The essence of vegetables in our daily diet - Eating leafy green vegetables helps reduce risk of heart diseases

According to an Australian study, eating one cup of nitrate-rich vegetables every day can significantly lower the risk of heart disease.

Edith Cowan University, University of Western Australia, and the Danish Cancer Society collaborated on the study, which was published in the European Journal of Epidemiology on Tuesday.

Based on data from over 50,000 people residing in Denmark over a 23-year period, researchers found that people who consumed the most nitrate-rich vegetables had 2.5 mmHg lower systolic blood pressure and 12 to 26 percent lower risk of having heart diseases than other people.

Lead researcher Dr. Catherine Bondonno from Edith Cowan University said that consuming 60 mg vegetable nitrate (a cup of green leafy vegetables) every day can significantly lower the risk of getting cardiovascular diseases, but guzzling more than that did not seem to have any additional benefits.

"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 diseases prevention," Bondonno said.

Bondonno said this approach is best for peripheral artery disease, a type of heart disease characterized by the narrowing of blood vessels of the legs, with a 26-percent lower risk.

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Cardiovascular diseases are the number one cause of death globally, claiming around 17.9 million lives each year.

According to Bondonno, blending a cup of leafy green vegetables to make smoothies is also an easy way to top up our daily leafy greens.

"Blending leafy greens is fine, but don't juice them. Juicing vegetables removes the pulp and fiber," Bondonno said.

Leafy green vegetables is of great importance to our health. Form the habit of including green vegetables in your daily meals.