There is, of course, one thing that all smokers need to do if they wish to save their bodies and return to health — quit smoking. Besides quitting, smokers can benefit their health through their diets as well. Research, both new and old, has uncovered specific ingredients within specific foods that can boost the health of everyone — specifically smokers who have impaired blood-vessel function.
Overall, these natural, plant-based ingredients are called phytochemicals. In particular, we are talking about flavanols, which are found in heaping amounts within fruits, vegetables, and — wait for it — chocolate. Besides quitting, it would be wise for smokers to boost their intake of these foods, as researchers have found that they can increase levels of nitric oxide in the bloodstream.
This can actually help reverse some of damage done to blood vessels, which was caused by the toxins in tobacco, as stated in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology — a publication that focuses on issues surrounding the heart.
The new research concludes that cocoa, which is rich in flavanols, can “significantly” improve a major part of the heart’s health among people who are at high risk of cardiovascular problems. The blood vessels of smokers respond poorly to changes in blood flow, which, in turn, spikes their risk for heart disease.
Researchers found that flavonols boosted nitric oxide levels and improved blood-vessel responses in 11 people who were roughly middle aged. These people drank two cocoa drinks. One of the drinks was rich in flavonols and one had low levels.
The former influenced the nitric oxide system to a great extent while the latter did very little. This was the first study ever to find that a smoker’s “endothelial” function (blood vessels) improved after drinking cocoa with high flavonoid levels.
The point of all this isn’t as much about the chocolate as it is the flavonols. To up your intake of chocolate significantly, you’d have to remove other calorie-laden foods from your diet at the same time otherwise you’d be taking in too many calories. And it’s dark chocolate you want to eat, by the way, so eating milk chocolate, for example, won’t do much for you. And you can find flavonols in many other foods including green and black tea, red wine, apples, apricots, red grapes, blackberries, raspberries, sweet cherries, and broad beans.
To conclude, the study proved that flavonoids have a direct effect on the exact nitric oxide system that is damaged by smoking. Whether or not it works over the long term needs to be tested in a major clinical trial. In the meantime, while you try quitting smoking, add flavonol-rich foods to your diet to ease the risk you are inflicting on your heart by smoking.
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Tags: Diets, Heart, heart disease
