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Diet and High Blood Pressure
High blood pressure or hypertension is known as the “silent killer” because it leads to a greatly increased risk of heart attack, stroke and other serious illnesses, while the patient may not even be aware of it. Elevated blood pressure, high cholesterol and smoking are the most serious causes of atherosclerosis or hardening of the arteries. Thus, keeping blood pressure under control is essential for cardiovascular health.
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| Bacon is salty and should be avoided |
Diet and lifestyle changes may be sufficient to control it, if it is not as high as to necessitate antihypertensive medication. If you are overweight, losing weight will help lower your diastolic blood pressure by about one point for every pound you lose. Increasing the level of physical activity will help you both lose weight and lower your blood pressure independently of weight loss.
If you have elevated blood pressure, it is important to switch to low-fat, low-sodium, high-fiber foods such as fruit, vegetables and plant foods. Keep in mind that foods that are high in fat are harmful, so try to consume less of the following: fats and oils (butter, some types of margarines, meat drippings, gravy), fatty meats (bacon, salami, ribs, sausage), whole milk, cream and ice-cream, most cheeses, salty snack foods (chips), fried foods, most cakes and fast foods.
The most important thing when starting dietary changes because you have elevated blood pressure is to lower your salt intake. For most people, reducing salt intake to less than 2.4 grams a day is sufficient to lower their blood pressure. This quantity includes the salt used at the table and that used in cooking. If you want to try salt substitutes, consult with your doctor first, as they contain potassium chloride, which may be harmful for some medical conditions.
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| Butter is another poor choice |
Reducing your sodium intake will mean re-training your taste buds, which is a gradual process; so, you should start by slowly cutting down salt in your diet. After a few weeks, the high-salt foods you used to consume will become too salty for your taste.
Average Americans, for example, consume several times more sodium per day than it is actually needed, and processed foods account for most of that daily quantity. These include canned vegetables and soups, frozen dinners, salty chips etc. So, it is essential to read the food labels for everything you buy, and avoid foods that contain sodium, including baking soda, soy sauce, monosodium glutamate (MSG), seasoned salts or antacids.
The nutrition facts label will tell you the amount of sodium per serving, as well as the amount of calories, saturated fat, total fat and cholesterol; make sure you check serving size before you calculate the amount of sodium/calories you are about to consume. In general, prepackaged or processed foods are higher in sodium than their homemade counterparts.
Good tactics to gradually lower your salt intake include rinsing canned foods (tuna, beans) to remove some sodium; an even better idea is to buy fresh or plain frozen vegetables and meat. Cooking rice, pasta or cereals without salt is highly recommendable, as well as cutting back on cured meats (bacon, ham), foods in brine (pickles, olives) and on some condiments that are usually salted, e.g. mustard, ketchup, soy sauce, salad dressing.
Try spices instead of salt to give flavor to your foods: garlic, pepper, lemon, wine, onion, herbs. For soups, you may try basil, chili powder, cloves, dill, marjoram, oregano, sage. For salads and vegetables, thyme, rosemary, sage, oregano, marjoram, chili powder, parsley, ginger or cinnamon. For meats, you may want to try ginger, wine, oregano, rosemary, parsley, sage or basil. Chicken is very tasty if you add thyme, sage, marjoram or curry powder, and for fish, you might like dill, lemon, chili powder, marjoram, rosemary or thyme. You could add garlic powder or onion powder to practically anything, but be sure not to use garlic salt or onion salt. Paprika, black or red pepper and spice blends are also things you could universally use when cooking. Your food can be delicious with no salt added.
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| Try to use herbs and spices instead of salt and stock |
Home cooking and packing lunch and snacks for work will help you in controlling the amount of salt you consume every day. It is also cheaper and healthier than eating out (where you will consume food that is generally higher in fat, calories and sodium).
If reducing salt proves difficult for you, some tricks may prove helpful, such as placing the salt shaker off the table, so that you have to get up and get it if you need it, salting the food only after you have tasted it, or cutting down the salt you use when cooking by 1/3, then by half.
Another important aspect of dieting to lower your blood pressure is eating plenty of fresh fruit and vegetables. They are rich in potassium, and there is evidence that people who eat vegetarian diets (high in potassium) have significantly lower blood pressure.
In terms of fruit, you may choose fresh, frozen, canned, or even dried fruit, and in terms of vegetables, pick fresh, frozen or no-salt canned vegetables. Fresh, frozen or canned fruit juices are also something you should shop for.
When you choose your bread, cereals and pasta, the following are good options: sliced wheat, rye or white bread, sandwich buns, dinner rolls, pita breads, English muffins, bagels, Taco shells, unsalted low-fat crackers, cooked hot cereals (not instant), rice, plain spaghetti/macaroni/noodles, dry peas and beans (split peas, chick peas, kidney beans, navy beans, soybeans, lentils).
When you shop for meat, always choose fish, chicken and lean cuts of meat: for beef round, sirloin, loin or chuck arm; for pork leg, shoulder, tenderloin. For chicken and turkey, it is preferable to take off the skin when you cook them. Lean ham and extra lean ground beef are also good choices. Avoid fatty cuts of meat, smoked meat, lunch meats, bacon and sausages.
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| Meat is fine, but avoid the fatty cuts |
From the dairy products, it is good to choose skim or 1% milk, low-fat or non-fat yoghurt and cheeses that are lower in fat and sodium, over whole milk, buttermilk and cheese spreads, for example.
Use only small amounts of fats and oils, margarine, oils (like canola, corn, olive, and peanut or sesame oil).
Also, do not choose sweets and snacks too often. Frozen yoghurt, sherbet, vanilla wafers, jelly beans are pretty good choices, as well as plain popcorn and unsalted pretzels. Needless to say, you should definitely avoid salty crackers and snack foods. You can snack on bagels, raisin toast or English muffins with jelly and a little margarine or on low-fat cookies for example (animal crackers, fig bars, gingersnaps).
Another reason why these foods help lower your blood pressure, apart from being low in salt and fat, is that they contain nutrients that have been proved to contribute to reducing blood pressure, such as calcium, vitamin D and antioxidants. A recent German study, published in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism, has shown that calcium and vitamin D supplementation is also effective as far as the reduction of blood pressure is concerned (including pregnancy-induced hypertension). Calcium should be taken with vitamin D, as the latter improves the absorption of Ca. Main food sourced of calcium are broccoli and milk, as well as Bok Choy (Pak Choi), salmon, beans, tofu, soybeans and yoghurt.
Researchers at the University of California conducted a study which showed that a diet rich in vitamins C and E also helps lower blood pressure. These are powerful antioxidants that protect the body against free radicals and are also very good regulators of blood pressure. Vitamin C can be found in oranges, kiwi fruit, tangerines and mandarins, strawberries, cabbage, red peppers, potatoes.
Foods rich in magnesium help lower blood pressure as well, by relaxing the muscles that control blood vessels. Spinach, avocados, pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, almonds, barley, oysters and chocolate are a few of the leading food sources of magnesium.
Potassium, as we have already mentioned, is another important element that helps maintain blood pressure levels. Foods rich in potassium are: apricots, pomegranates, figs, beans, oranges, water chestnuts, clams, tomatoes, potatoes, avocados, Broccoli, Brussels sprouts, bananas, chocolate.
Flaxseed oil and garlic are also foods that contribute to lowering blood pressure.
Even though alcohol causes blood pressure to raise quite a lot, especially for some people, you do not need to give up on alcohol completely. If you limit it to 1 or 2 drinks a day, you can get good results. One drink would mean, for example, a can of beer, a glass of wine or 1 ˝ ounces of whiskey.
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| A little wine is not always a bad thing |
Vegetarian diets work so well because cutting out meat, dairy products and added fats helps reduce the blood's viscosity (“thickness”). Plant foods have no cholesterol, and are very low in fat and sodium being rich in potassium at the same time. You may want to try a vegetarian diet for 4-6 weeks, to find out how it works for you.
A healthy eating plan can both maintain a good and healthy blood pressure level and reduce blood pressure if it is too high. Professor Lawrence Appel, of Johns Hopkins University, developed a special diet that he found to lower blood pressure by 11.4 points on average in the systolic (upper) number and by 5.5 points in the diastolic (lower) number. The landmark study of the DASH (Dietary Approach to Stop Hypertension) was published in 1997. Since then, DASH has become the most successful eating plan to reduce blood pressure.
This diet was also found to cut weight, promote bone mass, lower artery-clogging cholesterol and even help prevent cancer. It prescribes less fat (particularly saturated animal fat), red meat, sweets and sugary beverages, and more fruits, vegetables and low-fat dairy products. It includes whole grains, poultry, fish and nuts. In a newer DASH study, the percentage of patients with high blood pressure fell from 37% to 12%.
You can find a suggested DASH plan, as well as more about the DASH diet, at http://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/public/heart/hbp/hbp_low/hbp_low.pdf.
Since fruit and vegetables are high in fiber, they may cause diarrhea and bloating if you have not been used to consuming large amounts of them. Thus, it is a good idea to increase gradually your servings of fruit, vegetables and grains.
Keeping a diary of what, when and why you eat will be very helpful if you want to switch to another eating plan; you'll realize where you can make the changes.
To get adjusted to the DASH diet more easily you should make gradual changes, spread out the servings, eat less at one meal, use fruit and low-fat foods as desserts and snacks, and get added nutrients (B vitamins) by choosing whole grain foods. If you have problems digesting dairy products, try lactase enzyme pills or drops, available at drugstores, or milk with added lactase enzyme. Treat meat as only one part of the meal, not the focus, and start having one or two meatless meals a week.
Apart from diet, the management of stress is essential if you are trying to lower your blood pressure.
Millions of men and women all over the world suffer from high blood pressure, which makes the discovery of natural alternatives for treating it even more valuable. These alternatives are at hand for each and every one of us, they only suppose supplementing with some important nutrients, on a daily basis.
