More than a half a million people die in the U.S. of heart-related causes each year. In fact, nothing kills more Americans than heart disease. While there has been increasing awareness of the crucial contributors to the disease, we haven’t done much better at preventing it.
The seven major heart risk factors are high cholesterol, elevated blood pressure, high glucose levels, an unhealthy diet, lack of exercise, being overweight and smoking. Of these factors, most Americans are successful at keeping three or four of them under control… a proportion that has not changed much since 1988.
Regarding weight-control, one of the key factors in preventing heart disease, a recent study suggests that the decrease in the size of bites of food we eat is 10% when food has a strong odor. This research leads to the belief that when confronted with strong smelling food, we may be likely to eat less. Keep in mind though that some strong smelling foods are really good for us, while many foods without much aroma are not so healthy….. Time April, 2012