An average heart beats 72 times a minute, 100,000 a day, 3,600,000 a year and 2.5 billion times a lifetime. Every single day, the heart produces enough energy to drive a truck 20 miles, and in a lifetime, that is equivalent to travelling to the moon and back. But the irony is that every minute a person dies of a heart disease in our country and most of the deaths that occur are completely preventable. Including these foods in your diet will ensure that your heart beats healthily and happily for hours.

First Thing in the Morning

Start your day with a handful of soaked almonds. The omega 3 fatty acids in almonds support your heart by decreasing inflammation and maintaining healthy blood pressure and cholesterol levels. What are the 4 Silent Signs of a Heart Attack?

For Breakfast

For breakfast, top your bowl of oatmeal with blueberries, raspberries and strawberries. They contain polyphenols which increases nitric oxide production in your body and causes your blood vessels to relax and dilate.

Mid-Morning Snack

Eat an apple as a mid-morning snack. It contains natural anti-inflammatory properties that helps prevent blood clots. Eating apples regularly can reduce the risk of death from coronary heart disease. What Causes Heart Diseases? 8 Factors from Loneliness to Child Abuse that Impair Your Cardiac Health. 

For Lunch

Eat a green salad with spinach or kale for lunch. These greens contain high level of folate that helps maintain healthy levels of homocysteine that has been found to lower the risk of suffering from a heart attack. Eating eight or more servings of green each day can reduce your chances of suffering from a coronary heart disease by 20 percent. You can also eat your chapatis with a palak ki sabzi for lunch.

Evening Snack

To get a dose of the healthy monounsaturated fatty acids, you can combine some peanut butter with walnuts or pecans. They also contain triglycerides which have been shown to reduce the levels of LDL or tricglycerides in your body. Heart Beats Long After You Are Dead! 5 Impressive Facts About Your Ticker We BET You Didn’t Know. 

For Dinner

For dinner, whip up some tomato soup. Tomatoes are rich in lycopene which is associated with reduced risk of heart disease. Lycopene also increases levels of super oxide dismutase in your body which reduces blood pressure as well as cardiac inflammation.

And if you get those late night cravings, just grab a bite of that dark chocolate. The resveratrol in it prevents blood clotting as well as enhances antioxidant and nitric oxide production.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Feb 07, 2020 12:24 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).