Rate your risk of heart disease: diet quiz

An unhealthy diet can increase your risk of heart attacks and strokes. So it is important to keep an eye on what you eat and drink. Answer the questions below and record your score. When you get to the end, add up all the figures to find out whether your drinks, snacks and meals help to protect you, have a moderate but not especially helpful effect, or could be raising your cardiovascular risk.

• An apple, banana or handful of grapes: 15
• Carrot sticks with dip: 10
• A handful of nuts: 5 for salted 5 or 10 for unsalted
• Chips, a cookie or a slice of cake: 0

(Salmon, trout and mackerel are examples of oily fish.)

• I eat no oily fish most or all weeks: 0
• I eat one portion per week: 10
• I eat two to four portions per week: 15

Health tip: Women who are or plan to become pregnant are advised not to have more than two portions of oily fish per week, as high concentrations of mercury from ocean pollution may be present in the body fats of some oily fish.

• Not at all: 15
• Once a week: 5
• More than once a week: 0

• None: 15
• One per week: 5
• More than one most weeks: 0

• Once a week or less: 15
• Two to three times a week, most weeks: 5
• Most days: 0

• Butter, lard or drippings: 0
• Vegetable oils, such as canola oil: 5
• Olive oil: 15

• Deep frying: 0
• Pan frying: 5
• Broiling, poaching, baking or steaming: 15

• Nothing. I never eat before mid-morning: 0
• A coffee and pastry on the way to work: 0
• Bacon, eggs and sausages: 0
• Whole-wheat toast with jam: 5
• Muesli/high-fibre cereal with fresh fruit: 10
• Oatmeal or fruit with low-fat yogurt: 15

• Always: 15
• Sometimes: 5
• Never: 0

• Usually: 10
• Sometimes: 5
• Never: 0

Health tip: Nobody should be eating more than 2400 ml of sodium in a day, so avoid foods with high sodium content and look in instead for those with less than 140 ml (or even better, five ml) per serving.

• No alcohol or less than one drink per month: 10
• Two to 14 servings a week if you are a women; Three to 21 ­servings a week if you are a man: 15
• More than 14 servings a week for women; more than 21 servings a week for men: 0
• Regularly consuming six or more servings in a single session: 0

Note: A 142 ml (5 oz.) glass of wine, 340 ml (12 oz.) of beer or 42.6 ml (1.5 oz.) of hard liquor is considered a serving.

• Yes, daily: 0
• I do three or four times on an average week: 5
• Once or twice a week, or less: 15

Add up your total score.

• You are low risk if you scored 100 or more.
• You are at moderate risk if you scored 50 to 99 total.
• You have an increased risk level if you scored 49 or less.