Beans Vs. Exercise for Heart Health

When it comes to optimal heart health, the food of choice seems to be beans.

This video was originally published on NutritionFacts.org and republished with permission. NutritionFacts.org

The condition of your heart is a good gauge to judge how healthy the rest of your body is. While other organs and systems can suffer disease and perhaps not be linked to an early death, no one questions the seriousness of heart health. It stands to reason then that we take care of the center of our cardiovascular system to the best of our abilities.

A simple way for people to get rough estimate of how their health is doing is to measure their pulse rate. At rest, the heart should beat no more than 60 times a minute, or once per second. For every ten beats a minute above that 60 beats per minute (bpm) threshold, the risk of heart disease increases. At 90 bpm, the risk for cardiovascular disease jumps up to levels that smokers experience.

For those seeking a way to lower their resting heart rate, exercise seems like the most obvious choice. While exercise is definitely an excellent way to keep your heart health in check, there are even easier ways to help lower your heart rate and it doesn’t involve a single sit up, push up or step. That is, unless that step is towards the fridge.

Evidence has shown that eating beans has a dramatically positive effect on the heart and its function. A group of people afflicted with diabetes were placed in a study measuring how diet can affect the disease found that in addition to lowering blood sugar, the beans made a noticeable difference in resting heart rate. In fact, the results of being fed the beans showed results equal to spending 250 hours on a treadmill! No one is debating the value of exercise, it is clearly a wonderful tool for maintaining health, but beans has exercise beat in simplicity.

Type to Search

See all results