In the past, when a person was diagnosed with high blood pressure, they would usually be given dietary advice on how to lose weight and eat more healthily. Modern medicine has done many wonderful things, but the focus has shifted from diets and healthy eating to tablets and monitoring. Although some people with hypertension may need to be treated through the use of tablets, a healthy eating programme can still help you to reduce your blood pressure and improve your general state of health.
Losing weight is only one of the benefits of diets and healthy eating. In order to control your blood pressure successfully, you will need to follow a restricted diet. Everyone has been advised to avoid excess salt, but in order to reduce a high blood pressure you need to make sure that you restrict your salt intake – cut it right back if you can. You should also make sure that you avoid fats, particularly saturated fat, which can harden your arteries and increase blood pressure. You will also have to cut back on red meats and sugars, in order to prevent the arteries from becoming blocked. This focus upon things to cut out can be the worst part of any restrictive eating programme, but there are also positive steps that you can take to improve your health with a suitable diet.
You should also be looking to add things to your diet, such as fruits and vegetables, grains, poultry, fish and nuts. The foods on a blood pressure eating programme can actually help you to become healthier, because they will contain essential vitamins and minerals which your body will use to improve metabolism, digestion, and other areas. Without these nutrients in your body, you become weak, easily fatigued, and less resistant to illness. The vitamins in fruits, vegetables and grains can also reduce your risk of stroke and heart disease, which is important when you have been diagnosed with high blood pressure.
One of the positive things which improve your health through diets and healthy eating is that your LDL cholesterol will be reduced. This is the type of cholesterol which is considered to be bad for your heart, so by eating more fruit and vegetables, and sticking to your healthy eating plan, you can significantly reduce your risk of heart disease.
Following these programs for reducing high blood pressure through healthy eating can help you to drop the pressure within a fortnight. While you will need to keep taking medication until you have spoken to your doctor, you should notice the health benefits long before this.
By: Tulip Anstell
