Heart Care and Heart Healthy Foods

Many people think that healthy heart is a given and don’t ever worry about its condition until they feel that something’s wrong. Unfortunately, then it could be already too late.

Heart disease is a reason why many people die every year all over the world so you should be interested in ways how to avoid it. Everyone who is more than 20 years old should undergo a special test called fasting cholesterol profile once every 5 years. Older people (over 40) should take this test every year. This test shows if your cholesterol and triglyceride levels are good.

You must have some cholesterol in your body as it plays an important role in producing cell membranes and hormones. However, there is the “good” and the “bad” cholesterol. The “bad” cholesterol is bad because it transports this substance from the liver to other body parts. Of course it is better to have higher “good” cholesterol level and lower “bad” cholesterol level and not the other way around.

Approximately one-third of the cholesterol that is in your body comes from foods that you eat. Eating the wrong foods can cause the reduction of “good” cholesterol in your body and raise the levels of “bad” cholesterol. Triglycerides are similar to “bad” cholesterol and you can easily build up high triglyceride levels by consuming more calories than you need.

So here are some things to consider if you want to keep your heart healthy:

1) Be careful with calories – you must stay away from consuming too much extra calories.

2) Look for polyunsaturated fatty acids. There are a lot of these acids in fish, nuts and seeds.

3) Drink fish oil – it regulates not only your cholesterol level but also your heartbeat and blood pressure.

4) Flavonoids are good for your heart and you can find them in many colorful fruits and vegetables.

5) Fruits, vegetables and oatmeal also contain dietary fiber that helps to lower cholesterol levels.