Prevent Heart Disease

Preventing heart disease can be a matter of making the right choices for your heart and overall health.

The best protection against heart disease is to prevent it from happening in the first place. Poor diet, lack of exercise and years of bad lifestyle habits takes its toll on the heart.

Heart disease can be prevented if you are willing to stop the assault and adopt a health lifestyle from this day forward.

Eat for Your Heart

Prevent Heart Disease

In addition to limiting your intake of high-fat foods and red meat, there are certain things you should also be adding to your diet. Focus on a plant-based diet loaded with fruits, vegetables, whole grains and legumes, as well as the following:

Sriracha Hot Chili Sauce: This Asian-style hot sauce consists of, among other tasty ingredients, garlic and red chili peppers. Allicin, the active compound in garlic, affects the nitric oxide system, thus helping to relax blood vessels, which can help reduce blood pressure. The capsaicin in chili peppers may also have these vasorelaxant properties, helping to reduce blood pressure by relaxing blood vessels as well.

Kidney Beans: These legumes are a good source of omega-3 fatty acids, which help to reduce inflammation. Omega-3s reduce triglycerides, stabilize your heartbeat, make platelets "less sticky" and can even lower blood pressure. Omega-3s also boost levels of HDL (the good cholesterol) and help clear your arteries. Add kidney beans to soups and salads.

Sweet Potatoes: These root vegetables contain lutein, carotenoids and alpha carotene. All these antioxidants work to protect your heart. Swap white starches out for nutrient-rich sweet potatoes whenever you have the chance.

Drink for Your Heart

Thinking outside the box when it comes to juice can be beneficial to your health. The following juices may not be in everyone’s kitchen, but they are certainly worth trying. Both are available in grocery stores. For an even greater health boost, try making fresh juice at home.

Blackcurrant Juice: A recent study has found that blackcurrant juice may help lower the levels of inflammatory markers like C-reactive protein (CRP), which appears to be correlated to heart disease risk. The body produces CRP during the general process of inflammation. Therefore, CRP is a "marker" for inflammation, meaning its presence indicates an increased state of inflammation in the body. Drink 1 cup a day to lower these levels.

Beet Juice: The nitrate content of beet juice is the muscle behind its blood pressure lowering benefits. Studies have shown that drinking 1 cup a day can help to reduce high blood pressure.

Get your Healthy Heart Sriracha Stir Fry Recipe, it's amazing and only a few calories per serving.