Want the really simple way to lower your blood pressure? It might sound easy and obvious thing to do but in the everyday reality it is easier said than done.
So what is it? Change your diet!
If you follow this insider tip you’ll see how easy it is to change your diet without too much of a difference in your lifestyle. You’ve heard it before, but fruits and vegetables can make a difference in helping you to look and feel better. Who wouldn’t like that?
We aren’t talking about changing everything you eat to fruits and vegetables (though you’d probably be really healthy afterwards). We are talking about changing your diet slowly. All good things happen slowly, so there is no need to rush.
Unless you are way overweight in which case you might want to see a Doctor and have him advise you on the best quick way to rapid weight loss (if there is such a thing).
It is a well-known fact that heart diseases and excess body weight are related. Obesity, heavy alcohol consumption and lack of activity are the main factors causing high blood pressure. Too much body fat leads to an increased risk of health problems through clogging the blood vessels with cholesterol.
That is why the successful treatment of high blood pressure starts with following a diet specifically aimed at reducing high blood pressure.
If you already have high blood pressure, you cannot reverse it to low permanently. Instead, you can control your high blood pressure by taking a prescribed medication and amending your diet. Research has shown that a high blood pressure diet can effectively prevent blood pressure from rising above normal.
Here are some simple tips to help you follow your high blood pressure diet guidelines:
1) Make sure you eat a healthy breakfast.
It’s a fact that that keeping our weight off is easiest done by eating breakfast. While this might sound counterintuitive to you, eating breakfast is one of the best things you can do to keep the pounds off. Think about it. You’ve just woke up from 8 hours of no food, most like proceeded by two hours of not eating before bed. If you wait 4 hours until lunch, you’ve effectively starved your body for 14 hours. That’s the majority of a day! When you finally do eat lunch, you are much likely to overeat and you might confuse your metabolism.
So, a quick breakfast can be as easy as a bowl of cereal, a slice of whole-wheat toast, cereal bar or fresh fruit.
2) Eat the right foods when you do eat.
Unfortunately, the US is the land of salt and sugar in our foods. While these may really taste great (we like them as much as you do), we’ve found that these delicious ingredients can really pack on the pounds and keep our blood pressure higher than it needs to be.
According to some health experts, calcium and potassium rich foods are the best for lowering your blood pressure over time. Off the top of our heads, we can think of several foods in each category.
A couple of the foods rich in calcium are tofu and cottage cheese. Try eating some of these types of foods, they might affect your diet in a nice way.
A couple foods rich in potassium are carrots and broccoli. It seems like no matter how you slice it, fruits and vegetables are good for you. And come one, while they are definitely good for your diet, they don’t taste that bad!
So, when following your high blood pressure diet, your daily food intake must include foods from five food groups:
- * Protein: Eat meats that are lower in fat, such as chicken, turkey, tuna, or low-fat luncheon meats. Make salads with a low fat meat or vegetables and light salad dressing.
- * Grains: Always try eating a whole wheat version of your favorite bread, be it a loaf, a bagel or a roll.
- * Vegetables: Eat tomatoes, peppers, baby carrots and other colorful vegetables as many as you like. The brighter the vegetable, the more antioxidant vitamin A it contains.
- * Fruits: Fruits should be eaten fresh. Fruit has fiber and healthy calories, and you will want to eat less during the day. Juice has fructose which fills up with energy. That’s why juice should become a part of a healthy breakfast along with a cereal.
- * Dairy: Try low-fat or non-fat milk, non-fat chocolate milk, and low-fat cheese. Basically, any type of cottage cheese or yogurt goes well with fruit.
If you want to avoid facing complicated and often life-threatening consequences of high blood pressure, you may want to ensure that you and your family eat healthy meals that don’t pack on the pounds and rise your cholesterol.
3) Regular Blood Pressure Monitoring.
Switching to a diet without excessive fat and salt and staying fit will help you lose weight and can help prevent or at least delay heart-related problems.
Without monitoring your blood pressure, numbers 1 and 2 above are almost not worth pursuing. You might as well stay on your current diet. Watch for the signs in your blood pressure.
Some health experts (and Doctors) have signs they look for in blood pressure. Know them.
According to some health experts, they can make a world of difference. Along with monitoring and medication treatment, a high blood pressure diet can help control your blood pressure and reduce your risk of stroke, kidney and heart failure and heart attack.
See your doctor before making any diet or lifestyle changes.