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Written By: Editorial Team | Updated : January 8, 2015 5:13 PM IST
Avocado: Avocados are rich in vitamin E, fatty acids and oleic acid that have great benefits for rejuvenating and healing your skin. Vitamin E is especially very helpful in reducing skin pigmentation. Make a face pack using mashed avocado and milk. Apply regularly for positive results.
New York, Jan 8: Adding an avocado to your daily diet helps lower bad cholesterol and reduce the risk of heart disease, a study says. Including one avocado each day as part of a moderate-fat, cholesterol-lowering diet provides additional LDL (bad cholesterol) lowering affects which benefit CVD (cardiovascular disease) risk, said Penny Kris-Etherton, professor at Pennsylvania State University.
Known to have originated in Mexico and Central America, avocado is cultivated in a very limited scale in Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Maharashtra, Karnataka in the south-central India and in the eastern Himalayan state Sikkim. Avocados are known to be a nutrient-dense food, high in monounsaturated fatty acids. Previous studies have suggested that avocados are a cholesterol-lowering food, but this is the first study to look at health implications of avocados beyond monounsaturated fatty acids, the researchers added. (Read: Suffering from heart disease? Here are foods you should avoid)
For the study, the researchers tested three different diets, all designed to lower cholesterol: a lower-fat diet, consisting of 24 percent fat, and two moderate fat diets, with 34 percent fat. The moderate fat diets were nearly identical, however, one diet incorporated one Hass avocado every day while the other used a comparable amount of high oleic acid oils - such as olive oil - to match the fatty acid content of one avocado. (Read: Top 7 reasons why avocados are good for health)
The researchers tested the diets with 45 healthy, overweight adults between the ages of 21 and 70. All participants followed each of the three diets for five weeks. The avocado diet decreased bad cholesterol by 13.5 mg/dL ( milligram per per decilitre), while LDL was decreased by 8.3 mg/dL on the moderate-fat diet and by 7.4 mg/dL on the low-fat diet. The study was published in the Journal of the American Heart Association.
Here some foods to prevent heart disease
Flaxseed
Mahatma Gandhi once observed, Wherever flaxseed becomes a regular food item among people, there will be better
health. It is a tiny seed but yet so powerful when it comes to health. Flax or alsi may be relatively new as a health food but its history is very old. 10 years ago almost every western nutrition book I read, talked about one thing flaxseeds or linseeds (it has two names) and their vital importance for healthy heart functioning. It is rich in omega-3 fatty acids, preventing inflammation, thus protecting heart health. It is a wonderful way to lower cholesterol due to its amazing antioxidant properties as well as omega-3. Sprinkle it on your salad, make a chutney out of it, boil it with water or have it raw it helps in any form.
Lemon
Vitamin C is a very powerful antioxidant that helps lower cholesterol and thereby keeps the heart healthy. It helps the utilisation of fat, thereby preventing cholesterol from clogging your arteries. Lemon juice helps in keeping the blood pressure low, reducing your risk of cardiovascular diseases. It is worth squeezing a lemon to make a fresh-fruit drink because lemon ranks high as a health food and contain very few calories. Read more about 5 natural foods to prevent heart disease
With inputs from IANS
Photo source: Getty images
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