Drink your greens for a healthy heart
Before we bid the love month goodbye, allow me to share a piece written by Dr. Christine Gonzalez for Valentine’s Day on the “colors of the heart.”
The significance of heart colors extends beyond mere aesthetics, said Gonzalez, particularly during occasions like Valentine, where the vibrant hues of the heart can convey deep emotions and sentiments.
Each color represents a unique aspect of love, from passionate red signifying romance and desire to gentle pink embodying affection and sweetness. Understanding these colors allows individuals to express their feelings more accurately, creating a richer emotional landscape in their relationship.
Gonzalez added that joy and other positive emotions can help promote a healthy heart. People who are happier have lower blood pressure and heart rates, decreasing the chance of developing coronary heart diseases.
‘Profoundly entwined’
The heart is the organ that keeps our lifeblood flowing. The color of the heart is bright red when drenched with blood, she wrote.
Red connotes power. It evokes many strong feelings. It is the color of love or passion (hearts, roses). It is associated with anger, energy, power, and confidence.
The human heart plays a gargantuan role in our collective consciousness, as it is synonymous with caring, compassion, sympathy, jealousy, or desire.
In our minds, Gonzalez stressed, “the color red and the human heart—two things steeped in emotion and significance—are profoundly entwined.”
Drained of blood, the heart will appear white.
The “White Heart” signifies pure, undying love and the truth of our existence; the ultimate degree of mutuality, humility, of kindness and love. White is love for all and to all people.
Positivity and joy
Yellow is sunshine—the color of joy, positivity, optimism, and friendship. It plays a significant role in the emotional landscape of relationships. The color invokes positivity, optimism, and a cheerful outlook, all of which are considered beneficial in maintaining a healthy heart. By promoting a positive mindset and reducing stress levels, we are able to reduce the risk of heart disease. Yellow essentially represents the “sunshine” aspect of good heart health.
Blue is the color of calmness, serenity, trust, and tranquility, which can positively impact heart health by lowering blood pressure and heart rate, reducing anxiety and stress. Blue has been used in healthcare areas to create a relaxing environment. Thus, the calming effect of looking at the ocean.
A green heart evokes positive emotional responses, symbolizing growth, renewal, and harmony. It conveys the concept of “starting over,” giving ourselves and others a chance to do better, particularly with our health and/or relationships.
Our heart is an amazing organ and a hardworking one. It beats about 100,000 times a day, pumping more than 7,000 liters of blood. The heart does its job so well that we tend not to think about it much—until there’s a problem.
Cardiovascular disease remains the leading cause of death around the world. More than half a billion people around the world continue to be affected by cardiovascular diseases.
The good news is, this could be curbed by increasing our fruit and vegetable consumption.
Eat your greens
Gonzalez stressed that if we discover and utilize “greens,” we can reverse these alarming statistics and greatly reduce mortality from cardiovascular disease.
The heart is not only the seat of life, but also the seat of our emotions. So let’s keep it healthy, first, by going green.
Green and leafy vegetables are rich in micronutrients such as folate, antioxidants, vitamins, and potassium that boost heart health.
The greener the vegetables, the more phytonutrients are available to protect us against chronic diseases. Leafy greens such as moringa, sweet potato tops, bitter gourd leaves, malabar spinach, bokchoy, Swiss chard, mustard greens, broccoli, arugula, and romaine lettuce are powerful allies for your body, assisting in purifying the blood, strengthening the immune system, promoting good intestinal bacteria and improving circulation and liver and kidney function.
Gonzalez’s over 35 years of studies, practice, and research led her to conclude that the best method of getting all the nutrients from vegetables is by juicing.
It is a must to use organic vegetables only, but if you cannot avoid using nonorganics, make sure to wash them in clean water with a few drops of white vinegar. Otherwise, a concentration of pesticides will make your heart weak and ill.
All commercially available pesticides contain petrochemicals and substances that are toxic to the heart, brain, and nervous system.
Green Juice for a healthy heart
Make sure to scrub and wash well all vegetables and fruits before juicing.
- 2 stalks organic celery with leaves, washed
- 1-2 small or medium calamansi, or peeled if not organic
- 4 medium carrots
- ½ inch ginger root
- ½ inch turmeric root (optional)
- 2-3 slices of pineapple
Add few sprigs of parsley
Juice all ingredients. Stir the juice and pour into a glass. Serve at room temperature or chilled.
“Armed with healthy greens and a healthy lifestyle, let us break the chain of cardiovascular diseases,” Gonzalez said.
Christine Gonzalez is an educator, author, researcher, and a doctor of naturopathic medicine with a PhD in Health and Human Services and a PhD in Environmental Sciences.
More fruit and vegetable juices next week on Kitchen Rescue.
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