Keep Your Arteries Healthy with Fruits and Veggies
As you age, cardiovascular conditions become more pronounced and may pose major health concerns. In many of these cases, the underlying reason leading to cardiovascular conditions is dysfunctional arteries that are often clogged with plaque, disrupting the blood flow in your body and weakening your heart. Therefore, maintaining the health of your arteries is important if you want to keep them strong in later years when you are more vulnerable to cardiovascular conditions.
According to a recent study published by the American College of Cardiology, healthy arteries are closely linked with the higher consumption of fruits and vegetables. According to their findings, if you consume a diet that is high in fresh vegetables and fruits as a young adult, your arteries will be much healthier 20 years down the road than those who consume lower quantities of fruits and vegetables. This is because you will lessen your chances of plaque build-up in your arteries.
In several previous studies, it was uncovered that middle-aged adults who consume fresh vegetables and fruits as part of their routine diet were at a lower risk of suffering from stroke or heart attack. However, in these studies, the actual relationship between cardiac health and such a diet was not established clearly. Using that as a foundation, researchers carried out this study by relating the dietary intakes of young adults with the coronary artery calcification (a scan to determine amount of plaque in arteries) scores after 20 years.
Summarizing the results of the study, it was found that women who consume eight to nine servings of fresh fruits and vegetables in a day as a part of a 2000-calorie diet during their 20s were 40 per cent less likely to have plaque in their arteries when they turned 40. These results persisted even when several other lifestyle factors were accounted for. This indicated that plaque formation in the arteries is a lifelong process that can be controlled by adopting healthy eating habits earlier in life. At a later age, this will help prevent cardiovascular conditions in women.
If you want to ensure that you age gracefully and stay healthy in your later years, make sure to adopt healthy dieting habits. Incorporate lots of fresh fruits and vegetables into your daily diet to control plaque build-up in your arteries, which will hopefully result in lower CAC scores when you age, lowering the risk of cardiovascular conditions, strokes and heart attacks. While further studies are still required to reinforce a complete relationship between diet and artery health, it is clear that fruits and vegetables eaten fresh at a younger age are definitely going to help you stay healthy.
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