We continue our series of educational articles on heart health as part of the “Dress in Red” campaign. In this article, you will learn which foods are undeservedly considered bad for the heart, and how to turn their properties to your advantage.
Myth number 1: everything sweet is bad for the heart.
In ancient times, one of the wisest healers, Avicenna, said: “There is no poison and no medicine: it’s all about the doses.” This is what applies to the product, without which many of us find it difficult to imagine our diet. It’s about chocolate.
Chocolate, consumed in the right doses and reasonable amounts, is a healthy food. For the cardiovascular system, this product is useful for several reasons at once. Firstly, chocolate prevents the formation of blood clots, which has a preventive effect against strokes and heart attacks. Secondly, it normalizes blood pressure and thirdly, lowers cholesterol levels.
It is important to remember that chocolate with a cocoa content of at least 70% has all these properties.
Myth number 2: a cup of coffee increases the risk of heart disease.
Many consider coffee to be a real elixir of life. Office workers and the creative industry, students and journalists – it’s hard to find someone who doesn’t taste a tart espresso or soft cappuccino.
In fact, the risk of developing cardiovascular disease is significantly increased (by more than 70%) if you drink more than 6 cups of coffee a day, and this is something very few people can handle. In addition, coffee consumption has been shown to negatively affect the health of people suffering from high blood pressure.
But it is not so easy to check whether coffee raises blood pressure in healthy people. If this happens, then such an effect lasts only for a short time, and for avid coffee lovers, the energy effect of coffee often disappears altogether.
As for people with low blood pressure, coffee is useful for them and often even necessary. But here, too, the main thing is to observe the measure.
Myth number 3: any fatty food is bad for the heart.
This statement cannot be called true because of its categorical nature. Different foods contain many different fats, some of which are healthy. For example, unsaturated fats of plant origin and fish oil, rich in omega-3 acids. They lower blood cholesterol levels, regulate blood clotting, and participate in the construction of cell membranes.
But foods rich in saturated fat (animal fats) are really bad for the health of the cardiovascular system. Such fats contribute to the deposition of cholesterol in the form of plaque, which clogs the blood vessels and arteries that feed the heart. Therefore, such fatty foods as butter, lard, some types of meat should be included in your diet with great care.