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Reduce These Foods From Your Diet To Lower Or Prevent High Blood Pressure
If you have high blood pressure, youre likely aware that the foods you eat can affect your blood pressure but you may not know just how important a role your diet plays. In general, the majority of the high blood pressure in this country is classified as essential hypertension, says Robert Bennett, MD, cardiologist at Saint Agnes Medical Center in Fresno, California. That means there’s no obvious cause for it. But we think the majority of it is due to lifestyle, in particular your diet, he says. While a number of factors up your risk of atherosclerosis, stroke, and heart disease, gaining control of your blood pressure is a first step in helping to reduce the risk.
The American Heart Association recommends a diet rich in fruits, vegetables, whole grains, lean meats, and fish to keep blood pressure in the healthy range. Following the DASH diet , which includes all of these foods, is one easy way to stay on track. According to Dr. Bennett, the DASH diet has been shown to be effective from a scientific standpoint.
Knowing what to eat is one thing but there are certain foods that can elevate your blood pressure moreso than others. We talked to Bennett about the top foods to avoid:
Avoid Foods That Affect The Potassium To Sodium Ratio With High Blood Pressure
The 4:1 ratio is important because your kidneys help to control your blood pressure by managing the amount of fluid stored in your body . Generally, the more fluid the higher your blood pressure.
Your kidneys do this by filtering your blood and taking out any extra fluid. This process uses a delicate balance of sodium and potassium to pull out the excess water.
The daily recommended amounts would be about 1,500 mg of sodium and 4,700 mg of potassium. Foods High In Potassium that you should eat are:
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Measuring Healthy Blood Pressure
Blood pressure is the force of your blood pumping against blood vessel walls. The heart pumps blood into major arteries, which shuttle blood to the entire body. High blood pressure occurs when the pressure is higher than normal, making your heart work harder to get blood to your body. Your blood pressure naturally rises and falls throughout the day, but the risk occurs when blood pressure rises and stays up. Long-term high blood pressure can damage your heart and cause other health problems, including heart attacks and strokes.
Blood pressure readings consist of two numbers systolic and diastolic . The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention defines normal blood pressure as below 120/80 mm Hg. The systolic number refers to the amount of pressure in your arteries during the contraction of your heart muscle. The diastolic number refers to your blood pressure when your heart muscle is between beats.
While there is a normal blood pressure, some people have naturally lower or naturally higher blood pressures. Be sure to consult your doctor about what a normal blood pressure looks like for you.
Keep Yourself At A Healthy Weight
Having overweight or obesity increases your risk for high blood pressure. To determine whether your weight is in a healthy range, doctors often calculate your body mass index . If you know your weight and height, you can calculate your BMI at CDCs Assessing Your Weight website. Doctors sometimes also use waist and hip measurements to assess body fat.
Talk with your health care team about ways to reach a healthy weight, including choosing healthy foods and getting regular physical activity.
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Wine And Other Alcoholic Beverages
If you struggle with high blood pressure, you are going to want to be mindful of your alcohol choices in addition to your sodium intake because alcohol can raise your blood pressure and has been known to be a risk factor for heart disease, says Hubert. While you dont have to give it up, assessing how often you drink and how much you have per serving is important to managing your hypertension and associated risk factors.
Tomatoes And Tomato Products
Tomatoes and tomato products are rich in many nutrients, including potassium and the carotenoid pigment lycopene.
Lycopene has been significantly associated with beneficial effects on heart health, and eating foods high in this nutrient, such as tomato products, may help reduce heart disease risk factors like high blood pressure .
A review of 21 studies concluded that consuming tomato and tomato products improves blood pressure and may help reduce your risk of heart disease and heart-disease-related death 30010-2/fulltext” rel=”nofollow”> 26).
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What To Avoid Or Limit To Prevent High Blood Pressure
In addition to eating heart-healthy foods, you can further decrease your risk of developing high blood pressure by reducing consumption or eliminating the following foods and beverages:
- Salt
- Red meat
- Sweets and sugar-sweetened beverages
Salt, or sodium, is probably the key item on your list of foods to limit and possibly a fairly simple one to minimize. One study found that people who followed the DASH diet and also cut down on their sodium intake had significantly lower blood pressure measurements.
To reduce your intake of sodium, eat fresh foods and avoid frozen meals since frozen meals usually have high levels of salt. Use other flavorful spices and herbs to flavor your food instead of salt. Read the labels on any packaged food item and make a note of the sodium per serving number.
Additionally, increasing your intake of potassium can counterbalance the effects of salt. So be sure to add foods high in potassium such as bananas and sweet potatoes to your list of things to eat.
For more information on how to prevent high blood pressure, call Danvers Family Doctors, P.C., in Danvers, Massachusetts, or make an appointment online.
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Beyond Salt: Best And Worst Foods To Prevent High Blood Pressure
If youre among the 103 million Americans with high blood pressure, then youve probably already stopped using the salt shaker. Unfortunately, you could still be getting sodium from lots of other sources. If you have high blood pressure, you need to eliminate certain foods that can raise your blood pressure and replace them with foods that can lower it.
At Essential Medical Clinic in the Westlake, Downtown, and Athens neighborhoods of Los Angeles, our doctors, Sultan Shah, MD, and Pouya Bahrami, DO, are here to cover all of your health care needs, including helping you deal with high blood pressure. Thats why weve compiled this helpful guide to the best and worst foods for your high blood pressure.
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Eating The Right Foods And Avoiding Unhealthy Ones Can Help Keep Your Blood Pressure In Check
If youve been diagnosed with hypertension, or high blood pressure, your doctor has probably advised you to make a number of lifestyle modifications, such as exercise and dietary changes. According to the National Institutes of Health , eating a diet of nutrient-rich, low-sodium foods can lower blood pressure naturally.
Natural nutrients are generally more packed with good antioxidants, which may get damaged when prepared for storage, says John Higgins, MD, a professor of cardiovascular medicine at the UTHealth McGovern Medical School in Houston.
What Can I Eat To Lower My Blood Pressure Immediately
Research suggests that consuming nitrate-rich vegetables can help lower blood pressure for up to 24 hours. This lowering may not bring blood pressure into the normal range. It is important to check your blood pressures at home, and at the grocery store or pharmacy with the goal of less than 135/85. Nitrate-rich vegetables should not be confused with nitrate-rich foods laden with preservatives.
When most people hear nitrate, the first thing they think of is processed meat because artificial nitrate is added to bacon, hot dogs, and salami for preservation. When taken from animal sources, nitrate is converted into carcinogenic nitrosamine in your body, which is extremely harmful to your health, Dr. Lam says. Nitrates from vegetables, fruits, and grainson the other handare converted to nitric oxide in your body. Nitric oxide helps relax blood vessels and improves blood flow.
Research indicates that dehydration can impair blood vessel function, so drinking plenty of water daily to stay hydrated is a good rule of thumb to reduce blood pressure.
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Frozen Or Delivery Pizza
There are several sodium sources in a classic pizzathe crust, sauce, cheese and meat toppingsmaking it a sodium bomb. Lets not forget about the saturated fat coming from cheese and meat toppings like sausage, bacon or pepperoni, says Stark. For a better-for-you pizza night, try the DIY route instead with a whole-grain pizza dough ball from the store, lots of fresh veggie toppings, no meat and low-fat shredded cheese. To further enhance the flavor of your pie, sprinkle with fresh garlic or garlic powder , oregano, basil or crushed red pepper flakes.
Foods To Eat And 7 To Avoid If You Have High Blood Pressure
High blood pressure amongst adults is frighteningly common. In the USA, almost half of all adults have high blood pressure, with the condition acting as a primary or contributing cause of death for almost a half-million people in 2018, according to the CDC. As a condition that can lead to a wealth of profound health issues, such as a stroke, heart attack, and kidney damage, finding ways to control your blood pressure is crucial yet as the CDC shows, fewer than one in four adults who have hypertension are actively controlling their condition.
And, as with most things, it all starts with what we eat. If you’ve been diagnosed with high blood pressure, following specific diets like the DASH diet, a diet program that limits high-sodium, high-saturated fat foods and promotes choices that provide blood-pressure-friendly nutrients, as the Mayo Clinic states, is a wise and healthy idea. But, if completely revolutionizing your diet feels daunting, don’t fret. At Health Digest, we’ve put together a simple starter guide, with seven foods to eat and seven to avoid, if hypertension is a concern. Let’s take a look at our top picks.
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Is Fasting Good For Hypertension
Fasting can be beneficial to lower high blood pressure, because it may decrease your total sodium or calorie intake. Recently, researchers from the Baylor College of Medicine showed that fasting also changes the gut microbiome in a way that promotes lower blood pressure, says William Li, MD, President and Founder of The Angiogenesis Foundation and author of Eat to Beat Disease. The mechanism is through higher levels of bile acids in the blood caused by fasting. Bile acids can help lower blood pressure.
Intermittent fasting is a very popular trend. Many people try limiting their intake of food to about an 8 hour window while fasting for 16 hours, Dr. Landsman says. This strategy may help with weight loss which could then help with lowering blood pressure.
Although fasting may reduce blood pressure, the magnitude of reduction is less than it is with weight loss. Your blood pressure may increase dramatically if you eat poorly after breaking your fast. Repetitions of fasting and feeding have been shown to increase blood pressure dramatically, even if only transiently, says Glenn Gaesser, Ph.D., a fellow of the American College of Sports Medicine and professor at The College of Health Solutions at Arizona State University. transient elevations in blood pressure may do harm to blood vessels.
What To Eat To Prevent Or Manage High Blood Pressure
A heart-healthy diet helps prevent heart disease as well as high blood pressure, a major contributor to heart disease. What is a heart-healthy diet? Its a diet rich in:
- Whole grains
- Low-fat or nonfat dairy products
- Lean proteins
- Legumes
- Good fats found in products such as vegetable oils, nuts, and seeds
The DASH eating plan, which has been clinically proven to lower blood pressure, provides a framework for incorporating these heart-healthy foods into your diet. Although the name says its for people with high blood pressure, people with normal blood pressure levels who follow a DASH eating style can lower their risk of developing high blood pressure.
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Foods To Eat To Lower Blood Pressure
Americans are known to eat high-sodium diets, and it’s one of the reasons hypertension is so common in the US.
“Extra sodium in your bloodstream can pull water into your blood vessels, which increases the total volume of blood inside your blood vessels, and causes blood pressure to increase,” says Lori Mosca, MD, MPH, PhD, Director of Preventive Cardiology at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital.
But eating a balanced diet rich in potassium, calcium, and magnesium can help get your blood pressure under control. In fact, a 2013 review found that adding potassium to high-sodium diets reduces blood pressure substantially in hypertensive patients.
While all nutrients are important, Mosca says potassium is vital in managing blood pressure because it lessens the effects of sodium the more potassium you take in, the more sodium you lose through urine. Additionally, a high intake of potassium, calcium, and magnesium can ease tension in the blood vessel walls, which helps lower blood pressure.
Examples of heart-healthy foods rich in potassium, calcium, and magnesium include:
- Dark, leafy greens like kale and spinach
- Fruit like bananas, watermelon, apricots, and berries
- Seeds, nuts, and beans
- Sweet potatoes
- Some fatty fish like salmon and mackerel that are high in omega-3 fatty acids
Foods That Help With High Blood Pressure
A heart-healthy diet can help prevent hypertension and heart disease. There are several foods that can prevent and manage high blood pressure, including:
- Whole grains
- Low-fat or nonfat dairy products, or any dairy in moderation
- Lean proteins, like turkey and fish
- Legumes, like beans and peas
- Healthy fats found in foods such as nuts, seeds, avocado, and cold water fish, like salmon
Potassium-rich foods, like bananas and sweet potatoes, can help lower blood pressure as well as foods high in fiber and antioxidants, like pomegranates and leafy greens.
The AHA recommends the DASH diet for heart health, and following it, or any low-sodium, low-sugar, trans fatfree diet, has been shown to help maintain heart health in the long term. However, you should always speak to your doctor before starting any new diet, especially if youre looking to manage existing high blood pressure.
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Salmon And Other Fatty Fish
Some evidence suggests that consuming salmon and other fatty fish may help reduce blood pressure in certain populations.
Scientists believe the omega-3 fatty acids in fishparticularly docosahexaenoic acid cause this change, though its unclear how this happens.
Its best to stick with fish like salmon, sardines, Atlantic mackerel, and lake trout, because theres mixed evidence that fish-oil supplements provide the same benefit.
How Diet Affects Blood Pressure
Your food choices can have a significant impact on your blood pressure in positive and negative ways.
Eating a healthy diet rich in vegetables, fruit, whole grains, nuts, seeds, legumes, fish, lean meats, and low-fat dairy can help manage blood pressure.
On the other hand, eating a lot of red meat, fried foods, salt, and added sugars can contribute to high blood pressure.
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Reduce Your Sodium Intake
Eating a diet rich in sodium every day can increase your blood pressure levels. Sodium is most commonly found in salt. When you eat excess salt or foods rich in sodium, the body retains excess water to eliminate it. This additional water in the body can increase your blood pressure levels. For this reason, the American Heart Association , you must limit your daily sodium intake to not more than 1500 mg. Did you know that a teaspoon of salt has 2400 mg of sodium?
Some ways to reduce sodium intake are:
Avoid table salt as much as possible
Always read product labels to find foods that contain minimal sodium
Use healthier salt substitutes
Use foods that are sodium-free, low sodium, or unsalted
Use salt-free seasonings
Foods High In Trans Or Saturated Fat
Prepared meals are easy to grab and eat but can be full of trans and/or saturated fats. Moderation is key as consuming too many of these kinds of fats increases your LDL cholesterol. This can cause buildup in your arteries known as plaque, increasing your risk for high blood pressure. As tempting as they may be, avoiding packaged, processed foods, like doughnuts, frozen pizzas and dinners, and potato chips, will help lower your risk of hypertension.
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Limit Your Alcohol Intake
Regularly drinking too much alcohol can raise your blood pressure over time.
Staying within the recommended levels is the best way to reduce your risk of developing high blood pressure:
- men and women are advised not to regularly drink more than 14 units a week
- spread your drinking over 3 days or more if you drink as much as 14 units a week
Foods That Lower Blood Pressure
Learning that you have high blood pressure can come as a shock since the condition typically has no symptoms.
The good news is that some lifestyle changes can help lower blood pressure and reduce the risk of complications such as heart attack, stroke, and dementia.
One of the key lifestyle factors? What you eat.
Your diet can affect your blood pressure either positively or negatively.
This article will explain how you can manage your blood pressure through diet, including foods that may help reduce blood pressure as well as foods to avoid if you have hypertension.
Ill also discuss other ways to naturally manage blood pressure so you can keep your heart as healthy as possible.
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