Our heart is arguably the most important organ in our body. It pumps blood and oxygen to different body tissues and provides us with the energy needed to carry on doing our daily work. It is, therefore, important to make sure that our hearts stay healthy. Interestingly, keeping your heart healthy is far easier than you think, and the amount of effort you need to put to make sure that that happens is minimal. It is adherence that is usually challenging.
One of the main aspects of heart health is healthy food. We consume a lot of food in our daily life and diets differ widely between cultures and individuals. There is no universal meal that helps keep your heart in perfect health, but several guidelines as to how you should choose your meals can help you make better choices to protect yourself from different heart conditions.
What is the Healthiest Food for my heart’s health?
In general, these foods are considered healthy for your heart:
1) Vegetables
Vegetables are food that is healthy for your overall health. They contain a large number of antioxidants, which are substances that delay cell aging and protect against cancer. Antioxidants also fight inflammation, which is the basis of problems in your heart and blood vessels. Vegetables including lettuce, cucumber, carrots, tomatoes -although they are scientifically classified as fruits-, and radish are vegetables that can be eaten in all meals and are very low in calories. Being low in calories whilst making you full is a great advantage of vegetables. Less calories in your food means less fat in your blood, and the lesser the chance of coronary heart diseases, which are problems in the blood vessels supplying the heart itself. Their narrowing causes heart attacks.
Leafy vegetables are the most commonly consumed including spinach and kale. They are rich in vitamin K which is essential to maintaining healthy blood clotting. In addition, vegetables and especially leafy vegetables are rich in nitrates. Nitrates act by making your blood vessels wider and reducing the risk of heart attacks as well as lowering blood pressure, which is the commonest cause of heart failure and heart attacks.