Eating unhealthy foods can seriously affect your heart and blood vessel health. Modern fast food, supermarket pastries, snacks, and other processed foods contain a lot of trans fats—artificially altered fatty acids that raise your "bad" cholesterol and lower your "good" cholesterol.
To maintain cardiovascular health, it is worth eliminating or limiting the following foods and substances:
Sugar. Excess sugar increases the risk of heart disease. Instead, it is useful to consume honey, fresh berries (grapes, strawberries, cherries) and dried fruits (dried apricots, dates, raisins), which cleanse blood vessels and reduce the risk of heart attack. Dark chocolate is also useful due to epicatechin, which improves the condition of the inner surface of blood vessels, lowers blood pressure and increases insulin sensitivity.
Alcohol. It increases blood clotting, pulse rate, and blood pressure, disrupts metabolism, and makes heart tissue less elastic, which increases the risk of atherosclerosis.
Salt. Excess salt causes spasms of the heart muscle, increases the load on the myocardium and blood pressure, which can lead to a heart attack.
Processed industrial products. Chips, crackers, sausages, hot dogs, pastries and sweets contain preservatives, carcinogens and trans fats. It is also worth limiting potatoes, white rice and pasta, especially if they are processed and contain a lot of simple carbohydrates. An alternative is potatoes in their jackets.
Following these recommendations helps maintain heart and vascular health, reduces the risk of heart attacks, and promotes a longer and more active life.
