Heart-healthy Diet- List Of Foods That Are Good For Your Heart
“A Healthy Heart Means Healthy You”
Your heart is the center of your body function. It has various functions and is involved in several big factors of the regular body function that bring your body to life. So this statement is enough to tell you the importance of heart to your body and life and keeping it healthy is equally important for your overall health and life longevity.
There are no hard and fast rules to keep your heart healthy. If you’re thinking that you need to follow some special guidelines and time-consuming things, let us tell you that just opting for foods that are good for your heart is enough to maintain the good heart-health.
All you have to do is, when you shop for groceries or other home ingredients, focus on what looks good for your health, even sometimes keeping your taste at bay. In this article, we will be telling you what heart risks may be associated with poor heart health and what are the symptoms of weak heart, besides updating you with the best foods for the heart and foods to avoid heart disease.
Risk Factors Heart Health
Heart problems are common because people take heart health for granted. According to the report, half of the Americans suffer from heart disease and more than 840,000 people died last year due to heart illness including heart stroke. There are several risk factors for heart disease in which some are controllable whereas some are absolutely not. It is important to focus on factors before they put you at risk. We have separated controllable and uncontrollable risk factors, focus:
Unmanageable- Old Age, Family History, Male Sex, Race
Manageable- Smoking, Uncontrolled Blood Pressure, Poor Diet, Alcohol, Stress, Depression, Anger, Physical Inactivity, Obesity, and High LDL or Bad Cholesterol and Low LDL or Good Cholesterol. You can actually reduce the risk factors of your heart disease by changing your lifestyle behavior.
Symptoms Of Weak Heart
It is important to know the symptoms of heart disease so that you can contact a specialist and improve your heart disease timely. And symptoms are like Chest Pain, Shortness of Breath, Dizziness, Fainting, Swelling in Legs, Irregular Heartbeat, Fatigue, Tiredness During Exercise, and more.
But there is nothing to fret because you can simply control the symptoms and improve your heart health by changing the eating behavior like adding more healthy food items in your diet and reducing sodium intake and limiting the foods that are high in saturated fats.
Let’s check the foods that are good for your heart and help your heart to stay strong.
Best Foods For The Heart And Arteries Include-
Fresh Fruits- Fruits are a great source to keep your heart healthy and heart-related problems aside. Eating fruits like apple, avocado, tomato, and other plant-based foods are easy to digest, cut high calories from your diet, and prevent you from cardiovascular diseases. If you’re looking for the list of fruits good for your heart problems, here is the list- Avocado, Blueberries, Cherry, Watermelon, Pineapple, Grapes, Plums, Peach, Pear, and more.
Olive Oil– You must add olive oil to your food to reduce the risk factors of heart disease. What olive oil does is it improves the cardiovascular risk by lowering the LDL Cholesterol and raising HDL Cholesterol level and its an essential component for the Mediterranean diet. Also, a 2011 study reported that olive oil also slows down the aging of the heart.
Fish- Foods that are good for your heart also include Fish, which is a wonderful source of protein and Omega 3 such as tuna, salmon, and trout. These Omega 3 components provide good types of fats that are essential for a healthy heart.
Dark Chocolate- Those who love dark chocolate got a better excuse to increase the consumption of their favorite sweet. Yes, dark chocolate is another item on the heart-healthy foods list due to the presence of cocoa phenols and resveratrol. Stick to dark chocolate with 70% or higher cocoa can help you to reap the benefits. But remember to follow the moderation because chocolates are high in calories.
Red Wine- It may put most of you in a dilemma about how red wine is good for heart health. Actually, it contains a type of flavonoids called catechins and antioxidant resveratrol that helps to maintain your blood vessels and protect from various health diseases. You can add a glass of wine with your dinner.
Nuts- We have also included nuts in the list of Heart-healthy foods. Nuts such as walnuts and almonds can help you to get closer to healthy-heart. They can lower your bad cholesterol in level and keep your blood sugar in check.
Foods To Avoid With Heart Disease
The study of healthy heart recommends avoiding Sodium, Saturated Trans Fats, More Sugar, and Alcohol.
This is all about your heart health. We have put as much as we could while adding fruit food for the heart, what you should not eat, symptoms of poor heart health, and risk factors. If you are keen for more information, drop your suggestion in the comment section.