How fat intakes from plants help prevent heart diseases

Image Credit: Bill Ebbesen/Creative Commons

So, what to do about the fat that human bodies need to maintain an overall healthy equilibrium?

No animal fat? Vegetables all the way?  Or some nuts also?

Let’s focus today on the term in currency – plant-based diet – especially as it helps maintain a healthy human heart through desired levels of blood pressure and cholesterol.

While a series of studies have established the link between plant-based diet and a healthy heart, we need to be a little more specific, and then by choosy as to what serves us best in order to keep that elusive balance.

Next, we might need to be picky, but, of course, not fastidious, at least not all the time.

It all begins with our need and desire to have enough, nothing more nothing less, fat intakes.

Research shows people who take plant-based diet, have a very good chance of reducing the risk of heart attack, maintaining the blood pressure at medically desired levels as well as shaking off the extra pounds.

Let’s turn to two sources of latest information on the subject that may help us understand the kind of diet we need to take..

Fat intakes from plants in place of dairy products lowers the risk of heart disease deaths by about 25%, researchers found recently, according to a latest report cited by the Harvard Health Publishing at https://www.health.harvard.edu/staying-healthy/eating-more-of-some-dietary-fats-can-fight-heart-disease.

The health publication reported on its website that the research was presented at the American Heart Association’s Epidemiology and Prevention — Lifestyle and Cardiometabolic Health Scientific Sessions 2018.

The researchers derived their findings from a study of data from 63,412 women from the Nurses’ Health Study and 29,966 men from the Health Professionals Follow-up Study.

It reveals that a “higher intake of monounsaturated fats from plants — such as olive and other vegetable oils, avocados, and nuts and seeds — had a 16% lower risk of death from any cause compared with those with lower intakes.”

Meanwhile,Medical News Today reported https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/322039.php this week that foods containing soy protein are great for cardiovascular health.

At the same time, the publication explains that while plant-based diets are great for cardiovascular health, a vegetarian diet low in saturated fats may not be the best thing for keeping cholesterol  in check.

Quoting from a 2011 study, the publication identifies four most helpful foods including “nuts, plant protein obtained either from soy-based foods such as tofu, soy milk, or other soy-based meat substitutes, or from pulses such as beans, peas, chickpeas, or lentils, soluble fiber, such as “oats, barley, psyllium, eggplant, okra, apples, oranges, or berries, margarine enhanced with plant sterols or “cholesterol-like” compounds that can be found in fruits, vegetables, nuts, and cereals.”

Thanks to the two latest reports, we are able to have a better, though by no means a complete, understanding what can help keep a healthy heart.

NOTE: The information in this story comes from trusted sources and is  intended to help understand what can aid the health of human heart and body. But Views and News is by no means suggesting it as a substitute for any diagnosis of an ailment or prescription for any disease.