Healthy Recipes And Healthy Hearts
By The Foodies./ foodie@longislandernews.com

You’ve got the power in your hands to prevent and overcome stroke, and the American Heart Association has a new tool to help.

“Healthy Soul Food Recipes” will be available at supermarket checkout stands for $3.99 on May 3, and on shoppower.org beginning May 17, while supplies last.

The 96-page magazine is part of Power To End Stroke, an American Heart Association/American Stroke Association education and awareness campaign that embraces and celebrates the culture, energy, creativity and lifestyles of African-Americans. Research shows that African-Americans are at a greater risk for stroke compared to other ethnic groups.

“Healthy Soul Food Recipes” serves up 47 easy-to-follow, heart-healthy recipes of traditional African-American soul food dishes that are usually considered unhealthy. The dishes, including Old-Fashioned Vegetable Barley Soup, Zesty Three-Bean Salad, Crab Cakes and Blackberry-Pear Crisp, meet the American Heart Association’s dietary recommendations.

This magazine cookbook not only offers dozens of delicious recipes and colorful photos but also cooking tips, nutrition information, a personal stroke risk checklist and tracking logs to record your weight, physical activity, blood pressure, cholesterol and glucose. Eating a healthy diet and getting regular physical activity may help improve these health factors, and reduce your risk for having a stroke.

“Healthy Soul Food Recipes” also features two national ambassadors for Power To End Stroke: Juaquin Hawkins, former professional basketball player, shares how he suffered a career-ending stroke; and Cissy Houston, Grammy Award-winning American soul and gospel singer and mother to Whitney Houston, recalls losing her mother to a stroke when Cissy was only 5 years old. Through their personal stories with stroke, they are helping to spread the messages of the campaign.

For information on Power To End Stroke, to register for the campaign and to get information and tools to help you reduce your stroke risk, visit PowerToEndStroke.org.
Power To End Stroke is nationally sponsored by the Bristol-Myers Squibb/Sanofi Pharmaceuticals Partnership.