Friendly Foods for Your Heart

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The followings are the heart friendly foods:

  1. Fresh Herbs: Try to make a heart-healthy choice by adding fresh herbs to your foods instead of salt and fat.
  2. Black Beans: They are packed with heart-healthy nutrients, such as folate, antioxidants, and magnesium. Those nutrients can help to lower blood pressure. Fiber from the beans helps to control cholesterol and blood sugar levels.
  3. Red wine and Resveratrol: A little red wine may be a heart-healthy choice. Red wine contains two antioxidants, resveratrol and catechins, which may protect artery walls. Alcohol can also boost HDL, the good cholesterol.
  4. Salmon: Salmon is a super food for heart health. It is rich in omega-3s, which are healthy fats. Omega-3s may reduce the risk of heart rhythm disorders, lower blood pressure and triglycerides, and curb inflammation.
  5. Tuna: It is cheaper than salmon and also has omega-3s. Albacore, the white tuna, has more omega-3s than other types of tuna. Other fish sources of omega-3s are mackerel, herring, lake trout, sardines, and anchovies.
  6. Olive Oil: It is a healthy fat and is rich in heart-healthy antioxidants that may protect your blood vessels, and help to lower cholesterol levels. Olive oil is rich in monounsaturated fatty acids and it has been shown to reduce blood pressure and both bad cholesterol and triglycerides while increasing good cholesterol. The Mediterranean diet, for example, is the use of olive oil for cooking and for dressing salads and vegetables as a substitute for more saturated fats, like butter.
  7. Walnuts: Consuming walnuts daily may lower your cholesterol and protect against inflammation in heart’s arteries. These nuts contain omega-3s (the monounsaturated fats), plant sterols, and fiber.
  8. Almonds: They contains plant sterols, fiber, and heart-healthy fats. They may lower the bad LDL cholesterol.
  9. Edamame: It is soybeans in Japanese. Soy protein may help to lower cholesterol levels. It also contains healthy fiber.
  10. Tofu: Tofu contains a great form of vegetarian soy protein, heart-healthy minerals, fiber, and polyunsaturated fats.
  11. Sweet Potatoes: These are low in glycemic index and will not cause a quick spike in blood sugar, and have fiber, vitamin A, and lycopene.
  12. Oranges: They have the cholesterol-fighting fiber pectin, and potassium to help to control blood pressure. They also lowered blood pressure in men.
  13. Barley: It is a nutty whole grain. Its fiber can help to lower cholesterol levels, and may lower blood sugar levels. However, a lot of the heart-healthy fiber has been removed from pearl barley.
  14. Oatmeal: It helps to keep blood sugar levels stable over time. Its fiber can help to lower bad cholesterol (LDL).
  15. Flaxseed: Flaxseed has fiber, phytochemicals (called lignans) and omega-3 fatty acids, which are good for your heart.
  16. Low-fat Yogurt: Dairy foods are considered good for bones, and can help to control high blood pressure. Yogurt is high in calcium and potassium.
  17. Foods Fortified with Sterols: Some margarines, soy milks, almond milks, and orange juices have been added with cholesterol-fighting sterols and stanols. They can block your gut from soaking up cholesterol to lower LDL levels and keep good cholesterol.
  18. Cherries: This fruit is packed with antioxidants call anthocyanins, which may help to protect blood vessels.
  19. Blueberries: The fruit contains anthocyanins (blood vessel-helping antioxidants) and fiber.
  20. Dark leafy greens: salad greens, spinach, kale, Swiss chard, collard and mustard greens are dark leafy greens and full of vitamins A, C, E and K and contain antioxidants which help to get rid of toxins. Their abundance of calcium, magnesium and potassium puts them on the top 10 list for heart health foods.
  21. Beets: They are full of nitric oxide, which studies show they can help to open blood vessels, and to lower your blood pressure.
  22. Avocados are a rich source of monounsaturated fatty acids, which can lower both your total cholesterol and your “bad” cholesterol (LDL) while maintaining your “good” cholesterol (HDL) levels. They can also benefit insulin control, which can be very helpful to those with prediabetes or Type 2 diabetes.
  23. Legumes include all kinds of beans, lentils, chickpeas and black-eyed peas. Their high levels of soluble fiber are known to lower both cholesterol and triglyceride levels in the bloodstream. They are full of iron, manganese, copper, B vitamins, magnesium, zinc and phosphorous. They are extremely high in protein but are very low on the glycemic index, which means they have less effect on your blood sugar.

Now you know about the heart friendly foods. Next step is to plan for your eating habits:

  • Control your portion size because it is as important as what you eat.
  • Eat more vegetables and fruits for they have the good sources of vitamins and minerals, and they are low in calories. Try to avoid those fruits and vegetable that have creamy sauces, fried or breaded vegetables, fruits packed in heavy syrup, and sugar added fruits.
  • Select whole grains, which contain good sources of fiber and other nutrients.
  • Limit unhealthy fats, such as saturated fat and trans-fat foods.
  • Choose low-fat protein sources, such as legumes, lean meat, poultry and fish, low-fat dairy products, and eggs are some of the best sources of protein. 
  • Limit or reduce salt (sodium): The American Heart Association recommends that Healthy adults have no more than 2,300 milligrams (mg) of sodium a day (about a teaspoon of salt). Ideally, most adults should have no more than 1,500 mg of sodium a day.
  • Plan ahead and create daily menus: This helps to ensure that you will get all the nutrients your body needs. Variety also makes meals and snacks more interesting.
  • Allow yourself an occasional treat but do not let it turn into an excuse and giving up on healthy eating plan. Over strict controlled eating plan sometimes will also ruin your plan and giving up for healthy eating.

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