41 Foods That Are Bad for Your Heart
H2O is the ultimate health elixir. “Unless you’re training strenuously, exercising outside or running a marathon, the average person can replenish electrolytes and muscle glycogen with a small post-workout meal or shake,” Fisher says.
Sticking to water means you’ll steer clear of all that sweetness. “Full-sugar sports drinks can contain up to 34 grams of sugar, which equates to approximately eight and a half teaspoons,” she says. “The AHA recommends a daily sugar intake of no more than six teaspoons for women and nine teaspoons for men.”
34 Energy drinks
Similarly, energy drinks are often amped up with oodles of sugar—and caffeine that can cause undue stress to your heart.
And get this: Just one 16-ounce energy drink can elevate blood pressure and stress hormones coursing through the body, according to research published in the Journal of the American Medical Association. “This could predispose an increased risk of cardiac events—even in healthy people,” one of the researchers told the Mayo Clinic.
35 Soda
Speaking of sweet drinks, sugar-sweetened beverages make up about half of all added sugars in the average American’s daily diet. For each additional sugar-packed drink, such as cola, you drink each day, you increase your risk for both heart disease and stroke, according to a British Medical Journal 2012 review. A Journal of the American College of Cardiology meta-analysis found that frequent consumption of all sweetened drinks, including soda, faux fruit juices and sports drinks, makes you more likely to die of atherosclerosis.
36 Diet soda
If soda isn’t good for your heart, you might think the diet versions are. However, artificially sweetened sodas aren’t the solution, Batayneh says.
“No calories and sugar seems like a win for soda drinkers everywhere. But when people swap a sugary beverage for one with a zero-calorie sweetener, they often make up for it by eating more at the next meal. Other research suggests that the chemicals in diet soda and the artificial sweeteners can alter gastrointestinal bacteria that make people more prone to gaining weight,” she says.
Batayneh’s key advice: No matter what disease you aim to avoid, think twice about the foods made with chemicals.
