Why should you care about a high blood pressure diet menu? High blood pressure is affecting over one-third of Americans, so don’t feel alone if you have it! What you have to do now is take control of your blood pressure and bring it down to avoid health risks in the future. Talking with your doctor should always be your first step in doing this, but maintain a healthy diet is also important.
High Blood Pressure Diet Menu
Eating right can help bring down high blood pressure, also known as hypertension whether or not you’re on medication. That’s why a high blood pressure diet menu is so important. The most important factor is reducing your sodium intake while boosting your potassium intake. You also want to try to eat potassium-rich foods with fruits, dairy, and vegetables. Like most healthy diets, it’s also important to stick to low-fat products, lean meats and fish, and to avoid foods with lots of cholesterol and saturated fats.
Finally, alcohol and caffeine have also been shown to raise blood pressure, so it’s important not to drink too much either!
Here are some meal ideas for your high blood pressure diet:
- Breakfast: A whole wheat bagel with peanut butter, a banana or an orange, and green tea.
- Lunch: The Mayo Clinic recommends trying tuna salad with unsalted tuna, fat-free mayo, grapes, celery, and romaine lettuce or a spinach salad with pears, orange, unsalted peanuts, and reduced-fat red wine vinaigrette
- Snack: Low-fat yogurt topped with nuts and fruits like bananas, apples, and berries
- Dinner: Try exotic Armenian Red Lentil Soup with Dried Apricots, Cumin Seed, and Thyme from MyFoodMyHealth or Roasted Halibut with Banana-Orange Relish from Eating Well.
- Dessert: Grilled Peach Sundaes from Eating Well are sweet, delicious, and healthy!
Why is it important to eat healthy when you have high blood pressure?
Keeping a healthy menu is important when you have high blood pressure because it has been proven to help reduce your blood pressure by 11.4/5.5 points on average. High potassium, low sodium, and weight loss have all been proven to help regulate blood pressure.
High blood pressure is the pressure of blood pushing against the walls of arteries as the heart pumps blood.
High blood pressure can lead to stroke, heart disease, heart attacks, vision problems, and kidney failure, so it’s best to take control of it now!
What else can you do about high blood pressure?
Don’t forget that it’s also important to maintain your weight, to exercise regularly, and to keep stress levels down when you have high blood pressure!
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