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What Vegetable Lowers Blood Pressure

The Dash Diet Can Lower Blood Pressure

Diet & Nutritional Supplements : What Fruits & Vegetables Can Lower Blood Pressure?

The DASH diet, which stands for Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension, is a healthy eating plan intended to help lower blood pressure without medication.

While you can eat foods from all food groups, you are encouraged to reduce sodium and focus on foods high in potassium, calcium, and magnesium. Guidelines include:

  • Limit sodium in your diet to 2,300 milligrams per day
  • Enjoy plenty of fresh vegetables and fruit
  • Eat beans, seeds, nuts, and whole-grains
  • Include fat-free and low-fat dairy
  • Eat fish, poultry, and lean meats
  • Reduce intake of salt, sugar, red meat, processed foods, saturated fat, trans fat, and alcoholic beverages

High Blood Pressure Diet

Healthy food is like medication for high blood pressure. Except you dont need a prescription, and you wont have to worry about side effects. Just choose wisely, eat, and repeat.

Just as there are foods that raise blood pressure, there are foods that lower it. Theres even an eating plan based on that fact. Its called DASH, or Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension.

Whether you follow DASH or chart your own course, try to focus on what you can eat instead of what you cant. Like any other healthy diet, a diet to lower blood pressure will emphasize fruits, vegetables, and whole grains while avoiding fats, fried foods, and salty snacks.

If you can control what you eat, you can control high blood pressure and reduce your risk of stroke, heart failure, and heart attack. Start by focussing your grocery list on these healthful choices.

New Study By Keck School Of Medicine Of Usc Researcher Links Increased Dietary Potassium With Lower Hypertension

Consuming potassium-rich foods like sweet potatoes, avocados, spinach, beans, bananas and even coffee could be key to lowering blood pressure, according to a USC researcher.

Decreasing sodium intake is a well-established way to lower blood pressure, said Alicia McDonough, professor of cell and neurobiology at the Keck School of Medicine of USC, but evidence suggests that increasing dietary potassium may have an equally important effect on hypertension.

Hypertension is a global health issue that affects more than 1 billion people worldwide. The World Health Organization estimates that hypertension is responsible for at least 51 percent of deaths due to stroke and 45 percent of deaths due to heart disease.

McDonough explored the link between blood pressure and dietary sodium, potassium and the sodium-potassium ratio in a review article published in the issue of the American Journal of Physiology Endocrinology and Metabolism. The review looked at population, interventional and molecular mechanism studies that investigated the effects of dietary sodium and potassium on hypertension.

Her review found several population studies demonstrating that higher dietary potassium was associated with lower blood pressure, regardless of sodium intake. Interventional studies with potassium supplementation also suggested that potassium provides a direct benefit.

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From The Dietitian: If You Have High Blood Pressure Try Eating These Foods

If high blood pressure has you down, do yourself a favor and fight for better readings. According to the American Heart Association, almost half of American adults live with this condition, yet dont even know it. A reading of 130/80 and higher is considered elevated, and since symptoms can be silent, its often left untreated. In turn, this can cause severe damage to our circulatory systems and lead to serious issues, such as a heart attack or stroke.

Many of us can bring our blood pressure within a healthy range without conforming to a boring diet. Remove the images of unseasoned egg whites and limp steamed veggies from your mind. Bringing your blood pressure into a healthy range is more than just doable its downright delicious. Fortunately, some of the most flavorful foods that regulate a healthy blood pressure are filled with cold-fighting vitamins and great for weight management, too.

Lets break it down.

Fava Beans And Blood Pressure

4 Vegetables that Help Lower Blood Pressure

Fava beans, also known as broad beans, are amongst the richest natural sources of L-dopa, a precursor of the chemical dopamine, which, amongst other things, act as a diuretic.

In one study, eating 40 grams of freshly chopped fava beans significantly increased the amount of sodium and dopamine in the urine – a good thing when it comes to reducing blood pressure.

As we’ve seen, a number of compounds may contribute to the cardioprotective effects of fruits and vegetables, including vitamin C, folate, potassium, fiber, and various phytochemicals.

However, supplementation of individual micronutrients or phytochemicals has not had the same effect on lowering blood pressure and protecting from heart disease.

So in the case of fruits and vegetables, the benefit of the whole may be greater than the sum of its parts. In other words, it’s much better, and more enjoyable, to eat the real thing, i.e. fruits and vegetables to lower blood pressure, than relying entirely on supplements.

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Why Are Fruits And Vegetable So Powerful

Frank M. Sacks, M.D., professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School, says that there are two obvious possibilities as to why fruits and vegetables lower blood pressure:

1) Something in plant foods depresses blood pressure or

2) Something in meat forces it up

At first Dr Sacks thought meat raised blood pressure, but he scrapped that theory after he tested vegetarians by having them add meat to their diet.

In one group of vegetarians who ate eight oz./225 grams of lean beef a day for a month, systolic blood pressure rose very slightly, diastolic blood pressure not at all.

Neither did a heavy egg diet for three weeks boost blood pressure. Nor could he get blood pressure to budge in response to different kinds of fats.

Dr Sacks concluded that curbing total fat or saturated animal fat doesn’t affect blood pressure at all .

On the other hand, he’s convienced that agents in vegetables and fruits have ‘mysterious’ powers to reduce blood pressure.

One blood-pressure lowering component may be fiber, especially from fruit.

A recent Harvard study of nearly 31,000 middle-aged and elderly men found that those who ate very little fruit were 46% more likely to develop high blood pressure over the next four years than men who ate the equivalent fiber in five apples a day.

For unknown reasons, fiber in fruit had the strongest anti-hypertensive effect, more so than fiber in vegetables or cereals.

Fruits And Vegetables That Lower Blood Pressure

When incorporated in our daily dietary intake, some fruits and vegetables can help lower high blood pressure. Wondering which are they? Have a look!

When incorporated in our daily dietary intake, some fruits and vegetables can help lower high blood pressure. Wondering which are they? Have a look!

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Yogurt Provides The Calcium Necessary For Normal Blood Pressure

Yogurt is a good source of calcium an 8-ounce serving of plain, lowfat yogurt provides 415 milligrams, per the NIH, almost one-third of an adults recommended daily value. Calcium deficiency can be a contributor to high blood pressure, according to Harvard Health.

A lot of people associate calcium with something that children need, and stop focusing on calcium-containing foods as an adult, but the adult body still needs it, Dean says.

Yogurt is a low-sodium food thats great straight out of the container, but you can also use it as a creamy addition to a smoothie just mix a cup with diced portions of your favorite fruit in the blender. Choose plain, unsweetened yogurt whenever possible. Nonfat, plain Greek yogurt also makes a great substitute for sour cream!

Risk Factors For High Blood Pressure

Best Vegetables to Reduce High Blood Pressure – Vegetable Treatment for Hypertension
  • Race: It plays a significant role as African Americans develop hypertension more often as compared to people of another racial background.
  • Age: BP begins to go up in the mid to late 40s. So, the risk increases as you become older.
  • Chronic stress: People under chronic stress or long-term release of stress hormones can have high BP
  • Unhealthy diet: Processed foods and fast foods comprise a lot of unhealthy fats and salt, which lead to hypertension
  • Family history
  • Other health conditions, such as heart disease, kidney disease, and diabetes are linked to increased risk of high blood pressure

To avoid high blood pressure, you need to make some changes to your lifestyle. It is better to take medication only if required. Just like other medications, BP meds come with some side effects. So, it is better to work on exercise, stress management, and diet. Even if you get partial benefits, it means fewer medications or a few side effects.

It is recommended to include vegetables, which are rich in fiber and potassium to your high BP diet. One can steam, soup, or incorporate them in curries. The best way to include these healthy vegetables is juicing for high blood pressure.

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Do You Need Paypal To Sell On Shpock

Youve heard that an apple a day keeps the doctor away. But you might not know that a banana a day keeps high blood pressure at bay. This fruit is packed full of potassium an important blood pressure-lowering mineral. Potassium helps balance sodium in the body.

What fruit is good for high blood pressure? Citrus fruits, including grapefruit, oranges, and lemons, may have powerful blood-pressure-lowering effects. Theyre loaded with vitamins, minerals, and plant compounds that may help keep your heart healthy by reducing heart disease risk factors like high blood pressure .

When To See A Doctor About High Blood Pressure Symptoms

High blood pressure often does not cause any symptoms. So, if you are at the dentist or physicians office and are told that your blood pressure is high, it is important for you to check your blood pressure regularly while not at a doctors office. When blood pressure is very high, it can cause headache, dizziness, unsteadiness, visual disturbances, shortness of breath, and chest pain. Chronic elevated blood pressure causes decreased blood flow to vital organs. Over time this may cause dementia, blindness, heart failure, and kidney failure. When these occur in someone with high blood pressure, it is important to see your doctor, says Dr. Li. Its always best to catch it before these symptoms develop, so have your blood pressure checked regularly as part of an annual exam.

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Tomatoes And Blood Pressure

Many people argue over the debates whether tomatoes are to be considered fruits or vegetables. Don’t worry, I’m not going to join in.

What matters is that either way, tomatoes are a fabulous source of lycopene, an antioxidant carotenoid compound which gives them their red colour.

Tomatoes also contain vitamin C, potassium and folate as well as beta carotene and vitamin E, which help protect cells from oxidative damage.

In a study of 31 people with hypertension who didn’t require medication, researchers gave them a tomato-like placebo for 4 weeks, followed by 8 weeks of a tomato extract and then another 4 weeks of the placebo.

During the tomato extract period, their systolic readings dropped by 10 mmHg and their diastolic readings by 4 mmHg no changes were seen during the placebo phases.

Apart from tomatoes, are also significant sources of lycopene.

Vegetables Fruits And Disease

6 Vegs That Cure High Blood Pressure

Cardiovascular disease

There is compelling evidence that a diet rich in fruits and vegetables can lower the risk of heart disease and stroke.

Blood pressure

  • The Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension study examined the effect on blood pressure of a diet that was rich in fruits, vegetables, and low-fat dairy products and that restricted the amount of saturated and total fat. The researchers found that people with high blood pressure who followed this diet reduced their systolic blood pressure by about 11 mm Hg and their diastolic blood pressure by almost 6 mm Hgas much as medications can achieve.
  • A randomized trial known as the Optimal Macronutrient Intake Trial for Heart Health showed that this fruit and vegetable-rich diet lowered blood pressure even more when some of the carbohydrate was replaced with healthy unsaturated fat or protein.
  • In 2014 a meta-analysis of clinical trials and observational studies found that consumption of a vegetarian diet was associated with lower blood pressure.

Cancer

  • For example, over a 14-year period in the Nurses Health Study and the Health Professionals Follow-up Study, men and women with the highest intake of fruits and vegetables were just as likely to have developed cancer as those who ate the fewest daily servings .
  • A meta-analysis of cohort studies found that a higher fruit and vegetable intake did not decrease the risk of deaths from cancer.

Diabetes

Weight

Gastrointestinal health

Vision

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Whole Grain Foods That Lower Blood Pressure

Bread, cereal, pasta, and other foods with carbs and starches can come in whole grain or refined grain versions. Whole grains are full of dietary fiber. Thats why theyre a lot better for your body than foods made with refined white flour. Switch to whole grain versions of foods you already eat. For example, go for whole wheat bread rather than white. Choose brown rice over white.

Shopping tip: Some packaged foods contain a whole grain seal. If you dont see it, check the ingredient list. If the first ingredient listed contains the word whole, that item likely contains mostly whole grain.

Look for whole grain versions of these foods:

  • Bread

Comparison Of Sodium In Foods

Meats, poultry, fish, and shellfish

Food: Milligrams sodium

Fresh meat, 3 oz. cooked: Less than 90 mg

Shellfish, 3 oz: 100 to 325 mg

Tuna, canned, 3 oz: 300 mg

Lean ham, 3 oz.: 1,025 mg

Dairy products

*Whole milk, 1 cup: 120 mg

Skim or 1% milk, 1 cup: 125 mg

*Buttermilk , 1 cup: 260 mg

*Swiss cheese, 1 oz: 75 mg

*Cheddar cheese, 1 oz : 175 mg

Low-fat cheese, 1 oz.: 150 mg

*Cottage cheese , 1/2 cup: 455 mg

Vegetables

Food: Milligrams sodium

Fresh or frozen vegetables, and no-salt-added canned , 1/2 cup: Less than 70 mg

Vegetables canned or frozen , 1/2 cup: 55-470 mg

Tomato juice, canned, 3/4 cup: 660 mg

Breads, cereals, rice and pasta

Food: Milligrams sodium

Bread, 1 slice: 110-175 mg

English muffin : 130 mg

Ready-to-eat, shredded wheat, 3/4 cup: Less than 5 mg

Cooked cereal , 1/2 cup: Less than 5 mg

Instant cooked cereal, 1 packet: 180 mg

Canned soups, 1 cup: 600-1,300 mg

Convenience foods

Food: Milligrams sodium

Canned and frozen main dishes, 8 oz: 500-1,570 mg

*These can also be high in saturated fat, unless low-fat or reduced fat options are purchased.

*High in saturated fat.

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Decrease Your Salt Intake

Salt is the enemy of high blood pressure, says Dr. Desai. When you eat too much salt, it increases the amount of fluid that enters the bloodstream and arteries from the surrounding tissue, which raises the pressure in the arteries.

While you may not have to remove salt from your diet completely, avoid foods very high in salt like chips, french fries, salted nuts, soups, store-bought salad dressings, processed foods and cheese.

How Do Fruits And Vegetables Help To Lower Your Blood Pressure

6 Vegs That Cure High Blood Pressure

Fruit and veg are an essential part of a healthy diet, helping to stave off numerous health problems including heart disease, stroke, some cancers and osteoporosis .

Fruit and veg contain , a mineral which is essential for keeping your body ticking over and helps to lower your blood pressure. Eating fruit and veg directly counters the effect of salt, which contains sodium, which raises your blood pressure.

Theyre rich in different vitamins and minerals which keep your body healthy, plus theyre low in calories and high in fibre which helps with digestion and heart health.

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Consider Cutting Back On Caffeine

Caffeine raises your blood pressure, but the effect is temporary.

In a 2017 study, the systolic blood pressure of 18 participants was elevated for 2 hours after they drank 32 ounces of either a caffeinated drink or an energy drink. Blood pressure then dropped more quickly for the participants who drank a caffeinated drink .

Some people may be more sensitive to caffeine than others. If youre caffeine-sensitive, you may want to cut back on your coffee consumption, or try .

Research on caffeine, including its health benefits, is in the news a lot. The choice of whether to cut back depends on many individual factors.

One older study indicated that caffeines effect on raising blood pressure is greater if your blood pressure is already high. This same study, however, called for more research on the subject .

If your blood pressure is very high or doesnt decrease after making these lifestyle changes, your doctor may recommend prescription drugs.

They work and will improve your long-term outcome, especially if you have other risk factors (

Try Meditation Or Yoga

Mindfulness and meditation, including transcendental meditation, have long been used and studied as methods to reduce stress.

Yoga, which commonly involves breathing control, posture, and meditation techniques, can also be effective in reducing stress and blood pressure.

A 2013 review on yoga and blood pressure found an average blood pressure decrease of 3.62 mm Hg diastolic and 4.17 mm Hg systolic when compared with those who didnt exercise.

Studies of yoga practices that included breath control, postures, and meditation were nearly twice as effective as yoga practices that didnt include all three of these elements .

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Fruits That Lower Blood Pressure

Fruits have many essential nutrients, vitamins, minerals and antioxidants. A daily serving of four to five different fruits is recommended by the World Health Organisation and Food and Agriculture of the United Nation, in order to stay healthy.

Interestingly, you can either opt for raw fruits or choose to drink a healthy glass of delicious fruit juice! Heres a list of fruits that not only taste great, but also help you combat high blood pressure. Have a look

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