Healthy Foods for the Heart – 9 Foods that helps your Heart – Do you want a healthy heart? Who doesn’t want a healthy Heart? 9 good Foods I will list below will help you to maintain a healthy Heart. Actually, there are people from whose lifestyle we can tell they don’t want a healthy heart.
These are those who smoke like a chimney, drink excessively, and eat junk foods every minute.
In fact, certain foods can influence blood pressure, triglycerides, cholesterol levels and inflammation, all of which are risk factors for heart disease.
Diet plays a major role in heart health and can impact your risk of heart disease.
The Heart
The Heart is an organ that serves as a pump to circulate the blood. It may be a straight tube, as in spiders and annelid worms, or a somewhat more elaborate structure with one or more receiving chambers (atria) and a main pumping chamber (ventricle), as in mollusks
How does blood flow through the heart?
Blood flows through your heart and lungs in four steps:
- The right atrium receives oxygen-poor blood from the body and pumps it to the right ventricle through the tricuspid valve.
- The right ventricle pumps the oxygen-poor blood to the lungs through the pulmonary valve.
- The left atrium receives oxygen-rich blood from the lungs and pumps it to the left ventricle through the mitral valve.
- The left ventricle pumps the oxygen-rich blood through the aortic valve out to the rest of the body.
What you should know about your Heart
- The average heart is the size of a fist in an adult.
- Your heart will beat about 115,000 times each day.
- Your heart pumps about 2,000 gallons of blood every day.
- Laughing is good for your heart. It reduces stress and gives a boost to your immune system
- An electrical system controls the rhythm of your heart. It’s called the cardiac conduction system.
- A woman’s heart beats slightly faster than a man’s heart.
However, if you want a healthy heart, there are certain foods that you should get conversant with, as well as learn to incorporate them into your regular diet. Below are 3 foods you should eat regularly if you want a healthy heart.
9 Healthy Foods for your Heart
Olive oil
Many people don’t really know the importance of olive oil, and apart from those who use it for religious purposes, many are still ignorant of its use as cooking oil.
Olive oil is the best oil for your heart, as it has no high cholesterol levels like other oils, and as such, it helps to even lower the body cholesterol.
Walnuts
Walnuts are a great source of fiber and micronutrients like magnesium, copper and manganese.
According to a review, eating walnuts can reduce “bad” LDL cholesterol by up to 16%, lower diastolic blood pressure by 2–3 mm Hg and decrease oxidative stress and inflammation.
Read – Walnuts (Juglans nigra) – Reduces Heart Disease and Other Health Benefits
Oranges
Despite its high acidic nature, oranges are the major fruits for anybody who is trying to maintain and keep a well functioning healthy heart. This is due to its cholesterol-fighting fiber pectin, and also the amount of potassium it contains which it uses to control the body blood pressure, as well as lower high ones.
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Almonds
Almonds are incredibly nutrient-dense, boasting a long list of vitamins and minerals that are crucial to heart health.
This is one fruit that has been neglected in some part of the country especially in Africa, almonds are found to be eaten by kids mostly.
Almonds are good source of heart-healthy monounsaturated fats and fiber, two important nutrients that can help protect against heart disease
Leafy Green Vegetables
Leafy green vegetables like spinach, kale and collard greens are well-known for their wealth of vitamins, minerals and antioxidants.
It is high in dietary nitrates, which have been shown to reduce blood pressure, decrease arterial stiffness and improve the function of cells lining the blood vessels
Garlic
One can never go wrong with garlic. Garlic is one spice that has an application in a myriad of various health issues, and as such, it can be used to take care of the heart, as well as improve it considerably.
This is due to the allicin in it that helps lower the body cholesterol.
Berries
Strawberries, blueberries, blackberries and raspberries are jam-packed with important nutrients that play a central role in heart health.
Read – Heart Attack (Myocardial Infarction): Causes, Signs, Symptom and Prevention tips
A study found out that eating blueberries daily improved the function of cells that line the blood vessels, which help control blood pressure and blood clotting
Avocados
Avocados are an excellent source of heart-healthy monounsaturated fats, which have been linked to reduced levels of cholesterol and a lower risk of heart disease.
It is rich in potassium, a nutrient that’s essential to heart health. In fact, just one avocado supplies 975 milligrams of potassium, or about 28% of the amount that you need in a day.
Whole Grains
Whole grains include all three nutrient-rich parts of the grain: germ, endosperm and bran.
Common types of whole grains include whole wheat, brown rice, oats, rye, barley, buckwheat and quinoa.
Compared to refined grains, whole grains are higher in fiber, which may help reduce “bad” LDL cholesterol and decrease the risk of heart disease.
How does my Heart Maintain its Normal Function?
- Regulate the timing of your heartbeat. Your heart’s electrical system controls the timing of the pump. The electrical system keeps your heart beating in a regular rhythm and adjusts the rate at which it beats. When the electrical system is working properly, it maintains a normal heart rate and rhythm. Problems with this electrical system can cause an arrhythmia, which means that your heart chambers are beating in an uncoordinated or random way or that your heart is beating too fast (tachycardia) or too slow (bradycardia).
- Keep your heart muscle healthy. The four chambers of your heart are made of a special type of muscle called myocardium. The myocardium does the main pumping work: It relaxes to fill with blood and then squeezes (contracts) to pump the blood. “Contractility” describes how well the heart muscle squeezes. After pumping, your heart relaxes and fills with blood. The muscle must be able to relax enough so that it can fill with blood properly before it pumps again. The health of your heart muscle affects both its contractility and its ability to relax, both of which determine whether your heart is able to pump enough blood each time it beats. Problems with the contractility of your heart can be caused by problems with the muscle itself (such as a viral infection of the heart muscle or an inherited heart muscle disorder) or by problems with the blood supply to the heart muscle (such as reduced blood flow to the heart muscle, called ischemia). Your heart muscle needs its own supply of blood because, like the rest of your body, it needs oxygen and other nutrients to stay healthy. For this reason, your heart pumps oxygen-rich blood to its own muscle through your coronary arteries.
- Keep blood flowing efficiently. Your heart has four valves that control the flow of blood in and out of the chambers. There are valves between the atrium and the ventricle on each side of your heart. There is also a valve controlling the flow of blood out of each of your ventricles. The valves are designed to keep blood flowing forward only. When each chamber contracts, a valve opens to allow blood to flow out. When the chamber relaxes, the valve closes to prevent blood from leaking back into the chamber and to allow the chamber to fill with blood again. A problem with your heart valves can disrupt the normal flow of blood and cause problems for your heart.
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