This article will provide you with detailed dietary recommendations for prehypertensive and hypertensive blood pressure levels aka for a healthy heart.
Diet for High Blood Pressure and Hypertension, Diet and Blood Pressure Relationship
Healthy Heart: Even in middle life, when blood pressure levels generally rise as part of the aging process, having bad dietary habits contributes significantly to unhealthily high blood pressure levels.
Whether or whether you’re on antihypertensive medication, dietary changes (e.g., eating a nutritious low-fat diet) are typically at the top of a doctor’s list of suggestions for lowering or preventing high blood pressure.
Let’s have a look at the health repercussions of high blood pressure before discussing the best sort of food for hypertension.
Hypertension and High Blood Pressure Risks
An estimated 20-40% of all persons in both developing and industrialized countries suffer from persistently high blood pressure.
Atherosclerosis is caused by high blood pressure, which puts a burden on the heart (Thickening of vessels). Impairment to the heart, coronary artery disease, kidney failure, stroke, and eye damage are all possible outcomes.
You have a choice; try to save these essential organs by managing your blood pressure. Remember that hypertension is a silent killer; it has no outward signs or symptoms, and by the time you realize you have it, it has already begun to impair your key organs.
Normal Blood Pressure vs. Prehypertensive and Hypertensive Blood Pressure
At rest, a healthy adult’s blood pressure should be 120 (systolic) over 80 (diastolic) or less. Prehypertensive blood pressure is less than 120/80 and less than 140/90, while hypertensive blood pressure is more than 140/90.
To reduce or avoid the onset of hypertension and the risk of heart disease, both prehypertensive and hypertensive people should make dietary, exercise, and lifestyle adjustments.
Blood Pressure rises when you gain weight.
People who are overweight will have high blood pressure. Blood pressure drops dramatically when you lose weight. Obese people have a twofold increased risk of having the disease.
Furthermore, approximately 7 out of 10 obese persons have excessive blood pressure. Even a weight loss of ten pounds can make a difference.
High Blood Pressure Dietary Advice & Tips
If you have high blood pressure but are not overweight, here are some suggestions for lowering your blood pressure.
Healthy Heart Diets :
Select a Well-Balanced Diet
Your diet should be high in fruits, vegetables, and low-fat dairy foods, while low in saturated and trans-fats if you wish to lower your blood pressure. It should also have a low cholesterol content, a high fiber content, high calcium, potassium, and magnesium content, and moderate protein content.
The Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension (DASH) diet is recommended by the American Heart Association and the US government as a useful diet guide for lowering blood pressure.
The first step is to lower your sodium intake (Salt)
When you eat too much salt, your blood pressure rises. Eating too much salt or sodium-rich foods causes the body to absorb more fluid and retain more water, resulting in volume overload and high blood pressure.
Arterioles (blood arteries that inflate and contract to regulate blood pressure and blood flow) are also put under additional strain. Both of these effects result in a rise in blood pressure. For most people, the recommended daily sodium dose is 2,400 mg.
You can lower your sodium intake.
What steps can you take to reduce your sodium intake? Eat more fresh food and less pre-cooked or processed meals. Natural sources of sodium include cereals, fruits, vegetables, meats, nuts, and dairy products, albeit in far less amounts than processed foods (eg. packet, bottled or canned food).
Foods High in Sodium
These foods usually have a lot of sodium in them. If you don’t want to go above your RDA, avoid them altogether or choose low-sodium variants.
Soy sauce, steak sauce, salad dressing, baking powder, mustard, onion salt, seasoned salts such lemon pepper, bouillon cubes, meat tenderizer, and monosodium glutamate
- Peanuts, pretzels, and pork rinds are examples of salted snacks.
Corn chips, tortilla chips - Soups include quick soups and canned soups.
- Olives, sauerkraut, herring, pickles, relish, and other pickled foods
- Meats such as bacon, bologna, hot dogs, ham, corned beef, luncheon meats, and sausage, as well as Hogmaws, ribs, and chitterlings, are smoked or cured meats that contain sodium nitrite.
- Most cheese spreads and cheeses are made using dairy.
Club soda, saccharin-flavored soda, etc. - Cereals: Instant heated cereals, cold cereals that are ready to consume,
Boxed mixes such as rice, scalloped potatoes, macaroni and cheese, and frozen dinners, pot pies, and pizza are examples of ready-to-eat foods. Rice that cooks in a flash, quick noodles - Butter, fatback, and salt pork are examples of fats.
Look for items that are labeled as low-sodium, very low sodium, or salt-free on food containers. Check food labels for words like sodium nitrite, sodium propionate, disodium phosphate, and sodium sulfate, as well as monosodium glutamate (MSG), sodium benzoate, sodium hydroxide, and monosodium glutamate (MSG).
Reduced Sodium Consumption
- When cooking or preparing meals, don’t add any additional salt. Add extra herbs and spices to the mix.
- Salt should not be on the table while eating, and salt should not be added to salads.
- If you’re used to cooking with salt, try using chile, ginger, and lemon juice instead.
- Switch to fresh cold meats if you eat cured/smoked meats.
- Choose low-sodium cereals if you eat ready-to-eat breakfast cereal.
- Before you eat, give it a good rinse. If you eat canned tuna, salmon, sardines, or mackerel.
- Switch to low-sodium or fresh soups if you eat soup.
- Switch to 1 percent or skimmed buttermilk if you’re cooking with whole milk or a high-fat diet.
- Remember that if you eat a low-salt diet, your blood pressure will be within normal ranges.
These are my recommendations for a healthy heart. Hope you also have a healthy heart and a healthy life.
