A blood pressure diet plan is not significantly different from any other good, healthy diet plan. A diet that is good for your blood pressure will also be good for your blood sugar, cholesterol and triglycerides. Certainly eating well usually results in feeling well. So, without further ado, let’s go eat for great health.

Any changes you make in your diet or exercise plan should be done with the good graces of your family doctor. He/she will know things about your health I wouldn’t know. For instance, one of the things a good blood pressure diet consists of is skim milk. However, you could be lactose intolerant and therefore unable to consume this product. Perhaps, you are taking a medication that something in this diet would interfere with. This is why a medical professional should approve of this diet for you.

Hi, High Fiber

A healthy blood pressure diet consists of whole grains and high fiber. One such a product is a 100% bran cereal. This should be eaten for several meals, perhaps 4 to 6, per week. It should be eaten with skim milk or perhaps sugar-free soy milk.

Pasta can also be bought in whole grain or blend varieties. These pastas are much better for you than the high starch pastas we used to eat. Eating whole grain pasta with plain or at least meat free spaghetti sauce would make for a very healthy, low-calorie meal. This is, of course, if you eat a normal serving.

Bye, Starches and Fats

White bread should be avoided. It should be replaced with 100% stone ground wheat bread. This is a high-fiber variety of bread and is much better for you. By the same token you shouldn’t butter the bread with high fat butter. However, there are soft butter substitutes that come in so-called tubs and are made from yogurt which make for a great substitute.

Eating beans, whether white, black, soybeans or lima beans are also a must on a blood pressure lowering diet. Beans are high potassium foods and potassium helps maintain healthy sodium levels. This is important when trying to gain optimum health.

Another high potassium food is the potato. The best way to prepare a potato is to bake it and eat it skin and all. Of course, filling it with cream or butter will make it a high-fat meal. A good trick is to take it with a no fat no-calorie salad dressing. This may add some sodium to the meal but it will not be significant unless the potato is drenched in the dressing.

Finally, instead of eating two or three meals a day, you should eat four or five. Eating five meals of 350 calories each will be much better for you than eating one meal of 1750 calories. Basically these are some of the things you can use to replace some of the other things you used to eat. Stay away from heavy alcohol consumption and stay away from fast foods and you will find this change will make a very healthy blood pressure diet.

High Blood Pressure has been called; “The silent killer,” because it has no recognizable symptoms early on that can alert us to the danger. The doctor’s office takes readings so often for this very reason, and also because the levels can change over short periods of time due to various circumstances. 33% of all adults in the United States have this condition and if left untreated, it can lead to heart attack, stroke, and damage to vital organs of the body. A person’s age is an important factor, and the levels need to be monitored more often as one gets older. This is greatly due to the natural accumulated effects of our lifestyles and diet added to possible hereditary and genetic predispositions.

Blood Pressure readings are a combination of two numerical readings; systolic pressure and diastolic pressure. The systolic measurement is the pressure generated by the beating of the heart, while the diastolic measurement is the pressure that exists between heart beats. The blood pressure measurement is a ratio of these numbers expressed in fractional form, with the systolic reading on top and the diastolic reading on the bottom. A normal reading would consist of a systolic number less than 120 and a diastolic reading of less than 80. A condition of pre-hypertension can exist if those numbers are between 1-9 points higher than 120/80 (121/81 – 129/89). Stage 1 Hypertension is diagnosed when those levels are over 140/90, and Stage 2 Hypertension exists when the levels are over 160/100.

High blood pressure (HBP) is broken down into two broad categories; Essential Hypertension, and Secondary Hypertension. Essential HBP, sometimes called primary, or idiopathic hypertension, is a condition with no known cause and has no cure as of yet. Secondary HBP is when the elevated levels are caused by known conditions such as heart, kidney, circulatory and endocrine system complications, or pregnancies.

There are some common misconceptions about what hypertension is also. For years, the primary focus was on the diastolic reading, with the reasoning that it was more indicative of potential problems. If levels were high even when the heart was at rest, then it seemed logical to assume that there was greater cause for concern than if the levels were high during heart beats. However in recent years it has been discovered that high systolic levels are no less significant, especially for older people. This form is called, “Isolated Systolic Hypertension,” (ISH) and it is common among older people.

The problem with most high blood pressure remedies is that they are expensive, especially over the long run.

Exercise
Sustained exercise does more than burn calories and help aid you in weight loss. It builds stamina and improves overall strength and endurance, not only in the muscles being worked, but in the heart as well. A stronger heart does not need to work so hard to pump blood throughout your body, which reduces your blood pressure.

Weight Loss
The same is true for substantial weight loss if you are overweight. Studies have shown that even modest weight loss has a significant impact on blood pressure. There is a very strong correlation between obesity and hypertension, and blood pressure steadily drops as you lose weight.

Water
Of all the blood pressure remedies we’ve discussed so far, this one comes as the biggest surprise to many. Recent studies have indicated that persistent hypertension may be a response to chronic dehydration.

When the body is dehydrated, the blood vessels constrict in an effort to hold on to the body’s moisture. That constriction causes what fluids are available to exert more pressure on the blood vessels, increasing blood pressure. So, it stands to reason that an increased intake of water should help relieve that.