No one wants to have hypertension, also known as high blood pressure. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, anyone experiencing this condition may not notice any symptoms at all, but will definitely notice the consequences. High blood pressure causes a number of health problems, ranging from organ damage and can lead to other problems such as heart disease.
Several factors increase your chances of getting high blood pressure. Smoking, living with a lot of stress and eat the wrong foods can cause a lot of problems leading to this issue. By addressing how you eat and what you eat, you can easily avoid the risk of raising your blood pressure. Fortunately, we talked to a handful of dietitians and learned what habits you need to break to beat high blood pressure.
Once you address which habits to break, be sure to start embedding the 7 Best Foods to Eat for High Blood Pressure really take control of your blood pressure.
Leaving out a crucial nutrient from your diet can spell disaster in the long run.
“A high-potassium food with a low-sodium diet can help lower blood pressure,” says Maria E. Rodriguez, MS, RD, RSE, LND. “Eat 8 to 10 servings of fruits and vegetables a day.. Include potatoes, root vegetables, and beans to make sure you’re getting enough potassium each day. The American Heart Association recommends up to 4,700 milligrams of potassium per day.”
Get the most potassium for your money with 21 Potassium-Rich Foods That Keep Your Muscles Healthy and Strong.
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While you may not get enough potassium in your lifetime, overeating one type of food could spell disaster for your blood pressure.
“Processed foods tend to contain much more sodium than minimally processed alternatives,” he says. Eleana Kaidanian, RD, CDN, CPT-WFS. “For example, think of pre-made boxed or canned soups instead of homemade homemade soups, or store-bought salad dressings versus making your own. When you rely on processed foods for convenience, your total sodium intake for the day can very quickly add up to monster levels beyond your belief.”
“Time go out to dinner used to be a delicacy in the past, it’s much more common today, especially when considering takeout options,” Kaidanian says. “However, it’s impossible to determine the sodium added to restaurant food, especially less quality food from fast food places.
“You can never remove sodium from food, but you can be in control by adding it,” Kaidanian continues. “This is something to keep in mind and prioritize home cooking as much as possible or consider reducing the frequency of meals out per week. Just think, a slice of pizza from the pizzeria can contain as much as the recommended amount of sodium for an entire day, it will make you think twice about going back for seconds!”
Don’t feel like you need to ditch your favorite restaurants altogether in favor of your blood pressure. Be sure to follow the 35 tips to be healthy in restaurants and continue enjoying your favorite restaurants.
“Just like you couldn’t buy a pair of shoes without knowing the size, you shouldn’t buy packaged food without reading the ingredients,” says Kaidanian. “You need to know what’s going on in your body and how much, don’t assume anything. Look and compare sodium levels in products.”
“For example, [let’s look at] two brands of ketchupas well as the serving size for that amount of sodium,” she says. “One tablespoon of marinara from one brand has 500 milligrams of sodium compared to another that has 1,000 milligrams for the same serving. Read the ingredient list and see if salt is one of the first or last ingredients, this can also indicate how much sodium is in the product compared to other ingredients.”
“A client of mine who was recently diagnosed with hypertension was telling me about a skimmer she adds her coffee every day, several times a day. I asked her to read the ingredients and the first ingredient in the cream was salt. That was unexpected, but she told us a lot about the product and made finding a sodium-free alternative more receptive.”
Excessive alcohol consumption can lead to a variety of problems, and blood pressure problems are among many.
“Cut down on your alcohol intake,” he says. Caitlin Carr, MS, RD. “If you consume more alcohol than the recommended amount over time, your normal blood pressure may increase. The recommended amount is one drink a day for women and two for men. However, it may be better to drink less often if you have high blood pressure. Additionally, alcohol can have a negative impact on blood pressure medications, making this disease more difficult to control.”
If you decide to give up alcohol for a while, you may experience a variety of changes, including some Surprising side effects of not drinking alcohol.
“Fried foods are also strongly associated with high blood pressure,” it says Trista Best, RD at Balance One Supplements. “There are two main reasons why fried foods can increase blood pressure. First, they contain saturated and trans fats, which can cause weight gain. Weight gain can cause blood pressure to rise, as the heart has to work harder to pump blood Excess weight also puts pressure on the kidneys, which is a vital organ in regulating blood pressure.”
“Second, fried foods are often associated with fat, but they also contain a significant portion of sodium. The breading and seasonings used to fry foods are also often high in sodium.”
Eating too much fried food does more than just raise your blood pressure. Overeating these types of foods leads to some particularly dangerous side effects.
If you need to keep your blood pressure down, you don’t have to get rid of fat completely.
“Foods high in healthy fats (unsaturated fatty acids) include extra virgin olive oil, avocados, fatty fish like salmon, and walnuts, all of which can help you control your blood pressure,” says Katie Tomaschko, MS, RDN and contributor. on Sporty Smiles. “This is because healthy fats like omega-3 fatty acids can help reduce inflammation and blood vessel-constricting compounds (known as oxylipins) in the body.”
Learn what fats you need in your diet with this list of 20 Healthy Fatty Foods That Won’t Make You Fat.
If you really need to check your blood pressure, make sure you don’t use the salt shaker when dinner is served.
“Salt contains sodium, which is a major contributor to heart disease and high blood pressure,” says David Brendan, RD, director of marketing and chief designer of start paddling. “So if you have high blood pressure, you need to control your salt intake right away. Avoid including foods that contain a lot of salt in your diet chart.”
