Your family’s diet plays a significant role in maintaining good heart health and reducing the risk of heart-related illnesses. The journey to ensuring you eat meals that prioritize your heart health starts by understanding which foods to eat and which to avoid.
Leafy green vegetables
Leafy green vegetables are rich in antioxidants, vitamins, vitamin K, and minerals. They include kales, spinach, broccoli, and collard greens. Vitamin K enhances proper blood clotting and keeps your arteries safe. Furthermore, vegetables have high dietary nitrates, which reduce arterial stiffness and blood pressure.
Edamame
Edamame is a category of immature soybeans. Like instant pot dried soybeans and other soy products, it has high soy isoflavones, reducing cholesterol levels and boosting heart health. It also reduces the risk of cardiovascular illnesses. Apart from isoflavone, edamame has other heart-friendly nutrients, including antioxidants and dietary fiber.
Green tea
Green tea is known for increasing fat burning and improving insulin sensitivity. In addition, it is rich in epicatechins and polyphenols, which prevent damage to cells and protect your heart health. Taking green tea for three months causes a decrease in bad and total cholesterol, blood pressure, and triglycerides.
Other types of tea, too, reduce the risk of forming blood clots and enhance healthy blood vessels. To benefit from the antioxidants in tea, use hot water to brew and steep for about five minutes. You can also avoid cream and sugar to avoid unnecessary fat and calories.
Garlic
Garlic is known to reduce blood pressure, cholesterol, stroke, and the risk of blood clots. It consists of allicin, and it would be best to crush and let it rest for some minutes before cooking to get or consume it raw to attain maximum health benefits. If you have kids, ensure you train them on getting the best nutrients from garlic as well as other health practices.
Almonds
Filled with the richness of monounsaturated fats and fiber, Almonds are good at protecting you from cardiovascular disease. In addition, they consist of magnesium, calcium, various vitamins and minerals. Furthermore, consistent consumption of almonds reduces bad cholesterol and belly fat.
Dark Chocolate
It contains cocoa phenols and heart-friendly resveratrol, which reduce blood pressure. Consume dark chocolate with more than 70% cocoa content to achieve maximum benefits. Stick to six servings or less in a week since it has high fat, calories, and sugar. Dark chocolate reduces the risk of stroke and coronary heart disease.
Fatty Fish
Fatty fish such as striped bass, tuna, anchovies, salmon, sardines, and mackerel are rich in omega-3 fatty acids that reduce the risk of arrhythmias, which protects you from heart disease. Furthermore, it reduces cholesterol, systolic blood pressure, and blood triglycerides.
Walnuts
Walnuts are rich in fiber, vitamin E, copper, friendly mono and polyunsaturated fats, magnesium, and manganese. They cause a decrease in bad and total cholesterol. Even though they are heart-healthy, you should eat them in moderation.
Conclusion
You should pay keen attention to your diet as it directly impacts your heart health. Many other heart-healthy foods keep your heart safe from diseases. Instead of waiting until you develop a heart problem to watch your diet, prevent the situation altogether. Occasionally treat yourself. Eating candies or fries once in a while will not derail your heart health.
