Diet for high blood pressure
Introduction
High blood pressure increases the risk of developing heart disease and stroke, which are leading causes of deaths in economic developing countries each year. Most people living with hypertension do not have the condition under control.
Sodium has always been the real menace leading to high blood pressure. It's very important that you cut it off from your diet to ensure that you are safe. Therefore, what you eat and drink can affect your heart and blood pressure. Starting a few new food habits which include counting of calories and watching portion sizes can help in lowering your blood pressure.
It's important to check the kind of foods that you eat if you want to lower your blood pressure. By so doing, you will be reducing the number of medicines you require. You may end up not using the drugs especially if you are following a friendly eating habit.
The following are some of the foods that you will need to avoid in order to lower your blood pressure:
Foods rich in sodium and salt
The amount of sodium recommended is 2300 milligrams per day. Consuming more than this will increase your blood pressure, therefore, it's advisable to limit these high foods that in order to lower your blood pressure:
Canned beans: Canned beans are preserved using sodium. It's important to rinse canned beans with colander and water to help wash away most of the salt.
Pre-made soups: Soups can be loaded with a lot of sodium and salt, and it's so unlikely to rinse them to reduce the amount of salt. Choose soups that are low in sodium. Read the nutrition facts label first before buying soups.
Canned tomato products: These products include tomato sauces, pastes and ketchup and they are loaded with a lot of salt.
Packaged and processed meats: Processed meats tend to be loaded with sodium. Avoid consuming a lot of sodium by directly buying from the butcher.
Frozen meals: Some of the meals that can be found in the freezer section include pizzas, chicken strips, and frozen entries. They comprise of unwanted ingredients and filled with a lot of sodium and salt.
Foods rich in sugar
Sugar is found in a variety of foods which are either added naturally or artificially. It's very important to reduce the consumption of such foods since they offer nothing more than calories hence contributing to weight gain. If you are overweight and obese, your risk of developing high blood pressure is very high.
Added sugars are mostly found in:
Soft drinks: Soft drinks will just offer you sugars and calories. One can of sugar has more than 9 teaspoons of sugar. That is the amount recommended daily for men and two-thirds of women.
Candy: You can get nothing other than calories and sugar from candy. Avoid candy and eat naturally sweet fruits rich in potassium and fiber which can help you lower your blood pressure.
Pastries: Doughnuts, cakes, and sugars have a lot of sugar and fat and if taken in high amounts it can lead to excessive weight gain which will increase your blood pressure. Always go slow on them by keeping serving sizes in check.
Alcohol: consuming alcohol in moderation and in recommended amounts reduces the risk to develop a heart disease.
Foods rich in fat
High consumption of fat raise your risk of developing heart disease. In order to protect your heart, you will need to reduce your fat intake by restricting it to a maximum of three servings every day. One tablespoon of butter is one serving.
You can reduce your fat intake by:
Not spreading butter on bread.
Using little oil when cooking.
Substituting skim milk for whole milk and then avoiding heavy cream.
The following are foods you will need to eat in in order to lower your blood pressure:
Fruits and vegetables
Eat four to five servings of fruit and four to five servings of vegetables on a daily basis in order to lower your blood pressure. One serving of leafy vegetables is a half a cup or it can be a half a cup of cooked vegetables. Consuming a lot of vegetables and fruits is a great way of getting potassium and magnesium into your body which helps in lowering your blood pressure. The following are ways of consuming fruits and vegetables:
Eat salads with your meals: You can vary the way you want to eat them. You can add a sweet element either by putting apple or orange slices on a salad. The peels of thin-skinned fruits like apple contain nutrients, so you don't have to cut them off when you are adding them to a salad. You can also consume fresh greens, carrots, and tomatoes but go slow on salad dressings since they contain lots of salt and fatty oils.
You can take them as snacks between meals. For example, you can take a banana, apple, carrot or green pepper with you to anywhere you go.
Buy fresh and frozen vegetables: Frozen vegetables are a good choice if you are worried about fresh produce going bad before you eat it. You can still buy them and put them in a freezer till the when you will need them.
Lean meat, poultry, and fish
Meats and fish are rich sources of protein, vitamins, zinc, and iron. Some meats may have high fat and cholesterol content. Fat and cholesterol can clog your arteries and therefore it's advised not to eat a lot of them. You should not eat more than six servings per day.
You should avoid consuming red meats with high-fat content. If you really need to eat them, it's imperative to get rid of the fats as much as you can. The best way to prepare the meats is not by frying them, but to bake, grill or roast them.
Salmon, herring, and tuna are fish high in protein and are rich sources of Omega-3 fatty acids. They can help control the level of cholesterol in the blood.
Pomegranate juice.
Most traditional juices are loaded with lots of processed sugar and they are full of unwanted nutrients. Pure pomegranate juice is one of the healthiest juices on the planet.
The most desirable benefits that pomegranate juices have are the ability to naturally lower your blood pressure. It has a major blood pressure lowering ability that many other juices.
Consumption of more than a cup of pomegranate juice every day for four weeks results to a drop in both systolic and diastolic pressure. It is not clear what might be causing those changes, but it could be potassium or polyphenols in the juice.
Pomegranate juice also has the ability to reduce blood pressure in patients whom already have diabetes, patients undergoing kidney dialysis and those individuals with carotid artery disease.
Beetroot juice
Beet has so many benefits that range from maintenance of a healthy sex drive to detoxification of blood. The beetroot juice has been used on a number of occasions to treat so many conditions since the middle ages.
It has been the subject of extensive scientific research in order to know its health benefits including its ability to lower high blood pressure.
Beetroot juice has the ability to reduce both diastolic and systolic pressures by a big margin. Beetroot juice has an immediate effect on lowering high blood pressure compared to cooked beet.
Research looking on the effects of beet juice on blood pressure among healthy men and women was carried out, whereby individuals drank either beet plus apple juice or plain apple juice, then had their blood pressure monitored over a period of 24 hours. The results indicated that there was a reduction in systolic blood pressure six hours after drinking beet juice, particularly among men.
Olive oil.
Since the ancient times, olive oil has been respected as being one of the healthiest staple foods, particularly for people who live in areas such as the blue zones. It's a common part of the Mediterranean diet which provides longer life spans and less susceptibility to heart diseases.
Olive oil is so rich in antioxidants and its delicious cooking oil that can be used in so many delicacies because of its ability to lower high blood pressure. Some studies indicate that the virgin olive oil, by a big margin, reduces the risks associated with cardiovascular disease clinical events, and therefore it not only has the ability to lower your blood pressure but also its good for the heart. So it's very important that you include it in your diet.
In research polyphenol-rich, olive diet was compared with a diet without polyphenols and their impacts on blood pressure for over a period of four months. The results indicated that the polyphenol-rich olive oil diet led to reductions in systolic and diastolic pressure particularly in women with high blood pressure.
Quinoa
This is a whole grain rich in high protein and has a mild yet nutty flavor. It contains a wide range of health-protecting phytonutrients and a desirable amount of magnesium. It takes half the time that brown rice takes to cook.
Quinoa is gluten-free and hence is the best choice for people who have celiac disease. The golden beige color is the most common quinoa, but other varieties exist and can be tried to see if they can lower your high blood pressure.
A half a cup of cooked quinoa can provide 1.5% of calcium, 15% of magnesium and 4.5% of potassium that you would require per day.
Dairy
From reviews and analysis of various studies, research shows that there is a connection between the consumption of low-fat dairy and lower risk of high blood pressure. This was identified mostly in low-fat yogurt and milk.
Skim milk is a rich source of calcium and it's in low fat. Calcium and low fat are important elements that can be incorporated into a diet for lowering high blood pressure. You can choose low-fat yogurt if at all you don't like milk.
Women eating five or more servings of yogurt a week reduce their chances of getting high blood pressure, by 20%.
You should include almond silvers, granola and fruits into your yogurt to get even more health benefits. Check for sugar content whenever you buy yogurt to ensure it's on the low because the lower the sugar the better it is.
Grains
Whole grains have more benefits than processed white rice or processed white floor simply because they contain more fiber and nutrients. A serving is just one slice of bread or a half a cup of cooked rice. You can consume more whole grains by:
Buying whole wheat flour instead of white. You can easily know it because most products are written whole wheat on the packaging.
Consuming oatmeal since they contain high fiber, low fat and low sodium which can help lower your high blood pressure. Eating oatmeal every breakfast is an excellent way of fueling up for the day.
Flaxseed.
You can consume flaxseed in a variety of foods since it has been linked to the reduction of diastolic and systolic pressure for over six months among people with high blood pressure. According to research, participants who took blood pressure medication experienced the importance of flaxseed.
The fact that flaxseed contains Omega-3 fatty acids, makes it be among the top in the list of foods that can lower your high blood pressure. It is capable of lowering blood pressure in individuals who have peripheral artery disease which is a condition that is characterized by fatty deposits and buildup of calcium in artery walls. The best results occur when the flaxseed is consumed on a regular basis for over 12 weeks.
