February 2000

Have a Heart

It is no accident that February is both the month we celebrate Valentine’s Day and Heart Month. Heart disease is still the number one killer in the US, ahead of all cancers put together. Did you know that it is the "equal opportunity" disease ?

• 1 in 10 American women 45 to 64 years of age has some form of heart disease
• over age 65, 1 in 5 women has some form of heart disease
• 34% of men between the ages of 45-54 have some form of heart disease; 51% between the ages of 55-64; and 65% of men between the ages of 65-74

Risk factors

There are only 2 risk factors for heart disease you can’t control - your age and your ancestry. The rest (see below) are all manageable by medication, lifestyle changes, or both.

Risk Factors:	Controllable through a heart-healthy diet?
diabetes	Yes
smoking
high blood pressure	Yes
high cholesterol	Yes
over weight	Yes
lack of exercise

The taste will change your heart

With all of the delicious fat-free and low fat foods available, It’s much easier to adapt recipes and make healthy diet changes. When we "rehab" a recipe, our goal is to have the lower fat version look and taste like the original. It’s not nearly the challenge it was 10 years ago. The Cinnamon Cake recipe below just might make a believer out of you. The original had 27 grams of fat; the rehabbed version has 6!

Batter: 1-1/2 cups flour 1/4 cup corn meal 2 teaspoons baking powder 1/4 teaspoon salt 1/4 cup margarine 4 ounces fat-free cream cheese, at room temperature 1 cup sugar 1/2 cup skim milk 2 eggs Topping: 6 tablespoons sugar 3 tablespoons flour 1-2 tablespoons cinnamon 2 tablespoons light (5 grams fat per tablespoon) margarine

Preheat oven to 375º. Spray 9-inch round pan with vegetable oil spray. In small bowl, combine flour, corn meal, baking powder, and salt; set aside. In medium bowl, by hand, cream margarine, cream cheese and sugar. Add milk and eggs. Blend well with whisk. Add flour mixture; whisk until well blended. Spread batter in prepared pan. In small bowl, combine topping ingredients and mix until well blended. Sprinkle over top of batter. Bake at 375º for 30-35 minutes or until done.