Tips for a healthy heart

If you finally decide to lead a healthy lifestyle, start, first, with a review of your diet.

The wrong selection of products can negatively affect your heart, weight and overall health.

Simply adjust your diet a little, add healthy foods and eliminate the harmful ones.

You can reduce the risk of diseases, strengthen the cardiovascular system and the whole body.

There is a lot of misinformation about which products are good or not for the heart, so you may be surprised that you do not need exotic fruits, imported nuts or expensive supplements. By making the right choice for the heart at home, at the supermarket and at your favorite restaurant, you can reduce the risk of heart disease.

How to strengthen the cardiac diet: 4 tips

1. Eat more fruits and vegetables

Fresh vegetables and fruits of all types and colors should be fundamental to your diet.

These natural products are very useful, since they are rich in fiber, vitamins, minerals and antioxidants that strengthen the heart and blood vessels, and also contain few calories, which can contribute to weight loss.

Fresh, frozen, dried, canned (but without using sugar and syrups, and also without salt): all fruits and vegetables are good for you. These are citrus fruits (oranges, peaches, fresh and dried apricots), bananas, all kinds of cabbage, peppers, beets, chard, tomatoes, avocados, celery, potatoes in "uniforms", berries - strawberries, currants, blueberries, raspberries , etc.

2. Store juices can not replace fresh vegetables and fruits

In addition, the store's juices contain large amounts of sugar. If you like juices, cook them immediately before using them (freshly squeezed fruit and vegetable juices).

3. Control the daily intake of sodium

The body needs sodium chloride (salt), but in much smaller amounts than what we normally eat.

To prevent high blood pressure and heart disease, sodium should be consumed no more than 1,500 milligrams per day per day (this is approximately 3.5 to 4 g of salt, that is, less than one teaspoon).

Keep in mind that sodium comes not only from the salt shaker, but is contained in processed foods, frozen and canned vegetables, condiments (eg, tomato sauce and soy sauce), meat delicacies (eg sausages and salami) , cheese and cottage cheese, bread etc.

4. Do not forget the added sugar

Most know that sweets are not very healthy foods.

At the same time, people associate sugar consumption with the development of diabetes, but few understand that this carbohydrate plays the same role in heart disease as saturated fats.

A study published in the journal of American Medical Association found that people who consumed more fast carbohydrates had lower levels of good HDL cholesterol and higher levels of triglycerides, markers of an increased risk of heart disease.

The American Heart Association rrecommends that women consume no more than 6 tablespoons of added sugar (approximately 100 calories) per day and no more than 9 teaspoons for men (150 calories).

But only in a can of Coca-Cola contains approximately 130 calories or eight teaspoons of sugar.