<<Print>>

A heart attack results from a blockage in the flow of blood to the heart, causing heart cells to die. There are many causes, such as smoking, inactivity and a diet high in calories, sodium and saturated fats. Heart attacks are a leading cause of death for both men and women in the United States, and there are several ways to quicken your path to a heart attack. Note that for optimum heart health an adult's daily diet should consists of roughly 2,000 calories, fewer than 1,500 milligrams of sodium, fewer than 16 grams of saturated fat and fewer than 300 milligrams of cholesterol. This list reveals foods that will get you all of that and more in just one meal. Don't be discouraged by nutrition labels. Foods boasting of zero trans-fat still might be loaded with saturated fats, so you might still be in luck. Also, these labels display information about one serving size, and the container might have several servings. So you might have the opportunity to double, triple or even quadruple those numbers. Conversely, should you so desire, you could avoid the foods on this list to lower your risk of a heart attack. Restaurant Appetizers Appetizers used to mean just soup or salad. No more, heart attack fast-trackers! You can get a jump on your unhealthy meal these days with a variety of unhealthy appetizers. The infamous Aussie Cheese Fries from Outback Steakhouse tops many a "worst foods" list and likewise belongs in this group of best heart attack foods. A small serving of Aussie Cheese Fries has 1,200 calories, 81 grams of fat (use a fork, or don't try to do any texting), 39 grams of saturated fat, and 1,500 mg of sodium � for starters, mind you. The "regular" serving with ranch dressing, perhaps meant to be shared, approaches 3,000 calories and 182 grams of fat. Also consider a typical order of six chicken wings with dressing for an additional 1,000 calories and 50 grams of fat. Most appetizers or starters, aside from a non-creamy soup or simple salad with vinaigrette, will be the equivalent of a meal itself in terms of calorie, fat and sodium load. Chinese Food Or perhaps more accurately, stuff sold in America that's called Chinese food, will put you on the fast track to a heart attack. High on your list needs to be P.F. Chang's Double Pan-Fried Noodles Combo. Accounts vary, but according to the Center for Science in the Public Interest, chefs somehow manage to cram in more than 1,800 calories and a phenomenal 7,500 mg of sodium (a five-day supply) in each serving. There are also 70 grams of fat, 13 grams of which are saturated. You'd have to eat about a dozen egg rolls to approach this convenient, heart-stopping dish. If you want real Chinese food � that is, if you're abandoning your heart attack quest � and you can't afford to go to China, Taiwan, or San Francisco, then look for a Chinese restaurant in your area in which most of the clientele are Chinese-speaking. Otherwise, what you get consistently in classic dishes that don't exist in China, such as General Tso's chicken or sweet & sour whatever, is a full day's heaping helping of salt and saturated fat and 1,000-plus calories. The same could be said about other varieties of ethnic food in America, such as Italian and Mexican. The originals are far healthier than the offspring. Yet Chinese food comes with the assumption of healthfulness because of the presence of vegetables. KFC Original Recipe Chicken It turns out that bucket is translucent for a reason. One thigh has 25 grams of fat. And while a mere 320 calories per thigh seems skimpy, remember that you'll likely eat three or four or 10 ... and can opt for the 800-calorie potato salad. For efficiency, there's the Popcorn Chicken with its nearly 1,300 calories per serving and 80 grams of fat, 19 grams of which are saturated fat. McDonald's ties KFC in the category of heart-stopping chicken products, however, with its Chicken McNuggets. The large serving contains 840 calories and 11 grams of saturated fat. Yet the bonus is in the dip, with the creamy ranch offering an additional 200 calories and 4 grams of saturated fat. And you can't beat one of the 1,000-calorie McDonald's shakes with 16 grams of saturated fat. Deep-frying in general is a prime method to induce a heart attack. The oil used at fast-food restaurants and by street vendors tends to be cheap and becomes more and more saturated (and heart-stopping) with each re-using. Deep frying with certain shortenings produces trans-fats, which raise levels of bad cholesterol and lower levels of good cholesterol in the blood. Deep-frying starchy foods such as potatoes produces toxic compounds, such as acrylamide, although that's more of a shortcut to cancer, not a heart attack.