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Are You Eating Foods That Lower Blood Pressure? |
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Written by Paul Johnson
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Tuesday, 08 July 2008 |
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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.
by PaulJohnson
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.
One thing you should look at closely if you have high blood pressure is your alcohol consumption. Modest amounts of alcohol have been shown to be beneficial to blood pressure, but excessive amounts of alcohol have been shown to be damaging to blood vessels and in turn blood pressure. If you drink excessively, this can cause serious problems and make your 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.
Excessive salt is another thing that you should cut out of your diet if you have high blood pressure. Of course, too much salt isn't good for anyone (even those with normal blood pressure), but it can increase your already high blood pressure if you already have a problem with it.
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.
The best things you can eat when you have high blood pressure and you want to keep your pressure at a low include fresh fruits and vegetables and fish. Green vegetables are the healthiest for you and fruits like berries or cantaloupe. You don't want to eat too much of fruits that are really high in citrus.
If you have high blood pressure, the food you eat can have a significant impact on it, either positive or negative. If you eat foods high in saturated fat or salt, you could be raising your blood pressure without even being aware of it. Excess alcohol consumption, too, can cause your blood pressure to go up. What you eat can have a direct impact on your blood pressure, so make it a positive one and eat foods that lower blood pressure.
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