1/5 - The best diets to keep your heart healthy
The heart is the one organ that keeps you alive. However, the modern-day lifestyle and other related factors can stress and hugely impact its functioning. While it\'s important to maintain a healthy lifestyle, the diet you have also plays a pivotal role in determining its condition. Diets high in fibre, good fats, and antioxidants, in particular, have been found to promote the heart’s state, while excessive intakes of added sugar and processed meats have been linked to an increased risk of heart disease.Let’s know about the diets that are proven to be great for the heart based on scientific proof.
2/5 - Low carb diets
Carbohydrates appear to have a greater deleterious impact on heart health, than fat. However, a low carb diet not only curtails the use of carbs but is essentially heavier in protein and/or fat than a regular diet. It significantly improves the heart condition by lowering excess weight, high triglyceride and blood pressure levels, while promoting good cholesterol (HDL) levels in the body. It is recommended that this diet should crucially include enough fibre from plant products like vegetables and a focus on healthy fats from avocados, nuts, seeds, minimally processed plant oils, and omega-3-rich fish.
3/5 - Semi-vegetarianism
A semi-vegetarian diet, also known as a flexitarian diet, is based on plant foods with an occasional intake of meat, fish or poultry products. The diet mandates the restriction of added sugars, refined grains, processed meats, and other highly processed meals, and eats largely whole, less processed foods. While being chiefly a plant-based diet, it promotes the improvement of the heart condition. This diet is the most practical and sustainable option for the ones who are looking for cardiac benefits from plant supplements, without omitting the meat intake.
4/5 - Veganism and vegetarianism
Both practices involve excluding all meat from the diet, be it chicken, red meat, or fish. To specify, unlike vegans vegetarians do incorporate the use of animal products such as dairy, eggs, bee pollen, honey, or gelatin. And hence due to the concentrated amount of plant-based content, these diets benefit the heart through fibre, antioxidants, and anti-inflammatory chemicals of the plants. Many studies prove these diets to lower the incidents of heart-related mortality.
5/5 - DASH diet
The Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension or DASH diet is mapped to aid in the prevention and treatment of hypertension (high blood pressure). Hence, the risk of heart diseases is reduced as well. The diet only allows certain food groups as per the calorie requirement, such as fruits, vegetables, low-fat dairy, lean meats, and whole grains. While desisting the intake of red meat, refined grains and sugars. It also limits the use of sodium in order to control blood pressure. Your heart is ultimately protected by reducing lethal body problems such as blood pressure, obesity, cholesterol levels, and insulin resistance.
