Foods That Lower Blood Pressure - Dietary Remedies

Looking for some useful foods that lower blood pressure?

Foods can be used as a very powerful tool when treating hypertension (and most diseases and conditions). Positive changes in diets have been clinically proven to lower blood pressure when followed daily.

The DASH (Dietary Approaches to stop Hypertension), first emerged from a report published in 1998, which conclusively showed that dietary patterns did affect blood pressure. The study determined that a diet low in saturated fat and sodium, but rich in produce and low-fat dairy products, lowered blood pressure as much as any antihypertensive medication then on the market. Better yet, reductions came within only two weeks of starting the plan, and appeared especially pronounced in patients who also suffered from obesity and whose diets had been typically American.

The DASH diet required no special exotic foods; rather, it works as an exercise in sensible, healthful eating. It also includes many of the specific known foods that lower blood pressure. The following include a few specific recommendations for foods shown to treat hypertension.

• Garlic is one of the foods that lower blood pressure. Garlic also lowers cholesterol, thins blood, protects from cardiovascular disease.
  
  
• Skim milk, an important source of calcium and vitamin D, should be part of your DASH diet. When choosing dairy products in general, be sure to reach for lower fat and lower sodium versions as often as possible. As a tip, soft cheeses tend to have fewer calories than hard cheeses. An interesting folk remedy used to treat blood disorders such as high blood pressure includes milk warmed and mixed with crushed garlic. The drink can then be sweetened with honey to taste.
  
  
• Spinach, like soy beans and bananas, has a great deal of potassium. Studies, such those conducted for a May 1999 John Hopkins report, have shown that potassium works to lower blood pressure, especially in individuals who had severe hypertension and continued to eat high-salt diets. Vital potassium can often be lost when patients take antihypertensive medications, which act as diuretic in the effort to expel excess sodium from the body. Steaming your spinach, as well as other vegetables, will ensure that potassium and other important trace minerals do not leach away.
  
  
• Unsalted sunflower seeds, as well as almonds, and other nuts contribute adequate levels of magnesium to the diet. High magnesium intake will lower blood pressure significantly; high magnesium foods are thus foods that lower blood pressure. If nuts cannot be added to the diet for any reason, substitute additional helpings of vegetables, whole grains, or in a pinch, milk of magnesia.
  
  
• Beans (kidney, white, navy, lima, pinto, black - fresh, frozen or canned with very low sodium content only), like many salad greens, supply good quantities of folate (folic acid), which also helps treat the disease. Beans are thus foods that lower blood pressure, too.
  
  
• Chocoholics can rejoice – 30 calories of dark chocolate a day reduces the risk of high blood pressure! Just be sure not to overdo it, as 30 calories get eaten quickly, and can be equated to the size of a Hershey’s kiss. Be sure that the chocolate you choose has large quantities of cocoa, the key ingredient which lowers systolic blood pressure due to flavanols present in its composition. Didn't expect dark chocolate to be among foods that lower blood pressure, did you?

When trying to incorporate the above power foods that lower blood pressure into your diet, try to keep a few suggestions in mind. Add fresh fruit to breakfast, or drink a vegetable juice “smoothie” in the morning. Cut back on butter and salad dressing, both sources of saturated fat that often overpower the subtly delicious flavors of the foods that they are served with. Switch to low fat or fat-free (just be sure to read labels, as these claims can be deceiving, and sometimes extra sodium has been added in. Some fat-free dressings actually have the same amount of calories as the regular version).

Replace meat with vegetarian dishes, once or twice a week, and work up from there. If you eat meat, think of meat as part of the meal, rather than the centerpiece. Mushroom and tofu dishes can replace the texture of meat particularly well. Start to think of fruits and vegetables as desserts and snacks, rather than “have-to's”.

Once a diagnosis of hypertension has been made, the following items should be curtailed or removed from the diet – alcohol, salt, and fatty foods. Heavy alcohol consumption can increase blood pressure radically. In addition, smokers appear to be at an increased risk as well. Sodium sensitivity can quicken the pace of hypertension as one get older. The average American diet contains far too much sodium. Heavily oiled, fried, and otherwise fatty foods can contribute to hypertension, too.

To beat hypertension naturally, you need to replace these bad foods with foods that lower blood pressure instead.

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