Eat well and exercise … and your health will thank you. Eliminate from your diet those foods that have a lot of fat, excess sugar or salt in abundance. All this hurts your cardiovascular health: take a look at these 10 tips to keep a healthy and strong heart.
Is taking care of you more among your purposes of the new year? If you eat well, everything, balanced and without abusing your body will thank you. And if you also add a little physical exercise, such as walking at a good pace for half an hour, better. Everything influences to make you feel better.
It is not about dieting or crushing in the gym, you just have to use common sense.
Do you want cardiovascular health of 10? Here are 10 good tips to put into practice: you will notice the results right away, so we are sure that you will thank us and your heart too.
The 10 best habits
- 1. Lose weight. Obesity is totally inadvisable. The important thing is to adapt the caloric intake to avoid overweight. In fact, it has been seen that a weight reduction of 10% has positive effects in reducing blood cholesterol levels.
- 2. No to saturated fats. The food industry, in continuous innovation, offers endless low-fat products. A priori, this offer may seem ideal for our cardiovascular health, but they are not always the healthiest option. They can be a wild card for a specific moment, but the idea is to avoid all processed products and base our food on fresh products. The consumption of saturated fats increases the levels of LDL cholesterol, while that of polyunsaturated fats (present in fish and in seed oils), lowers total cholesterol. On the other hand, monounsaturated fats like olive oil, it increases blood levels of HDL cholesterol, which has a protective effect. Therefore, it is not necessary to eliminate fats from the diet but pay special attention to the type of fat: more quality and less quantity.
- 3. No sugar, no sweetener. Obesity is related to the excessive consumption of added sugars, therefore, it is important to reduce as much as possible its consumption. The option of replacing it with sweetener is not the best, but to educate our palate to a less sweet taste. Our advice is that you choose the products with the lowest possible sugar content (and without sweeteners) and in the case of consuming them, reduce them to special moments. Have you tried to put less sugar in your coffee?
- 4. Get out, better not. Excessive salt intake favors an increase in blood pressure. Hypertension will require extra effort to the heart, which will eventually take its toll. He thinks that in addition to the salt that we add to our dishes, we must add the food they carry. So the ideal is that you forget the salt shaker. Try to season your dishes with spices and herbs.
- 5. Meat or fish. Our diet is already very rich in protein, therefore, it is not necessary to consume meat or fish every day. Remember the wide variety of fresh products of plant origin that you have at your disposal, fruits, vegetables, legumes, and whole grains. However, when choosing between meat or fish, fish has a lower fat content and a better lipid profile (the type of fat). Bluefish is basic to take care of your heart.
- 6. Put eggs to your diet. You do not have to limit yourself to 3 a week, you can take more, although pay attention to how to prepare them and avoid fried foods. Some years ago, as a rule, eggs were eliminated from the diet of people with high blood cholesterol, but nowadays, it has been proven that dietary cholesterol has a minimal influence on blood cholesterol.
- 7. Everything on the grill? No. The important thing is that the meals are not monotonous, they have to have flavor and be palatable. There are many culinary techniques that allow you to prepare low-fat foods: plancha, boiled, steamed, papillote, roasted, braised and even raw.
- 8. A glass of wine. The spirit, once ingested, is absorbed quickly by the body. The blood transfers to the liver ethanol and, to a lesser extent, methanol, where they are metabolized into substances from which “empty” calories are obtained (7 kcal per gram of alcohol consumed), that is, calories that only provide energy and have no added nutritional value. Alcohol, to understand us, fattens, and does not nourish. And like everything, never drink too much.
- 9. Do functional foods work? That’s what the food industry wants us to believe. They add nutrients to their products so that they are rich in plant sterols or in omega-3 to reduce blood cholesterol. But if you do not change your life guidelines (diet and physical activity) the only thing you will get is to throw the money away. What does work is to take an afunctional diet based mainly on the Mediterranean diet?
- 10. Physical exercise. If you do not feel like it, you do not need to sign up for a gym, the important thing is that you move more to benefit from the positive effects of physical activity. So, depending on your physical condition, availability, preferences, and budget you can start a sport, join a gym or go for a walk every day. You choose. If you go out accompanied it will be more fun.
Hi, I’m Shelly P. Clayton. I’m a writer, fitness enthusiast and published health coach. I have been blogging about fitness, weight loss and lifestyle for over 7 years. I will share my experience and knowledge on health, beauty, wellness as an expert with a passion through my writing. Live the life you want. I believe in creating meaningful experiences for people to live healthier, more fulfilling lives.
