You Can Eat Foods That Lower Blood Pressure

by Paul Johnson

If you have high blood pressure, you need to pay attention to your diet. You should avoid certain foods if you want to help lower your blood pressure.

Drinking alcohol occasionally may not be detrimental to blood pressure, but drinking it a lot is. Alcohol has been known to have a detrimental effect on your blood pressure, and can raise it. High blood pressure damages the walls of your blood vessels, which in turn elevates your blood pressure even more. If you drink excessively, this can cause serious blood vessel difficulties and make your high blood pressure even more difficult to treat.

In addition, you can increase complications with your blood pressure if you drink excessively. Studies have shown that drinking a small amount of alcohol can have a protective effect on your heart, but larger amounts can actually be detrimental. Check with your doctor to find out whether or not you should have alcohol in your diet. If advised, you may even be told to cut it out of your diet entirely.

Salt is another thing most Americans get too much of. If you suffer from high blood pressure, you should cut excess salt out of your diet. Of course, foods contain sodium naturally, and small amounts of sodium are indeed necessary. Nonetheless, you can get everything you need from your food naturally without adding any additional salt.

Therefore, limit or eliminate your salt consumption if you have high blood pressure. Foods naturally contain sodium themselves, so you’ll get everything you need from your diet without adding extra salt. Your doctor will be able to tell you how much if any salt you can consume besides that which naturally occurs in your food.

Saturated fats, too, are bad for your blood vessels and your heart when consumed excessively. If you eat a lot of fats, especially saturated or trans fats, they can raise your cholesterol levels and damage your circulatory system. Your diet should have only modest amounts of these types of fats. Limit your consumption of processed foods such as cakes, fried foods, fast foods, and simple sugars. Meats do contain some saturated fat, but can be consumed in moderation. Concentrate on fish and chicken as meat sources.

If your circulatory system is already under a lot of stress because you have high blood pressure, high fat foods can plays an additional stress on your body. Dairy products too, should be of the low fat or no fat variety, since full fat dairy products contain lots of saturated fat.

If you have high blood pressure, eat lots of fresh fruits and vegetables, as well as fish. Eat modest amounts of dairy products and meat, and include some sources of monounsaturated fats in your diet, such as moderate amounts of nuts, canola oil, or olive oil.

If you have high blood pressure, the food you eat is very important. If you eat a lot of high fat or highly salted food, this can cause your blood pressure to go off without your even being aware of it. Eat foods low in salt and saturated fat, and avoid excess alcohol consumption. All of this can be very damaging to your blood vessels, which in turn can raise your blood pressure. By contrast, a good diet can also significantly lower your blood pressure.

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