As February marks Healthy Heart Month, this is a great time to show your body and heart some love. Fuel your body with some great foods experts say are packed with nutrients while helping your heart and overall health.
Swiss Chard
This vegetable has many antioxidants that assist with anti-inflammatory properties. Packed with vitamins and minerals such as vitamins K, C, A, E, B6, magnesium, iron, calcium and potassium collectively these nutrients contribute to helping the whole cardiovascular system and reducing blood pressure.
Cinnamon
This spice is used as a sweetener and in a lot of baking goods. Did you know it also helps your heart? Cinnamon is known to reduce levels of triglycerides, the levels of fat that is in your blood. If you have high levels it will raise the risk of heart disease, drinking cinnamon tea and/or adding it to your food can help lower these levels.
Pomegranate
This fruit is known to lower blood pressure and reduce the buildup of plaque in the arteries. Pomegranate is up there with berries when it comes to the antioxidant levels, but you should know that studies have shown that it has the highest antioxidant levels.
Bananas
Bananas is the go to fruit if you want to increase your potassium levels. One banana is known to have about 12% of the recommended dose that you need. If you are a person that has to take diuretics, bananas are you food because it replaces the potassium from the water release.
Yvelette Stines (www.yvelettestines.com) is an award-winning writer whose work has been published in Essence, Uptown, Heart and Soul, Jones, Hispanic Executive Quarterly, and Green Build + Design, just to name a few. Her book Vernon the Vegetable Man encourages children to choose healthy lifestyle habits. Stines’ blog Calming Corners motivates readers to live a calm and healthy lifestyle. You can find her calmly playing on social media @yvelettestines and @calmingcorners.