A daily dose of this vegetable can be a gamechanger for your heart health

Everyone wants to take care of their heart, which means everyone should take note of a new study just released by Edith Cowan University. Put on your herbivore hat, researchers say eating just one cup of nitrate-rich vegetables on a daily basis appears to significantly reduce the risk of heart disease.

Besides beetroot, most nitrate-rich veggies are of the green and leafy variety. Examples include spinach, cabbage, and lettuce. In addition to heart disease risk, the research team also investigated if consistent nitrate intake correlates with lower blood pressure.

“Our results have shown that by simply eating one cup of raw (or half a cup of cooked) nitrate-rich vegetables each day, people may be able to significantly reduce their risk of cardiovascular disease,” says lead researcher Dr. Catherine Bondonno from ECU’s Institute for Nutrition Research. “The greatest reduction in risk was for peripheral artery disease (26 percent), a type of heart disease characterised by the narrowing of blood vessels of the legs, however we also found people had a lower risk of heart attacks, strokes and heart failure.”

Data on over 50,000 Danish citizens were analyzed for this project. All of those individuals had taken part in the Danish Diet, Cancer, and Health Study, which lasted 23 years. Participants who consistently reported eating more nitrate-rich vegetables displayed lower systolic blood pressure by an average of 2.5 mmHg. Leafy green eaters also had a 12-26% lower risk of developing heart disease.

Should you eat leafy greens at every meal?

So, does all this mean you should load up on leafy greens and beetroot for breakfast, lunch, and dinner? Interestingly, study authors report that the benefits seem to level off after one daily cup is consumed.

“People don’t need to be taking supplements to boost their nitrate levels because the study showed that one cup of leafy green vegetables each day is enough to reap the benefits for heart disease,” Dr. Bondonno explains. “We did not see further benefits in people who ate higher levels of nitrate-rich vegetables.”

If you’ve always dreaded the taste of spinach or brussel sprouts, remember there are easier ways to get your daily dose of heart-healthy veggies. Study authors suggest adding some spinach to a banana or berry smoothie, for example.

“Blending leafy greens is fine, but don’t juice them. Juicing vegetables removes the pulp and fiber,” Dr. Bondonno clarifies.

Vegetables and leafy greens will never have the taste appeal of unhealthier options, but the benefits they provide are undeniable. In recent years more and more research has emerged linking green vegetables to stronger cardiovascular and muscular functioning. Many may have hated finishing their vegetables as a child, but every adult should be eating at least some vegetables each day.

From another perspective, it behooves us all to take care of our hearts, even those who consider themselves perfectly healthy. High blood pressure is often called “the silent killer” due to how common it is for people to be unaware of their condition. Moreover, cardiovascular disease, in general, is the number one cause of death on a global scale. On average, 17.9 million people die from the cardiovascular disease per year.

The full study can be found here, published in the European Journal of Epidemiology.