You may have heard of the vegan diet due to its current popularity – but can a vegan diet help your heart? Learn about its various health benefits.
A vegan diet is a type of plant-based diet that avoids all animal foods, animal products, and byproducts (eg.: milk). Instead, the diet focuses on eating whole grains, fresh fruits, vegetables, legumes, seeds, and healthy vegetable oils. By eating a healthy diet, you can improve your heart health, which is necessary to our lives.
Moreover, foods that can improve heart health and reduce the risk of cardiovascular diseases provide various benefits. The following article explores the benefits of a vegan diet and if it can reduce the risk of cardiovascular diseases.
Veganism and Heart Health
Since vegan diets focus on whole grains, fresh fruits and veggies, legumes, seeds, and so on, it provides multiple benefits. In addition to fulfilling your macronutrient requirements, it can greatly improve your health.
Fresh fruits and vegetables can reduce your cholesterol levels due to their fiber, phytochemicals, plant sterols, and antioxidant content. Furthermore, if you remove meats from your diet, you can reduce the intake of saturated fats.
To illustrate, saturated fats increase your cholesterol and, therefore, increase your risk for heart disease. Finally, by including seeds and nuts in your diet, you increase your amount of healthy fats and omega-3 fatty acids.
Plant-Based Foods
When it comes to improving your heart health, there are certain foods that are better at the job than others. For example, broccoli, ginger, beetroot, walnuts, and pumpkin seeds are particularly good for your heart health.
- Broccoli is full of fiber, potassium, and magnesium, which boost your blood pressure health and overall wellness.
- Ginger can help you lower your blood pressure, cholesterol levels, inflammation, and oxidative stress.
- Beets are rich in nitrates, which convert into nitric oxide once inside the body. Since nitric oxide is a vasodilator, it relaxes blood vessels and improves circulation.
- Walnuts can help reduce your blood pressure levels and maintain healthy cholesterol levels. Moreover, they contain alpha-linolenic acid, a plant-based omega-3 fatty acid that improves heart health.
- Pumpkin Seeds contain omega-6 and omega-3 fatty acids, both of which are great for your heart health. Furthermore, their fiber content helps lower cholesterol and reduce the risk of heart disease.
The Outlook
If you decide to follow a vegan diet, you can expect to experience a variety of heart-health benefits. However, if you simply increase the number of fruits and vegetables in your diet, you can still get some of these benefits.
In addition to eating a healthy diet, you can give your heart an extra boost by taking L-arginine Plus. As a heart-health supplement, it can effectively promote your circulation, cholesterol, blood pressure, and more.
Try L-arginine Plus along with a healthy diet to give your heart health the support it deserves.