Love your heart with juice
For Valentine’s Day this year, consider showing extra love to something that works hard for you 24 hours a day. Your heart is an incredible muscular organ, beating about 115,000 times each day, to pump 2,000 gallons of blood throughout your body. While it’s only about as large as your fist, your heart keeps blood flowing through 60,000 miles of blood vessels that supply your organs and tissues.
To keep this amazing organ well-nourished year-round, feed it some juice therapy with heart-healthy fruits and vegetables. The USDA’s MyPlate recommends that half your plate be filled with these vitamin-packed powerhouses. And an easy way to squeeze in all that nutrition is through fresh, 100-percent natural juices.
Women especially need to keep their hearts well, because cardiovascular disease is the number one killer in women, causing 1 in every 3 deaths each year, according to the American Heart Association (AHA). “That’s one woman every minute.”
Heart disease affects women differently than men. People used to think of it as a man’s disease, affecting older people. But heart disease can strike at any age, as heredity and lifestyle factor into the diagnosis. Heart disease actually impacts more women than men, and is more deadly than all forms of cancers combined.
Even if you’re a fit, ripped marathoner, you may still be at risk for heart disease, if you have high cholesterol or high blood pressure. And the AHA says that 64 percent of women who die suddenly of coronary heart disease have no previous symptoms. Not everyone gets the telltale sign of intense chest pain. Women’s symptoms could include nausea, vomiting, dizziness, extreme fatigue, shortness of breath, and back or jaw pain.
Even if you have a family history of heart disease, you can shrink your risk with healthy habits. What can you do starting today? The Mayo Clinic says to control your portion size. “How much you eat is just as important as what you eat. Overloading your plate and taking seconds and eating until you feel stuffed can lead to eating more calories than you should.
“Eat larger portions of low-calorie, nutrient-rich foods, such as fruits and vegetables, and smaller portions of high-calorie, high-sodium foods, processed and fast foods. This strategy can shape up your diet as well as your heart and waistline.”
Fruits and vegetables pack vitamins, minerals, and fiber. They also contain substances that may help prevent heart disease, Mayo says. Plus when you fill up on apples or carrots, you could become less likely to grab unhealthy, high-calorie foods like meats and cheeses.
Some easy tips include keeping your fruit bowl filled and in full view. You might ask - “Is Juicing Healthy?” You can juice fruits for maximum vitamin concentration. Juicing allows you to blend multiple fruits and/or vegetables to create a portable, deliciously refreshing heart-healthy drink.
As a Juice Therapist, I would recommend trying something different this year. Consider making a red juice sipper for Valentine’s Day with vitamin C-rich strawberries, raspberries, cherries and watermelon. Toss in some red grapes, which contain heart-friendly resveratrol. Other juicing recipes for energy can include pure pomegranate juice, and reap the advantages of zesty flavor while treating your heart with love. Or perhaps try juicing beets. They are lush with folate, manganese, potassium, iron, and vitamin C. Beets may help keep arteries clear, meaning the heart doesn’t have to pump so hard to circulate the blood, keeping blood pressure at a healthy rate.
Ready to feel all the love? Ready to feel that heart beat? Then download your free copy of Evie’s Enlivening Juice List featuring my enlightened list of juicing essentials plus some of my favorite recipes.