Chocolate, and 7 other foods to lower blood pressure
A healthy diet is key when it comes to lowering your blood pressure
Optimal blood pressure is at or below 120/80 mm Hg.
If you’ve been diagnosed with high blood pressure, your doctor has probably already told you the basics. You can control blood pressure by getting to and maintaining a healthy weight; reducing your “bad? cholesterol (LDL) if it’s high; limiting the salt in your diet; exercising; and adding calcium, vitamin D, magnesium and potassium to your diet.
The following eight foods are among the best of the best when it comes to lowering your blood pressure.
Skim milk
Skim milk provides calcium and vitamin D, two nutrients that work as a team to help reduce blood pressure by about 3 to 10 percent. Although this doesn’t sound like much, it could add up to about 15 percent reduction in risk for cardiovascular disease.
Spinach, unsalted sunflower seeds, beans (black, white, navy, lima, pinto, kidney) Spinach, unsalted sunflower seeds and beans are all loaded with magnesium, a key ingredient for lowering and maintaining healthy blood pressure levels. These foods also provide lots of potassium, a primary nutrient in the fight against high blood pressure (see below).
Baked white potato, banana, soybeans
These three foods provide ample potassium. Your blood levels of potassium and sodium are inextricably linked. When potassium is low, the body retains sodium (and too much sodium raises blood pressure). When potassium is high, the body gets rid of sodium. Eating potassium-rich foods is important for maintaining a healthy balance of both minerals and, by extension, for keeping blood pressure low.
Important note: Do not take potassium supplements unless specifically prescribed by your doctor. Too much potassium will upset the balance, and could have serious, even life-threatening consequences.
Dark chocolate
Hooray for dark chocolate! Eating about 30 calories a day — that’s less than half an ounce of dark chocolate — was associated with a lowering of blood pressure without weight gain or other adverse effects, according to a study in the July 4, 2007, issue of JAMA (Journal of the American Medical Association).
Love Chocolate? Then try Limited Edition Snyders of Hanover Chocolate Pretzel Ice Cream
November 17th, 2007 at 11:31 pm
[...] Brick ONeil wrote an interesting post today on Chocolate, and 7 other foods to lower blood pressureHere’s a quick excerptYou can control blood pressure by getting to and maintaining a healthy weight; reducing your “bad? cholesterol (LDL) if it’s high; limiting the salt in your diet; exercising; and adding calcium, vitamin D, magnesium and potassium to … [...]
November 18th, 2007 at 2:13 am
[...] Brick ONeil created an interesting post today on Chocolate, and 7 other foods to lower blood pressure.Here’s a short outline:If you’ve been diagnosed with high blood pressure, your doctor has probably already told you the basics. You can control blood pressure by getting to and maintaining a healthy weight; reducing your “bad? cholesterol (LDL) if it’s high; … [...]
November 23rd, 2007 at 6:15 am
How I solved my High Blood Pressure and Wight problems
Hi to all.
About 3 years ago I had problem with my blood pressure, caused by stress, wrong diet and low activity. And I was
only 25!! Wight, a little more than 100 kg.
The solution to this problem came to me accidentally. About 3 years ago I had to change my workplace. I had to walk
to and from my new Work every day about 3 kilometers (about 2 miles), thats made 6km (about 4 miles) a day and took
about 40 minutes. I did this a bit faster than normal walk and in 2 Months I lost 20 kg and my blood pressure went
to normal (and cholesterol too).
So this is my story. Hope this makes sense to You.
P.S I found some articles about High Blood Pressure, maybe You’ll like them:
- Lifestyle Changes For High Blood Pressure – are they safe?
- Blood Pressure Variations Explained
- Understanding High Blood Pressure
- Causes of
high blood pressure
- Do You
Have High blood Pressure?
- Exercising vs High Blood Pressure
Enjoy,
To Your Health, Juri
November 24th, 2007 at 1:25 pm
[...] Skim milk provides calcium and vitamin D, two nutrients that work as a team to help reduce blood pressure by about 3 to 10 percent. Although this doesnt sound like much, it could add up to about 15 percent reduction in risk for …Chocolate, and 7 other foods to lower blood pressure [...]
January 7th, 2008 at 12:14 pm
[...] Check out this post on Vitamin D! [...]