A healthy lifestyle goes a long way getting you a fit body and a robust heart. What can do in your routine life to have a healthy and enduring heart? Enlisting here are 10 things that you can do to take a good care of your heart.
Get an active lifestyle
One of the best ways to reduce your risk of developing a heart trouble is to stay active for most of the part of your day. Doing this is not only beneficial for your health, but it is also a great mood enhancer and a stress buster. Make it a practice to do at least 150 minutes of moderate aerobic activity every week. One way you can achieve this is by doing about 30 minutes of activity every day for 5 five days a week. You can find your own ways of including physical activity in your schedule. For example you can decide to cycle to work or find any other similar way.
Check your Weight
Being overweight is never a good option either for the heart or for any other part of the body. It nevertheless increases the risk of heart diseases manifold. Make sure you take a healthy balanced diet which is low in fat and sugar and which has plenty of vegetables and fruits as a part of it. This all must be combined with regular physical activity. You can find if you belong to the category of healthy weight by finding your BMI by using the BMI calculator.
Say No to Smoking
If you smoke, the best thing that you can do for your heart is to quit. It is now a widely known fact that smoking is one of the primary reasons for coronary heart disease. As you will see a year after you give up smoking, your chances of suffering a heart attack reduces to about half of what it is for a regular smoker.
Include more fiber in your diet
Abundant of fiber in your diet can significantly reduce your risk of any affliction of heart. Make sure to add at least 30 g of fiber each day in your diet. Include fiber from a diverse number of sources, for instance whole meal bread, barn, oats, whole grain cereals, vegetables, potatoes without removing their skin and plenty of fruits.
Don’t forget the Five
Make sure to incorporate at least 5 portions of variety of vegetable and fruits every day. Find if they are a good source of minerals and vitamins. You can use your creativity on how to include them with your regular meals such as adding chopped fruits to your pasta sauce or putting vegetables in your curry.
Scale down on Saturated Fat
Eating more and more foods that are rich in saturated fats escalate the danger of developing a heart disease as this can increase the level of cholesterol in the blood. Make sure you pick only leaner portions of meat and dairy products which are lower in fats, for example dairy items with 1% fat milk rather than full fat milk.
Include Fish
Fishes such as fresh tuna, sardines, salmon, and mackerel have an abundant quantity of Omega-3 fats which protects one from heart diseases. Eat fish at least two times a week while also including a portion of oily fish in your diet. However, it should be noted that pregnant and breastfeeding mothers should not have more than two servings of oily fish per week.
Curtail the intake of Salt
To keep your blood pressure levels in check, cut down on your usage of salt on the table and curtail its addition to your cooking. Most of the ready-made foods already contain salts in them so one must check their amount in the product before they purchase. Any food which has salt content more than 1.5 g per 100 g of product is higher in salt content. A normal adult should for a healthy diet should be having less than 6g of salt every day in total.
Drink less Alcohol
Alcohol are a source of calories. Drinking regularly more than the prescribed limit of the physician can have an appreciable impact on your weight. Stay within the limits in your alcohol consumption to prevent any adverse impact to your heart or avoid any other serious affliction to your body.
Check out the food label
Looking at the label of a food for the ingredients before purchasing is a good idea for the overall health of your body and heart. Most of the packaging displays a detailed information on ingredients and quantity of salt, sugar, fats etc. which the product contains. Understanding this information and making a choice with discretion is all about healthy living and taking care of your heart.
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Also read: A visual guide to heart disease