High Blood Pressure? Change Your Eating Habits
Changing the way you eat isn’t necessarily an easy thing to do but if you have been diagnosed with high blood pressure, it could save your life. At the age of 42 I was diagnosed with high blood pressure and since I don’t like to take prescribed medications, I decided to monitor my own blood pressure and change my eating habits.
If a new eating plan is in the cards, you have lots of old habits to break and lots of new ones to make. Start by cutting the things you can LIVE without like fatty meats, salt, and alcohol. Then gradually add some low fat high fiber foods like beans, lean chicken breasts, and oatmeal!
Take your time. Learn to enjoy new foods. Don’t feel like you’re giving up all your favorite foods for the rest of your life…just get your medical situation under control by taking the warnings serious. Then you can enjoy, in moderation, all the foods you love the most.
Here are some eating changes I made to help lower my blood pressure (and my bad cholesterol):
1. Beans and Oatmeal. Beans are good for your heart. So try to include beans or peas in your meals at least a few times each week. I like to buy the dry beans and cook them at home as opposed to canned beans. That way I control the flavor and what goes in to the pot while eliminating all that extra salt in the canned beans. I thought I didn’t like oatmeal but actually it was the type of oatmeal I had eaten that I didn’t like. The standard type of oatmeal (in the U.S. anyway) is rolled oats which is a steamed flattened oat product. To me, it was just too mushy. So I started eating Steel Cut Oats. Fabulous! They take longer to cook but the taste is better and they are nutty with a great texture. I eat Steel Cut Oats every morning now and love them. You can get them at any health food store or larger grocer in your area.
2. Pass on the packaged food. Big problems can come in small containers. Listen. I love snack foods. But potato chips, corn chips, and crackers are killing you if you eat them regularly. Instead, try out some unsalted hard pretzels and dip them in a low/no fat product like mustard to give them additional flavor. I also eat low fat, no salt, microwave popcorn. Good fiber, some fat but it beats 99% of the other packaged snacks hands down.
3. Fried Foods. I love fried foods but I’ve taken steps to reduce my intake of just about all of them. Why fry? Any time you cook something in butter or oil, you’re adding tons of fat and needless calories. Instead of frying your meat or fish, try to bake, broil, or grill it. The same goes for vegetables. Try steaming them, roasting them, or stir-frying them in chicken broth. If you just can’t put down the frying pan, try using a nonfat cooking spray instead of oil. And if you can’t avoid oil, pick olive or canola oil, which contains healthier fats than butter.
4. Fast Food/Restaurants. As much as I love a good steak biscuit in the morning, there is very little fast food that will be beneficial in your quest to get your blood pressure down. But when in a restaurant, select salads and hold the bacon and the cheese, lean meats like fish or chicken (not fried), and deserts like jello.
5. Meat. Aaahhh…meat. I have a smoker and really enjoy throwing all types of meat in, starting it up, and feasting on ribs, pulled pork, sausage, and anything else I can get in before the door closes. But those cuts of meat need to be enjoyed in moderation and I went for a couple years eating sausage 3-4 times per week. It was good…but it wasn’t helping my health. I’ve switched out to lean chicken breast, salmon, other fish, and extra lean beef, with an occasional braised/baked lean boneless porkchop just to get my pork “fix”.
It’s ALL the small choices you make every meal, every day, that will help you get that blood pressure down. And the quicker it drops, the better off you will be and the quicker you can start to enjoy some of your old favorites..in moderation!
Larry is a small business owner living in the Southeastern part of the US, an area of the country known as the “stroke belt”. After getting a checkup it was clear that some lifestyle changes needed to be made. He tracks his progress at his new blog http://ljaya.wordpress.com/ and invites you to join him in his quest to get his blood pressure down without medication.
