Eating to Reduce Blood Pressure
If you find your blood pressure figures are rising it might be well worth cutting down on the salt in your diet. Avoid sprinkling it on your food obviously, but you also need to learn to look for hidden salt in food.
Processed food is particularly bad for containing hidden salt – surprisingly bread, soup, chicken nuggets, pizzas and ready-prepared Indian meals in the supermarket are amongst the worst culprits.
Instead, choose fresh ingredients and make your own. Soup is so easy and quick to prepare and once you have tasted the home-made version of your favourite flavor, canned and packet mixes will taste lifeless.
If you regularly eat take-out, it might be time to break the habit. Your pocket, waistline and blood pressure will thank you. Takeaway pizzas are the worst offenders, apparently containing almost two and a half times the amount of salt as the supermarket version. Some actually contain your entire daily recommended intake (or more) in one pizza! That's a whole teaspoon of salt in just one meal.
If you can't give up your slice, make it an occasional treat and choose toppings carefully - avoid pizzas topped with bacon, extra cheese or processed meat like salami or pepperoni.
Next on the salty list is Chinese food, followed by kebabs and Indian food. Cutting down on these types of takeout will lower your salt and fat intake.
Make sure you eat heart-healthy foods like whole-grains, fresh fruit and veg, make alcohol and caffeine based drinks an occasional treat and cut down or give up smoking - it's not just your blood pressure which will improve.
And let's face it, eating a healthier diet (not necessarily less food but making better choices) may well lead to weight loss. If it is weight gain that causes high blood pressure then this could help lower your figures – you will never know whether it was cutting out salty processed foods or weight loss, but as long as your blood pressure drops it doesn't really matter, does it?
