipes and even videos.

Follow these simple tips to turn your favorite fattening recipes into healthy meals you can make every week, without sacrificing taste:

• Lower the sugar. You can usually reduce sugar by one-third without making a noticeable difference in the original recipe. So if a recipe calls for 1 cup sugar, use 2/3 cup. To enhance the flavor, spice things up with vanilla, cinnamon or nutmeg.
• Reduce the fat. For baking, use 2 tablespoons of fat per cup of flour. You can usually reduce the fat by a third without making significant changes to the recipe. Skim milk will work in most recipes that call for whole milk.
• Cut the salt. Salt is crucial in baking, so don't cut it out there, but most other recipes can do with much less salt. Aim to cut your intake in half, and replace it with your favorite herbs and spices.
• Make substitutions. Replace some of the flour in a recipe with whole-wheat flour (up to half). Use non-fat yogurt instead of sour cream, or non-fat ricotta cheese instead of cottage cheese. Instead of two whole eggs, use one whole egg and two egg whites. Bulk up pasta dishes with more vegetables and use less pasta and meat.

Preventing weight gain: More than just fruits and veggies

Fruits and vegetables are great for your health. That's a fact. But if you think eating a lot of them is your ticket to not exercising or watching what else you eat, think again. According to one European study of almost 374,000 adults, those who ate the most produce were no less likely to gain weight than others when calorie intake and exercise habits were factored in. (In the case of women, researchers think that some of the weight gain could be attributed to weight-loss plans that encourage a lot of vegetables; diet plans are known for resulting in weight fluctuations or yo-yo dieting).

Published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, the study highlights the importance of maintaining an overall healthy lifestyle as you age, and not focusing on any one single factor, such as diet. Participants in the study were followed for five years, were between the ages of 25 and 70 and represented 10 European countries.

One exception to the study: smokers. For reasons that aren't clear, those who had quit the bad habit saw less weight gain than other participants—that may have important implications, as packing on pounds after quitting can lead to relapse. Overall, experts recommend four to five servings of fruits and vegetables daily for good nutrition and to reduce the risk of some chronic diseases. And don't forget to watch your calories and exercise regularly!

Sleep apnea treatment could boost heart health

For people who suffer from obstructive sleep apnea (OSA), continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) treatment is often the answer to a good night's sleep. But for their heart health, it could mean something much more, one small study in the New England Journal of Medicine says. The CPAP machines, which help keep airways open while a person slumbers, could also improve high blood pressure, high cholesterol and elevated blood sugar levels—key components of what's called metabolic syndrome, a group of symptoms that raises the risk of heart disease that's common in people with sleep apnea.

After three months, 13 percent of the 86 participants (ages 30 to 65, 87 percent of who also had metabolic syndrome) who received CPAP saw significant reductions in symptoms and were no longer considered to have metabolic syndrome. Overall, the group receiving CPAP, when compared to those participants receiving a placebo treatment, saw systolic blood pressure (top number) drop 3.9 mm Hg and diastolic blood pressure (bottom number) decrease 2.5 mm Hg. Total cholesterol among the actual CPAP users dropped 13.3 mg/dL. Bad LDL cholesterol went down 9.6 mg/dL, while the potentially harmful body fat known as triglycerides dropped 18.7 mg/dL in the treatment group. Blood sugar levels went down a little, along with waist circumference.

Study authors attribute the drops to the restoring of normal oxygen levels; oxygen deprivation brought on by sleep apnea could ultimately lead to cell damage and metabolic syndrome, they say. Researchers recommend screening patients with OSA for metabolic syndrome and for those patients to regularly use CPAP machines. Visit Deborah's Institute for Sleep Medicine to learn more about getting a good night's sleep.

Short, intense exercise best for diabetes

Those who have type 2 diabetes but struggle with making time to exercise may want to check this out: Researchers at McMaster University conducted a small study of just eight participants with diabetes and found that a total of 30 minutes of high-intensity intermittent exercise per week could, among other things, lower 24-hour blood sugar concentrations and reduce blood sugar spikes after meals, as was the case with this study's participants. The study's exercise regimen included ten 60-second rides on a stationary bike at about 90 percent maximal heart rate, with one-minute of rest in between, as well as a warm-up and a cool-down. Blood sugar levels among the participants improved, although no weight loss was recorded. More research is needed to uncover the reasons for the sugar decrease and the potential benefits of such training.

And as always, before you start any exercise program, consult with your physician to make sure it's safe for you. The study appeared in the Journal of Applied Physiology.