Foods to Lower Cholesterol and Heart Disease - Slideshow

Creator: Krishna Bora
Keywords: International cardiovascular disease statistics, salmon, olive oil, flaxseeds, red wine, tomatoes and green tea

Developed by - Krishna Bora, B.Sc. (Microbiology)

Reviewed by - The Medindia Medical Review Team

Last Updated on Jul 17, 2012

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Diet

Our diet affects our body in all positive and negative ways. A bowl of green salads can add vital nutrients and goodness to our body whereas the junk and greasy food can load us up with nothing more than harmful fats and calories. Hence it is very important to watch what we eat. All the heart diseases are caused when we load up our body with harmful cholesterol, which gets accumulated in our blood vessels and leads the heart to put extra efforts to pump the blood in your body. Here are the top food items to keep your heart healthy and drain out all the harmful cholesterol from your body.

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Salmon

Look out towards the sea for a healthy heart. Salmon tops in the list of heart friendly food items. The American Heart Association has recommended this fish in the diet of a heart patient. Salmon is rich in unsaturated fats called Omega-3 which works like wonder on heart patients. It is suggested to eat salmon twice a week to keep cut down the harmful cholesterol.

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Flaxseeds

Flaxseeds are one of the richest sources of omega-3 fats. Flaxseeds affect the low-density lipoprotein (LDL) and other lipoproteins, which cause coronary heart disease, strokes and other atherosclerotic diseases. They can potentially reduce the blood pressure and inflammation.

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Oatmeal

Oatmeal is another rich source of omega-3 fats, magnesium,potassium,folates and niacin. You can include the oatmeal in your breakfast topped with your favorite fruits like berries and kiwi. The American Heart Association recommends the heart patients to have at least 25-30g of dietary fiber everyday, which we can get from the oatmeal.

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Black Beans or Kidney Beans

Beans are rich in vitamin B-complex, niacin, folates and omega-3 fats that are very healthy for your heart. You can eat beans with rice or top it with the salad dressings.

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Almonds

They are loaded with the mono saturated fatty acids and hence can lower down the harmful cholesterol from your body. Almonds are tasty to eat and are loaded with magnesium, potassium and other minerals. You can add them to your salads or pop it in your mouth; they will do well to you anyway.

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Red Wine

We guess you would love to know that red wine too is heart friendly, thanks to the antioxidants and resveratrol, which help to prevent artery damage and loading up of harmful cholesterol. Sadly, only two glasses of wine a day is recommended by the doctors.

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Olives and Olive Oil

Olives and olive oils are the main ingredient in food for Italians and Mexicans. They give a unique taste to the food and are best known for the qualities to cure an ailing heart. Instead of using refined or mustard oil, using olive oils can give your body Omega-3 fats, Vitamin-E and a great taste to your food.

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Brown Rice

Brown rice might not have all those healthy omega-3 fats, but they are rich in niacin, vitamin B complex and fibers which are not only good for our heart, but to our metabolism too. Brown rice is none other than the rice that has not been polished yet, and has all the Vitamin B complex on their brown coating. Hence, next time, opt for brown rice then buying the shiny white rice.

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Green Tea

According to new researches, green tea was found to improve the function of endothelial cells lining the circulatory system. Results showed that endothelium-dependent brachial artery increased to 3.9% in 30 minutes after consumption.

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Tomatoes

Tomatoes are botanically a fruit and culinary is a vegetable. However, the tomatoes are rich source of lycopene, a substance responsible for antioxidant properties. Researches show that the lycopene prevents the oxidation of LDL cholesterol eventually preventing the plaque in the arteries and heart attacks.

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Dark Chocolates

A good news to all chocolate lovers, dark chocolates have flavonoids and resveratrol, which can help to lower your blood pressure. But strictly the dark chocolates. A truffle a day can keep your blood pressure normal.

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Reduce Salt Intake

As we know, that high blood pressure is the major risk of heart disease. By reducing the consumption of salt in our food, we can lower the risks of high blood pressure.

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Exercise

Eating right alone is not the key to healthy living; you need to keep moving. Exercise is very important for a heart patient to stay healthy. Several exercises like swimming, walking, yoga, and aerobics are safe for heart patients. You can also do your daily household chores like gardening, cleaning floors and so on as an exercise.Laughter and stress reduction can cure your heart disease to a great extent. Make sure that you take the fresh air in the morning and laugh to your heart's content.

Diet
Salmon
Flaxseeds
Oatmeal
Black Beans or Kidney Beans
Almonds
Red Wine
Olives and Olive Oil
Brown Rice
Green Tea
Tomatoes
Dark Chocolates
Reduce Salt Intake
Exercise