Keep Your Heart Healthy With These 8 Foods
Thanks to their numerous vital nutrients, apples, chocolate and olive oil are important foods if you want to keep your heart healthy. Eating certain foods regularly will reduce your risk of developing cardiovascular disease.
Of course, one of the most obvious benefits of eating a healthy, balanced diet is that you can stay in good shape. Diet is just as important for keeping your entire body and especially your heart healthy.
1. Walnuts
Thanks to their high content of omega-3 fatty acids , walnuts are ideally suited to protect your heart.
In addition, walnuts contain many minerals such as zinc, copper, potassium, magnesium, phosphate and various B vitamins. Due to their high omega-3 fatty acid content, walnuts have excellent anti-inflammatory and anti-thrombotic properties and are also a remedy for cardiac arrhythmias.
Walnuts also contain a lot of arginine. This is a semi-essential amino acid that helps relax your blood vessels and lower high blood pressure. The saturated fats found in walnuts also help reduce bad cholesterol while increasing the amount of good cholesterol in your body.
You should eat about 30 grams of walnuts at least 3 times a week. Since they contain a lot of calories, we recommend that you do not eat too many of them, but instead stick to the recommended amount.
2. Beans
Beans provide your body with folic acid. Folic acid is a vitamin that helps your body reduce homocysteine in the blood. Homocysteine, on the other hand, is an amino acid that plays a role in cardiovascular diseases. A low level of homocysteine in the blood therefore helps keep your heart healthy.
Basically, beans can be said to minimize your risk of cardiovascular disease. They are a very good source of protein and fiber. This will lower both your cholesterol and triglyceride levels. Both values should be kept low so that you can keep your heart healthy.
In addition, beans contain plenty of vitamin D, iron, potassium and calcium. All of these advantages make beans indispensable in a balanced and healthy diet.
3. Apples
Apples are the perfect fruit for a healthy heart. You should definitely include them in your eating plan. Apples contain a lot of fiber, vitamins A and C, flavonoids and calcium. In addition, they have anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties.
Eating an apple every day can help lower your bad cholesterol levels. The reason for this is that apples contain a lot of pectin and pectin promotes the metabolism of cholesterol.
4. Chocolate
Dark chocolate in particular has numerous ingredients that are very beneficial for both your physical and mental health.
Cocoa contains flavonoids that promote good blood circulation. This can help prevent heart attacks and strokes.
It works as an antioxidant and thereby strengthens your body. Thanks to the high iron content in cocoa, it is an excellent means of preventing various diseases such as anemia. The reason for this is that cocoa stimulates the formation of red blood cells.
And of course we mustn’t forget to mention that chocolate also helps reduce bad cholesterol, while increasing good cholesterol at the same time. Despite all of these benefits, chocolate should be consumed in moderation as it is naturally high in calories.
5. Salmon
Salmon is a fish that has a lot of benefits. It is very rich in various B vitamins and minerals such as selenium, calcium and magnesium.
Thanks to its good content of omega-3 fatty acids, it is very healthy for your entire cardiovascular system. Omega-3 stabilizes blood pressure and thus helps prevent strokes and heart attacks.
Another positive effect of omega-3 fatty acids is the anti-inflammatory effect in the body. And this at the same time prevents joint pain. Salmon also has a very positive effect on your mental health. It can even help provide great relief from depression.
6. Olive oil
Regularly use good olive oil in the preparation of your food, this can greatly reduce the risk of an embolism or a heart attack.
Olive oil can help you prevent cell aging. It also has very good anti-inflammatory properties and is also a wonderful antioxidant.
Its oleic acid (a monounsaturated fatty acid that is good for your blood vessels) reduces bad cholesterol (LDL) levels. At the same time , it regulates your blood pressure and thus prevents chronic heart disease. Olive oil also helps keep your heart healthy.
You should always store olive oil in dark glass bottles. This is the best way to protect it from direct sunlight, which could damage the valuable ingredients of the oil.
7. Red wine
Red wine is a powerful antioxidant that is very important in preventing cardiovascular diseases. If you enjoy it in reasonable amounts, you can also benefit from its anti-inflammatory properties. It protects your arteries and also lowers bad cholesterol (LDL levels).
8. Oranges keep your heart healthy
Oranges are an excellent source of vitamin C. But that’s not all. They are also high in flavonoids. These play an important role in reducing the risk of cardiovascular disease.
Their high fiber content greatly stimulates the elimination of unwanted toxins and fats from the body. In addition, the orange improves your blood circulation and also has a very good blood pressure stabilizing effect.
As you can see, there are a number of healthy foods that you can incorporate into your daily eating plan.
Of course, you shouldn’t consume them in excess, as this could reverse the positive properties into the opposite. This is especially true for the foods that are very high in calories. If you consume them in excess, it could lead to obesity.
For example, it is completely sufficient if you drink a glass of orange juice a day. This glass provides you with an incredible number of different nutrients. The same goes for apples. An apple a day is absolutely sufficient to provide you with all the positive ingredients.
Olive oil also offers all of its health benefits when consumed in small amounts. You should definitely include this oil in your daily diet. Either use it for cooking or use it as a dressing for your salads, for example.