How does buckwheat affect the blood: does it thicken or thin it, and can it be eaten if you have high cholesterol?
Buckwheat is a product familiar and loved by many since childhood. It contains fiber, many vitamins and minerals, and gives you satiety and energy for the whole day. Nutritionists and nutritionists recommend including cereals in your diet. However, for some, consuming buckwheat worsens their health and leads to exacerbation of diseases. Let's figure out whether cereal is useful for those who have high cholesterol, whether it thickens the blood or not.
Why is thickened blood dangerous?
Blood is the body's transport system, which delivers oxygen and nutrients to all tissues and organs, collects toxins and brings them to natural filters.
A decrease in the amount of the liquid part - plasma - and an increase in the number of blood cells, that is, blood thickening, leads to a number of adverse and even dangerous consequences:
- Blood clot - a blood clot that forms on the wall of a vessel. Over time, it grows, hardens and leads to poor circulation.
- Hypoxia - a disorder associated with starvation of organs and tissues that receive insufficient nutrition due to slow blood flow.
- Kidney problems, hypertension. Thick blood creates excess pressure in the area of the kidney filter, to which the body responds by increasing pressure in the vessels to improve filtration.
- Heart attack, angina pectoris. It is difficult for the heart to cope with pumping thick blood; its oxygen supply is significantly impaired.All this leads to premature wear of the organ.
- Thromboembolism - blockage of a vessel (usually the pulmonary artery) with a blood clot that has broken away from the site of its appearance.
Who needs to liquefy it and why?
Blood thickening requires health monitoring and nutritional correction. First of all, the risk group includes:
- Aged people. Due to age, they are more prone to blood thickening than others, and it is much more difficult for their organs to cope with the increased load. This leads to the formation of blood clots, vascular atherosclerosis, heart attack and stroke.
- People who smoke or drink alcohol. These bad habits lead to vasoconstriction, increased blood viscosity, impaired removal of toxins and oxygen starvation.
- Those taking hormonal or diuretic medications. Due to their pharmacological action, some medications increase the thickness of the blood, so they are used only under the supervision of a doctor with the mandatory inclusion of a number of procedures to thin it.
- Persons with impaired liver function or changes in the cell membranes of red blood cells, platelets.
Why is high cholesterol dangerous?
Cholesterol settles on the walls of blood vessels and clogs them. As a result, blood circulation is disrupted and blood clots occur. Cholesterol plaques break off from the walls of blood vessels, move along them along with the blood flow, and clog large arteries.
Together with proteins, cholesterol forms complex compounds - lipoproteins, one of the groups of which (low-density lipoproteins, LDL) is called bad cholesterol. Many people mistakenly believe that LDL causes stroke, heart attack and atherosclerosis, but recent research shows that this is only one of the risk factors for such diseases, along with bad habits, obesity, diabetes.
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Buckwheat thickens or thins the blood
It’s not for nothing that buckwheat is called the queen of cereals. It is unpretentious to grow and produces a bountiful harvest without fertilizers. Cooking porridge is very easy, and it goes well with most foods: dried fruits, fresh fruits, milk, meat, nuts, vegetables, mushrooms.
Important! Pesticides are not used when growing the crop, as it is not afraid of weeds. Cereals are one of the most environmentally friendly products.
Does buckwheat thicken the blood? The myth about this is due to the fact that some plants from the family Buckwheat (in particular, peppermint) contain the glycoside polygopiperine. It increases blood viscosity and stops bleeding. There is no such component in buckwheat.
Cereals contain vitamins useful for hematopoiesis group B and flavonoid rutin. They strengthen blood vessels and improve their elasticity. Eating buckwheat porridge also has a beneficial effect on the quality of the blood itself due to its high iron content (55% of the daily value in 100 g).
How does buckwheat affect blood cholesterol?
Experts recommend that people with high cholesterol pay attention to buckwheat. It contains fiber (56% of the norm), which passes through the intestines and absorbs toxins, some bile acids and cholesterol from food, preventing them from being absorbed by the body.
Buckwheat lowers sugar and cholesterol levels, dilates blood vessels, and reduces blood viscosity. Useful for atherosclerosis, problems with the heart and blood vessels.
Is buckwheat allowed for high cholesterol and thick blood?
When treating excessively thick blood and high cholesterol, the doctor not only prescribes certain medications, but also gives recommendations for lifestyle changes. This includes moderate physical activity, giving up bad habits and healthy eating. Many patients are interested in whether it is possible to eat buckwheat and in what quantity.
How does buckwheat affect the blood?
Regular consumption of cereals is indicated for increased blood viscosity and increased cholesterol levels. Rutin in the product improves elasticity and reduces vascular permeability. Iron affects blood quality, increases hemoglobin, and reduces the risk of oxygen starvation.
Buckwheat helps get rid of excess cholesterol due to beta-sitosterol. This is a plant substance that combines with cholesterol and removes it along with insoluble dietary fiber from the body. Due to the high content of vitamin E (32% of the norm), the product improves the elasticity of blood vessels and prevents the formation of plaques and the appearance of atherosclerosis.
How to cook it without harm to health
Cereals lose their healing properties during prolonged heat treatment. After cooking for 20 minutes or more, most of the vitamins are destroyed, although even in this case fiber and some minerals will remain.
The optimal cooking time is 5 minutes, after which the buckwheat is infused for about an hour, wrapped in a towel to retain heat. To preserve all the useful substances, the selected and washed cereals are placed in a pan with thick walls, poured with boiling milk or water and left under a warm blanket for 2-3 hours.
Used for high cholesterol and buckwheat with kefir or drinking yogurt. This dish is not heated, but infused for about a day.It is better to eat cereals without sugar and with a little salt.
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Calorie content and nutritional value of boiled buckwheat with milk
Possible harm and contraindications
The great ancient healer Paracelsus said: “Everything is poison, everything is medicine; both are determined by the dose.” Consumption of cereal should be moderate; it is better to alternate it with other healthy foods.
Important! Eating more than 150–200 g of buckwheat per day contributes to intestinal dysfunction, which minimizes its beneficial properties.
Cereals are contraindicated for people with individual intolerances or allergies. Temporarily exclude grain from the diet if there are problems with the stomach or intestines, because buckwheat contains a lot of dietary fiber, which causes severe gas formation and even diarrhea.
Conclusion
Buckwheat alone is not enough to treat high cholesterol and blood thickening. This is just one component of the diet. It is important to follow other nutritional recommendations, give up alcohol and smoking, eat fatty foods, drink as much water as possible and exercise moderately. Seeing a doctor will help you choose the right treatment tactics, and eating buckwheat will help you on the path to recovery.