WEDNESDAY, July 7th, 2021 (HealthDay News) – Do you want to be good with your ticker?
Load up on vegetables – especially beans, suggest Italian researchers.
They published a comprehensive review of research on eating habits and heart disease, which provides consistent evidence that consuming less salt and animal proteins and more plant-based foods is associated with lower risk of heart disease.
These good for you foods include whole grains, fruits, vegetables, legumes and nuts.
The researchers also recommend replacing butter and other animal fats with non-tropical vegetable fats like olive oil.
“A mistake we made in the past was seeing one food component as the enemy and the only thing we had to change,” said study author Gabriele Riccardi of the University of Naples Federico II in Italy. “Instead, we need to look at diet as a whole and when we are reducing the amount of a food it is important to choose a healthy substitute.”
The results were published on July 7th in Cardiovascular Research, the journal of the European Society of Cardiology.
Red meats like beef, pork, and lamb should be limited to two 3.5-ounce servings per week, the study suggests. Up to three 3.5-ounce servings of poultry and two to four 5.3-ounce servings of fish per week are also okay.
Processed meats such as bacon, sausage, and salami should only be eaten occasionally.
Instead of red meat, researchers suggest up to four 6.3-ounce servings of legumes per week.
They also recommend eating 14 ounces of fruits and vegetables and one ounce of nuts every day.
It’s okay to consume moderate amounts of full-fat or low-fat dairy products, they added.
And there is good news for cheese and yogurt lovers.
Small amounts of cheese and yogurt appear to have protective effects since they’re fermented, Riccardi said in a press release. The magic numbers are a little less than 2 ounces of cheese and about 7 ounces of yogurt a day.
“We now know that gut bacteria play an important role in influencing cardiovascular risk,” said Riccardi. “Fermented dairy products contain good bacteria that are good for health.”
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