A high blood pressure diet is no punishment.
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A high blood pressure diet is no punishment. A knack to indulge in the right kind of food type and having a well balanced and feasible diet chart not only makes eating a pleasure but can also help quick -fix your BP reading within a matter of a week or two!
It is true that every fourth adult faces the risk of being hypertensive showing figures greater than 140/90 mm Hg on the BP reading apparatus. Excessive body weight, smoking, sedentary lifestyles, excess alcohol, and high salt or sodium intake are easy triggers to a high blood pressure reading. Changing your lifestyle with diet modifications has proved to substantially reduce blood pressure. So much so, a proven high blood pressure diet has shown to be as effective as medications. It certainly impedes or holds back the need for medication for those with borderline high blood pressure.
So what is the correct high blood pressure diet? Several medical journals and institutions greatly recommend the DASH (Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension) diet. DASH diet is essentially a well balanced daily eating plan with about three servings of low-fat diary and about ten servings of fruits and vegetables. The emphasis is on a higher intake of calcium-magnesium-potassium and limiting the intake of sodium. Intake of foods rich in these metals have a direct consequence with high blood pressure that can lead to cardiac, renal damage or stroke.
A high blood pressure diet must emphasize the role of whole grains, fruits, vegetables, low fat dairy and lean meat products. A reasonable proportion of whole bread, rice, pasta, potato etc., can form the main source especially whole meal. Fruits, ideally with skins and vegetables with a good proportion of pulses, beans and cooked greens per day may be putatively ideal. This is likely to decrease cardiovascular and cancer mortality as well. Low fat semi-skimmed milk/yogurt, cottage cheese, white meat (poultry, without skin), white fish and vegetable protein sources such as pulses and Soya well promotes a healthy high blood pressure diet.
In the context to the role of whole grains such as wild rice, brown rice, whole wheat, oatmeal, barley, whole rye, popcorn, millet sorghum — all are very good sources of anti-oxidants and rich in vitamin B and are highly recommended foods. Whole grains are proven foods that reduce the risk of heart diseases as they enable lower blood pressure levels, reduce bad cholesterol levels, cut obesity, hinder blood coagulation and also reduce the risk of several types of cancer.
In a high blood pressure diet, whole bread is preferred to white bread. You can also make your palate more interesting by adding brown rice, wild rice and barley in your vegetable soup. Snack on popcorn instead of fried wafers. Dieticians insist that hypertensive patients must look for the word whole in the ingredient list while buying packaged foods.
Meat must be cooked without additional fat. There are several lower fat alternatives such as white meat, essentially poultry without skin, white fish and vegetable protein sources such as pulses and Soya must be a sizeable ingredient in your meal.
Limiting salt intake is a must to cut sodium levels to control high blood pressure. Recommendations by the American National High Blood Pressure Education Program are of about one teaspoons of salt a day, amounting to less than 2400 mg sodium. DASH diet says that an intake of 1500 mg sodium would be ideal. The option therefore, is to switch to mostly fresh foods rather than packaged foods as unlike packaged foods you have the choice to lower salt intake in fresh foods.
There are several ways to boost calcium in a high blood pressure diet. This mineral is important to manage and maintain normal heart beat and to regulate blood pressure. Its is said that the average daily intake for adults must be around 1000 mg of calcium and post menopausal women would require an average daily intake of 1500 mg of calcium. Calcium rich foods are essentially diary products such as milk, yogurt, buttermilk, ice cream, calcium fortified soy drink, cereal bar, calcium fortified orange juice, canned fish including salmon and sardines are very good sources of calcium. However, it is advised to consult your physician before you decide which calcium food supplements are good for you.
The latest version of the Dietary Guidelines for Americans has highlighted the importance of potassium in high blood pressure diet. The guidelines note that there have been proven beneficial effects of potassium rich foods such as bananas, beans, tofu and potato in reducing high blood pressure. A daily intake of 4100 mg of potassium is good. Baking roasting and steaming potassium rich foods is fine, avoid boiling, the guidelines say. Here again, it is advisable to speak to your physician about potassium supplements.
There are foods aplenty to add variety to your high blood pressure diet. All you need to do is to make the most of it.
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