The Best Drinks for Your Heart
The heart is one of the most important parts of the body. It has function to pumps blood through blood vessels with rhythmic contractions. The heart is also associated with the term of cardiac and "kardiak", means related with heart (it comes from the Greek).This organ plays a role in the human circulatory system. The average of human heart is beating about 72 beats per minute. Female's heart has weight about 250 - 300 grams and male's heart has weight about 300 - 350 grams.
We should care with our heart. Imagine if our heart doesn’t work properly. So, the flow of the blood wouldn’t be normal. The heart works every day in our body by the bloodstream and it all makes us able to stay alive. I do not know if the heart stops beating. From now, why don't we give more attention to the heart. By giving a good nutrition, it can help our heart still survive and work based on its function besides doing exercise regularly. We find the nutrition inside the food and drink. From this hub, I’ll share to all of you about the best drink for healthy heart. It sound easy, but I hope we can practice and choose them based on our condition. Curious….please continued to read!
Water
We need water every day. I can say that most of life on the earth needed water to support their life. That’s why we must grateful with this gift. The fact is more than 75% of the body's weight is made up of water. Water is related with dehydration. It’s a condition where the body loss of fluid. It means the amount of water leaving the body is bigger than the amount being taken in. So, we need drinking water to protect the body from dehydration. A study said that dehydration can contribute to multiple risk factors for coronary heart disease. When we are dehydrated, the blood becomes more viscous. This condition makes our heart expend more energy to pump blood throughout the body. Even, the chronic dehydration can cause high blood pressure (hypertension).
The health expert suggest: We should drink about 8 up to 10 glasses of water every day (for adults). This suggestion is applicable to all conditions. We can add lemon juice into warm water to add flavor, including the benefit of an antioxidant substance.
Black Tea
Tea is one of my favorite drinks. I think most of us love to drink tea every day. Now we talk about black tea. This drink produced through the fermentation process. The process was taken after the leaves are harvested and dried. The process intended to change the chemical composition of leaves. The final result is producing a powerful antioxidant that helps support cardiovascular health. Black tea is more oxidized from the variety of green tea, oolong and white tea was made from four varieties of Camellia Chinensis leaves. The tea made from the Camelia Chinensis leaves is the first truly original tea. The excellence of black tea than other tea is the taste still persisted for several years. Black tea itself has been shown to reduce the risk of stroke, improve blood vessel function, reduce LDL (bad cholesterol) and increase blood flow in coronary arteries. Black tea is a tremendous source of good antioxidants to overcome the damaging free radicals. Free radicals in the body will cause chain reactions like the rust on metal. Antioxidants are the only way to overcome the "rust" caused by free radicals in the body.
The health expert suggest: The longer we dip the black tea, we will get the benefit of phytochemicals. Therefore, serve tea with hot water will be much better to maintain the antioxidant substance. Drinking a couple cups of black tea each day may help reduce the risk of heart disease.
Green Tea
Green tea is the name of the tea made from Camellia Chinensis leaves. Green tea has been popular as a drink and a medicinal plant for thousands of years ago. Like a black tea, green tea also contains many antioxidants which are good for the heart. The difference with black tea, green tea was not fermented. A study in 2004 showed that drinking green tea in large quantities useful to prevent the risk of coronary artery disease. Another study said that green tea useful to lower cholesterol, prevent blood clots and stroke.
The health expert suggest: Drink about 1 up to 3 cups of green tea every day.
Red Wine
I don't drink an alcoholic drink. But I share a fact about red wine, where I had never knew before. Wine was made by fermentation of sugar in the grapes. Red wine itself is a wine made from red grapes (red grapes). Some types of red wine which is popular among wine drinkers in Indonesia, like: cabernet sauvignon, merlot, pinot noir and syrah/shiraz. Red wine contains many substances to protect the healthy heart, including resveratrol. Resveratrol itself has antioxidant properties that may protect the blood vessels in the heart. It also help to prevent the formation of blood clots. Some evidence showed that consumption of red wine in good amounts can raise HDL (good cholesterol).
The health expert suggest: Woman recommended no more than 1.5 glasses of red wine per day. And for man no more than 2 glasses red wine per day.
Pomegranate juice
In recent years, the reputation of pomegranate juice increasing so fast, including the nutrition researchers give much attention to this drink. Even the experts from the University of California found that the antioxidant substance inside pomegranate juice is three times higher than red wine and green tea. Early studies showed that regular consumption of pomegranate juice may lower cholesterol, reduce arterial plaque (a risk factor for heart disease), and increases blood flow to the heart.
The health expert suggest: If possible, do not use an additional sweetener while making pomegranate juice.
Coffee
Though I seldom to drink coffee, but I want to share a good fact about coffee. Did you know that coffee has higher antioxidant substance than cocoa or tea? Research which has been done for almost 13 years revealed that the consumption of coffee in moderation may reduce the risk of heart disease. The results of this studies were performed by doctors of University Medical Center Utrecht after analyzing data on coffee consumption level of 37 514 Dutch citizens. The people who drank 2-4 cups of coffee a day will have a reduced risk of heart disease by 20 percent. Even , Dr. Arthur L. Klatsky as senior consultant in cardiology for the Kaiser Permanente Northern California, USA and colleagues have conducted a study and found a decrease in the incidence of heart rhythm abnormalities among coffee drinkers. Numerous studies have found that coffee is good for the heart, the Lowa Women's Health Study on a series of research conducted to 27. 000 women with the ages of 55-69 found that if a person drinks coffee daily about 1 to 3 cups of coffee may reduce the risk of heart disease by 24 percent compared with those who did not drink coffee in a day. The research was conducted in in May 2011.
The health expert suggest: Try to drink between 2 to 4 cups of coffee per day. Do Not exceed 6 cups per day.
