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It's fairly common to hear about Heart Disease. Many people know someone who is suffering from it or are suffering from it themselves. In fact, it's so common that it's the leading cause of death for men and women in the United States. So how do we prevent something as big as heart disease? It mostly depends on your diet.
Bananas and avocados
When someone is dealing with heart disease, the arteries harden or calcify. In a recent study, researchers at the University of Alabama at Birmingham have found that the best way to prevent this is to make sure that there's plenty of Potassium in your diet.
In their study, the researchers found that mice with low-potassium diets had suffered from more calcification and stiffening of the arteries while mice with normal to high-potassium diets had significantly less calcification in their vascular systems. This proves that potassium helps prevent stiffening of the arteries. Luckily, potassium is easy to find in many common Foods.
The two most popular foods that are rich in potassium are bananas and avocados. While many people have known that bananas have a lot of potassium in them, some people may not realize that avocados are rich in potassium as well. Both of these foods are healthy, and many people enjoy them. Avocados have been an extremely popular food item in recent years, gaining a lot of attention for their versatile use and many health benefits.
Regular consumption of bananas and avocados can help boost your potassium levels and help you prevent heart disease.
The researchers go on to say that it is possible that increasing potassium in your diet could prove helpful in treating already hardened arteries. It seems to be rather important to keep a healthy amount of potassium in your diet, and there are more foods than bananas and avocados to help you out.
What if you don't like these foods?
If you don't like either bananas or avocados or even just one of them, you're still in luck. These aren't the only two foods that are rich in potassium. Artichokes and raisins have a significant amount of potassium in them, as does fat-free milk. Baked potatoes could also help boost your potassium levels, as they are said to have over 900 milligrams of potassium per serving.
While this doesn't mean that you need to eat a baked potato every day of the week, it might be time to start checking how much potassium you're really getting in a meal. After all, it is for your benefit.
