Your cardiovascular system the heart and its 60,000 miles of blood vessels is basically a pump/pipe system, although the "pump" and "pipes" in your body are more sophisticated than anything you'll find in a hardware superstore. While the heart tends to get all the glory for its complex design and functioning, your arteries are not merely passive conduits. These highly sensitive blood vessels have muscular, elastic walls that allow them to expand and contract in response to constantly changing demands for blood and oxygen in the cells and organs of your body.

Healthy arteries have a smooth inner surface, and blood flows freely through them. Damage to the arteries narrows these passageways, restricting blood flow and making the heart work harder. Atherosclerosis, or hardening and thickening of the arteries with plaque, is responsible for the vast majority of heart disease in this country. And one of the primary culprits in atherosclerosis is free-radical damage.

Free Radicals Accelerate Aging
Oxidative, or free-radical, damage is the dominant theory of why our bodies age. Any chemical reaction that involves oxygen creates free radicals. Breathing, extracting energy from food just living creates free radicals. Because free radicals are missing an electron, they are very unstable and chemically reactive. In an attempt to stabilize themselves they steal electrons from other molecules, which, in turn, destabilizes those molecules and sets them into motion. This can set off a chain reaction of destruction in your cells.

Free radicals are perpetrators in the genesis of heart disease for two reasons. First, they damage the inner lining of the arteries, setting the stage for atherosclerosis. Second, they transform LDL cholesterol into its oxidized form, and it is oxidized LDL that burrows into artery walls and accelerates atherosclerosis.

Nature's Solution: Antioxidants
Nature's answer to free-radical damage is antioxidants, which intervene in the chain of free-radical destruction by giving up electrons to stabilize these free-wheeling, highly reactive molecules. Antioxidants work on several fronts to reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease. They nurture the endothelial cells lining the arteries and protect them from injury. They stop the transformation of LDL cholesterol into its harmful, oxidized form. Certain antioxidants also help boost HDL cholesterol and strengthen the capillary walls.

Your body produces antioxidants, and you also get them in your diet (provided that you eat lots of fruits and vegetables). However, years of accumulated free-radical damage, accelerated by exposure to stressors like ultraviolet radiation, pollution, tobacco smoke, and pesticide-laden foods (to name only a few), take a tremendous toll on the system. This leads to all kinds of degenerative diseases, including our number one killer, heart disease.

Having low blood levels of protective antioxidant nutrients is definitely associated with an increased risk of heart disease. A 2001 study published in The Lancet found that men and women with the lowest vitamin C levels in the blood were twice as likely to die of heart disease as those with the highest levels. German researchers came up with similar findings for vitamin E and beta-carotene.

The good news is that taking supplemental antioxidants is a simple and effective way of combating free-radical damage. However, you'll have to take more than just the paltry RDAs of these nutrients, upping your intake to the amounts that studies have shown to be protective against heart disease. The doses of protective antioxidants I recommend, based on the most recent research, are 800 IU natural vitamin E (d-alpha-tocopheryl), 1,500 mg vitamin C, 5,000 IU vitamin A, 15,000 IU beta-carotene, and 200 mcg selenium.

1. Cantaloupe -- a quarter of a delicious melon supplies as much vitamin A and C as most people need in an entire day.
2. Sweet Potatoes -- a nutritional all star, one of the best vegetables you can eat.  They're loaded with vitamin A, carotenoids, vitamin C, potassium, and fibre.  Mix in unsweetened applesauce or crushed pineapple for extra moisture and sweetness.
3. Skim or 1% MILK (but not 2%) -- Excellent source of calcium, vitamins, and protein, with little or no artery-clogging fat and cholesterol.  (Soy milk can have just as many nutrients - if the company adds them.)
4. Salmon or other fatty fish -- The omega-3 fats in fish, especially fatty fish like salmon, sardines, and rainbow trout, can reduce the risk of sudden-death heart attacks.
5. Oranges -- Great-tasting and drich in vitamin C, folic acid, and fibre.
6. Broccoli -- Lots of vitamin C, carotenoids, and folic acid.
7. Whole-Grain Bread -- It's higher in fibre and about a dozen vitamins and minerals, than enriched white bread or "wheat" bread.
8. Watermelon -- Excellent source of vitamin C and carotenoids -- and it tastes great!  Perfect for a  snack, dessert, or picnics.
9. Beans -- Inexpensive, low in fat, and rich in protein, iron, folic acid, and fibre.  Choose garbanzo, pinto, black, navy, kidney, or lentils.  Eat them as a side dish or snack, in a tortilla with salsa, or in a soup.
10. Spinach or Kale -- Loaded with vitamin C, carotenoids, calcium, and fibre.

10 Food Secrets you should know!

1. Bugles Original -- What's so bad about Bugles?  The coconut oil that Betty Crocker fries them in - oil that's about twice as saturated as lard.  One serving (just over a cup) of these fried wonders will give you nearly 40 percent of your daily limit of saturated fat.  If you're looking for a low-fat snack, try low-fat tortilla chips.
2. Tim Hortons Donuts -- According to company brochures, each Tim Hortons Sour Cream Glazed Donut clocks in a 320 calories and 19 grams of fat.  What the company doesn't reveal  is that each one, has half a day's worth of artery-clogging fat.  That doughnut is just 70 calories shy of a McDonald's Quarter Pounder, but the doughnut is worse for your heart -- and one doughnut is often just a start.
3. President's Choice Shepherd's Pie -- with it's ground beef, butter, and cream -- was never a health food, and it's conversion to a supermarket convenience food didn't help any.  Just a "quarter" of a 900 gram pie (a 225 gram serving), contains 420 calories and 27 grams of fat -- 16 of them saturated.  That's as much saturated fat as is in three slices of Pizza Hut's Medium Pan Cheese Pizza.  Instead, try Amy's Shepherd Pie - each meatless 227 gram (8-ounce) pie has only 4 grams of fat and tastes great.
4. Burger King Fries -- It's not that fries at other chains are good.  But Burger King's Fries are the worst.  An order of King fries has 600 calories and 30 grams of fat, 16 of them saturated, plus trans - three-quarter of a days worth.
5. McDonald's Shakes -- McDonald's Triple Thick Shakes look like ordinary shakes.  You'd never guess that a large shake, averages 1,180 calories and 25 grams of fat, 16 of them saturated.  That's the heart -slamming fat of two Quarter Pounders, and the calories of three Quarter Pounders.  Since when does a beverage supply half a day's calories and close to a day's worth of artery cloggers.
6. Starbuck's Venti White Chocolate Mocha with whole milk and whipped cream -- Don't think of this drink as a mere cup of coffee.  Think of it as a milk shake.  Few people have room in their diets for the 600 calories, 25 grams of fat, and 15 grams of saturated fat (three-quarters of a day's quota of artery-clogging fat) that this hefty beverage supplies.  Order your Starbuck's drinks made with skim milk and without whipped cream and you can save as many as 200 calories and loads of fat.
7. Campbell's condensed soups -- Those familiar foods are brimming with salt.  Half a can averages about half of a person's daily quota of salt.  For less sodium, try President's Choice T.G.T.B.T. soups or check out terific-tasting soups from Fantastic or Heal Valley.
8. Proctor & Gamble's Sunny Delight -- This fruit flavoured beverage is little more than a non-carbonated soft drink that's been spiked with a couple of cheap vitamins (B-1 and C).  Shoppers are led to think this is pure fruit juice, but each cup contains a measly tablespoon.  Go for 100% orange juice instead.  It's got the vitamins, minerals, and phytochemicals - which may cut the risk of cancer, that Sunny Delight is missing.
9. Our Compliments Lasagne with Chicken -- Lasagna is ordinarily no health food, but you're probably better off with chicken lasagna than beef, right?  Not when Our Compliments does the cooking.  A modest one-cup serving socks you with seven grams of saturated fat, one-third of a day's worth of saturated fat (more than what's in their Meat Lasagna).  The chicken isn't the culprit, it's the 5-cheese blend and fatty bechamel sauce.  If you have a hankering for convenient frozen lasagna, try Yves Veggie Cuisine Veggie Lasagna.
10. Christie Dream Puffs -- These used to be my favourites.  These cookies may melt in your mouth, but they may also cause a melt down in your arteries.  Most varieties are loaded with artery-clogging saturated fat -- one serving, (2 cookies) of the Chips Ahoy has a whopping eight grams -- that's nearly half a day's worth.  The cause of all that heart sludge?  Well, it's the palm kernel oil shortening that is worse for you than lard.  If you want chocolate cookies, but don't want to endanger your heart, try SnackWell's instead.  ALWAYS LOOK FOR HEALTHIER ALTERNATIVES.

Nutrition and Safe Food I.Q. Test

• Q:  Which is more nutritious: green beans or green peas?
• A:  Some favourite vegetables -- like green beans, are among the least nutritious.  Green peas have three times more fibre, 40 percent more iron, and 25 percent more vitamin A and vitamin C than green beans.
• Q:  Which has the highest contamination level of dangerous Salmonella bacteria: poultry, red meat, or pork?
• A:  According to a late 1980s study, more than half the poultry in Canada is contimanated by Samonella -- which can cause diarrhea, vomiting, fever, and sometimes death.
• Q:  Which has more artery-clogging saturated fat: a McDonald's Big Mac or a large order of McDonald's French Fries?
• A:  A large order of McDonald's French Fries has 12 grams of fat -- more than a Big Mac's 9 1/2 grams.  You can thank the beef fat used to cook the fries.
• Q:  Which has fewer contaminants: codfish or swordfish?
• A:  Cod is rarely contaminated with toxic chemicals, while swordfish frequently exceeds the allowable level of Methyl Mercury, a contaminant that is toxic to the nervous system.
• Q:  Which cracker is made from mostly whole-wheat flour: Christie Multigrain Thins or Triscuits?
• A:  The words "wheat" or "whole wheat" on a label don't guarantee that all - or even most - of the flour is whole grain.  Only Triscuits is mostly whole wheat flour.  But you would never know it by the product's name.
• Q:  Does a serving of spinach pasta count as a serving of spinach?
• A:  No.  Most spinach pastas have little or no vitamin A.  But a half-cup of cooked spinach has more than a day's worth of A.  One cup of a typical cooked spinach pasta has less than a tenth of a tablespoon of cooked spinach.
• Q:  Which is more nutritious for you: orange or apple juice?
• A:  Some of Canada's favourite juices -- like apple and grape, are not the most nutritious.  Orange juice has 50 times mor vitamin C, 170 percent more folic acid, and 1 1/2 times more potassium than apple juice.