I don’t want to think there is anyone here who doesn’t know how much the importance of the heart is to the whole body.
When the heart stops, then every other organ in the body dies sooner than later.
In the next paragraph, I will quickly highlight the important functions of the heart in the body as a refresher or reminder.
The heart is an organ that functions as a pump for the movement of blood through the body. Different parts of the body requires oxygen for proper functioning, the blood as we know carries oxygen from the lungs with it. It is important that oxygen gets to all parts of the body — the brain, muscles, in fact all cells in the body. The heart does the job of pumping blood to these parts of the body. So, why wouldn’t you strive to keep your heart healthy?
It is not enough to just eat heart-healthy foods to have a heart that is healthy and functioning properly, we must also strive to minimize foods that have adverse effects on the heart. These types of foods have been implicated in cardiovascular heart diseases. We should try to minimize how much we consume them.
Walnuts:
Walnut again? Isn’t this walnut a super nut after all? We have mentioned it under different topics because of its health benefits and here it is again helping the heart. Eating about 140 grammes of walnut per week, reduces your risk of heart disease by half.
We mentioned in one of our articles about foods that help the brains by providing essential nutrients to it, that walnut is able to provide this function because it is very rich in omega-3 fatty acids. These are very good fats that reduces the level of your “bad-for-the-heart” LDL cholesterol and raise your “good” HDL cholesterol.
Almonds:
Almonds, just like walnuts is rich in these fats that help your heart by lowering the bad cholesterol levels. These types of healthy monounsaturated fats even help you lose fats when you eat them. Ironic huh?
Unsaturated fats are not just good for your heart, they offer another benefit by boosting serotonin levels during the day, which in turn help you sleep better at night. Add almonds to foods you snack on and enjoy these benefits. When I order my Ice Cream, I do with Almonds or Pecans.
Yoghurt and Milk
Yoghurt and Milk, especially the fat-free or low-fat types help reduce the pressure on the heart. Dairy products are known to be rich in Potassium – a mineral that has been linked to lowering the level of blood pressure.
When you consume low-fat or fat-free dairy or dairy products, you get little to no saturated fat, the kind of fat that can raise your bad cholesterol level. Other sources of Potassium are most fruits and vegetables. Examples include potato and banana.
The Bell Peppers
Thankfully, man soups cook in this part of the world usually contain the bell peppers blended with tomatoes, onions, etc. Many people just feel they add the red bell peppers in order to make the soup thick and more red in color. Yes, it does these things and make the blend “attractive”.
The orange, yellow, and red colors of the bell peppers mean that they contain phytonutrients and additional antioxidants. These antioxidants help to make sure that our body can battle back free radical damage.
Garlic
Generally, we use Garlic as a flavouring for food but it has been used for a long time as a herb for medicinal purposes. It has been used for many conditions related to the heart and blood system. Some of these diseases include high blood pressure, high cholesterol, coronary heart disease, heart attack, and hardening of the arteries.
Apart from the fact that it can make the mouth smell, we should use garlic moderately and with caution as it might prolong bleeding. Therefore you should stay away from garlic at least two weeks before a scheduled surgery and probably menstruation.
Green Tea
Green tea has been shown to help prevent cardiovascular heart diseases. A study carried out on 40,530 Japanese adults revealed that participants who drank more than five cups of green tea a day had a 26% lower risk of death from heart attack or stroke than those who drank less than one cup of this tea in a day.
Even though no adverse effect was reported in people that took the five or more cups of green tea, it should be noted that it contains oxalate, which can cause kidney stones. So, drinking tea moderately will still give you some health benefits.
Turmeric
Several studies have revealed that turmeric helps in maintaining heart health by reducing cholesterol oxidation, reducing plaque build-up, clot formation, reduce bad cholesterol (LDL), reduce pro-inflammatory response, etc.
Heart attacks are caused by atherosclerotic plaque buildup or high cholesterol levels, therefore, adding turmeric to your diet can help you reduce this risk by a great amount.
