Other Heart Healthy Foods
Tuesday, January 3rd, 2006There are plenty of other foods that are good for your heart that aren’t key parts of the polymeal diet. Let’s take a look!
With it’s high content of monounstaturated fatty acids and antioxidants, olive oil has been shown to protect against heart disease. It helps to control “bad” LDL cholesterol levels and increases “good” HDL cholesterol.
The health benefits of soya beans and soya oil are mainly due to the isoflavones they contain. Research has suggested that consumption of soya may help to reduce cholesterol and prevent plaque from building up in arteries.
Tomatoes contain a cartenoid called lycopene that is a potent antioxidant that has been shown to reduce heart disease. Combining tomatoes with olive oil helps the lycopene be absorbed by the body, and cooking tomatoes doesn’t destroy the lycopene, so tomato sauce or canned tomatoes are just as good as fresh.
Oat bran contains a fiber called beta-glucan that has been shown over and over to reduce cholesterol levels. Just a bowl of oatmeal (the real stuff, not the packaged sugary stuff) can lower one’s total cholesterol by up to 23%.
Tea, whether it be white, green, black or red, contain powerful antioxidants called polyphenols that can help prevent heart disease.
Chickpeas are rich in dietary fibre that helps lower cholesterol. As if that weren’t enough, they also contain significant amounts of folate, which helps to lower homosysteine levels, and magnesium, which is a natural calcium channel blocker. Plus, they taste great, so make some hummus today!
