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conscious eating
Foods Our Heart
by Judith Fertig W 1
e can love our hearts with 10 superfoods that just might make
perfect ingredients for a Valentine’s Day meal, starting with dark chocolate.
Cocoa powder. Cacao’s flavanols lower blood pressure, reduce the risk of stroke and
act as antioxidants to prevent inflammation. Dr. JoAnn E. Manson, a physician, doctor of public health and professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School affiliate Brigham and Women’s Hospital, in Cambridge, Massachusetts, confirms, “Between 400 and 900 milligrams (mg) a day of cocoa flavanols may favorably affect several mechanisms and pathways related to cardiovascular disease prevention.” Not all chocolate is created equal.
24 Central Florida
Manson recommends chocolate with cocoa or cacao as the first ingredient, not sugar. She and her colleagues are currently conducting the Cocoa Supplement and Multivitamin Outcomes Study, a large-scale, randomized study of 18,000 U.S. men and women testing the benefits of ingesting 600 mg per day of cocoa flavanols.
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Raspberries. Just one-half cup of berries a day can provide plenty of phytonutrients and antioxidants
for decreasing inflammation and preventing heart disease, says Wendy Bazilian, a doctor of public health and registered dietitian in San Diego, and author of Te SuperFoodsRx Diet: Lose Weight with the Power of SuperNutrients. “Whirl them into a breakfast smoothie, add them to a green salad or combine them with dark chocolate for a tasty, heart-healthy dessert,” she advises.
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Salmon. Full of omega-3 fatty acids, wild-caught salmon (about two six-ounce weekly servings)
helps reduce systemic inflammation and risk of developing atherosclerosis, hypertension and stroke, according to Dr. Josh Axe, of Nashville, Tennessee. Beyond prevention, omega-3s in oily fish are also widely known to treat atherosclerosis, normalize heart rhythms and help lower blood pressure, cholesterol and triglyceride levels, as well as significantly lower the risk of stroke.
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Pumpkin seeds. High in magnesium—about 764 mg per cup—roasted pumpkin seeds, or
pepitas, top the list of heart-healthy nuts and seeds. Magnesium is an important electrolyte that helps the heart
Will Love Top 10 Heart Healthy Choices
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