If you know that your family has high blood pressure, consider yourself lucky. You now have a clear warning sign that encourages you to take steps to prevent high blood pressure, such as changing your diet.
You see, high blood pressure is often called a “silent killer”. According to the Mayo Clinic, most people with high blood pressure have no recognizable symptoms, even if blood pressure tests show that their blood pressure is dangerously high. Therefore, knowing that a parent, uncle, aunt, or other member of the family has hypertension can also indicate that they may have a genetic predisposition to develop high blood pressure.
But don’t just blame the genes. Families tend to share the same diet, exercise, and other lifestyle habits such as smoking and drinking. In short, by examining your diet and family lifestyle, you can find changes that may be needed if you want to avoid the same fate. High blood pressure also tends to lead to serious chronic illnesses such as heart disease, kidney failure, and stroke, so there is good reason to investigate over time.
How to change your health trajectory through your diet.
You can’t stop aging or change your genetics, but you can adjust your lifestyle, such as what you eat every day, to reduce your risk of high blood pressure.
Study in CirculationThe American Heart Association journal has determined that lifestyle changes are a powerful tool for avoiding high blood pressure, even in groups of people at high genetic risk.
Researchers analyzed 314 studies previously involving more than 2 million people without cardiovascular disease and scored participants according to lifestyle factors such as obesity index, diet, sedentary behavior, drinking, and smoking. Did.
Comparing people with a healthy lifestyle to those with a poor diet and other negative behavioral factors, researchers found that people with healthy habits have high blood pressure, even if they have a family history of high blood pressure. We have determined that the risk of cardiovascular disease is 31% lower.
Takeaway is that you Even if your family has high blood pressure or heart disease, it can play an important role in changing the course of your health. And you can start with something that you have ultimate control over: improving your diet.
Start reducing your risk of high blood pressure by adopting these important eating habits. For more information on how to eat healthy, don’t miss the # 1 best juice to drink every day.
By doing this regularly, you can automatically reduce the amount of salt in your diet. And sodium has a great effect on your blood pressure.
Eating too much salt makes it difficult for your kidneys to get rid of water from your body. Water accumulates and blood pressure rises. The 2020-2025 Diet Guidelines for Americans recommend eating approximately 2,300 milligrams (mg) of sodium per day. This is sufficient if you are only using salt to season your diet. “Most Americans consume well over 2,300 mg, primarily from fast foods, processed foods, canned foods, and frozen foods,” says a registered dietitian nutritionist. Su-Nui Escobar, RDNWith an evolving nutritionist.
She states that habitualizing the following four steps can significantly improve heart health.
- Taste the food before using the salt shaker. Even without the extra salt, you will find the food delicious.
- Limit the number of fast food meals you eat.
- Significantly reduces the intake of processed foods high in sodium and cooked foods such as frozen dinners.
- Choose fresh foods over frozen and canned foods. Canned vegetables also contain a lot of sodium as a preservative. Rinse with water before eating.
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This advice applies to everyone, especially those with a family history of high blood pressure.
“Limit dietary meat consumption to 3 ounces, about the size of a palm. Treat lean marble meat and fried foods as a rare treat, remove fat from all meat fillets, and choose low-fat dairy products. And will significantly increase the amount of fruits, vegetables and fiber you consume each day, “says a registered nutritionist nutritionist. Rebecca shilling, RDN, LDNA contributor to USARX.
“Foods high in saturated fat cause a storm of perfect trouble that contributes to heart health, arterial blockage, elevated bad (LDL) cholesterol, and high blood pressure,” Schilling adds.
If you can’t give up lean meat, choose at least a lean cut such as sirloin, round, or very lean ground beef.
Related: Dietitians say eating habits to avoid due to low cholesterol after age 50
Processed meats such as sausages, bacon, and deli meats are said to be high in saturated fat, as well as sodium and other heart-unhealthy preservatives. Melissa Mitri, RDWellness Verge Registered Dietitian.
“Get in the habit of limiting your intake of processed meats as much as possible,” she says. Clinical studies have shown that it can have an impact.One study of American Journal of Clinical Nutrition Women who consumed more than 5 servings of processed lean meat per week were found to have a 17% higher rate of hypertension than women who ate less than 1 serving per week.
“I have very good ideas about two diets that do a very good job (lowering blood pressure and preventing heart disease) in randomized clinical trials,” he says. Anthony Cave, Ph.D. in Medicine, Medical Secrets Revealed Integrative medicine physician and anesthesiologist writing blog. “They are a Mediterranean diet and a dash diet.”
The Mediterranean diet is based on traditional foods from countries adjacent to the Mediterranean, including vegetables, legumes, fruits, nuts, seeds, whole grains, herbs, some fish, poultry and dairy products. Focuses on base foods. Olive oil is the main source of fat. It mainly avoids processed foods, sweets and lean meats.
DASH stands for Diet to Prevent High Blood Pressure and is a healthy diet plan for the heart specially designed to avoid high blood pressure. DASH’s diet plan incorporates many of the same low-salt foods as the Mediterranean diet, but with daily and weekly nutritional goals.
Both dietary styles are routinely proposed by nutritionists and doctors for patients with high blood pressure, but these diets are not fail-safe treatments because “medicines are by no means all-purpose”, Dr. Kaveh. Says. “You can look up the laundry list of all foods on the DASH and Mediterranean diets, but it’s a waste of time if they don’t resonate with the patient’s cultural values and preferences and it’s not sustainable.” He says. “The ultimate tool is for patients to know themselves and experiment to find healthy foods they enjoy.”
read more: Everything you need to know about the Dash Diet
According to the American Heart Association, the essential mineral potassium relieves tension in the walls of blood vessels and lowers blood pressure. It helps your kidneys get rid of sodium from your body through urination. Therefore, it is important to get enough potassium in your diet to prevent high blood pressure.
“The best way to eat enough potassium is to eat fresh vegetables and fruits every day,” says Escobar. Top sources include beans, lentils, other legumes, bananas, leafy vegetables, broccoli, and nuts.
read more: Popular foods with more potassium than bananas
Processed snack foods in bags such as potato chips and cookies, and baked goods such as pastries and bagels are very high in sodium, calories, and in some cases saturated fats and added sugars, all of which are metabolic disorders such as heart disease. May cause. But another thing these foods do is detrimental to healthy blood pressure. “They are so palatable that they encourage overeating and increase the risk of weight gain,” says Mitri.
And weight gain, especially obesity, is a powerful risk factor for high blood pressure. According to Mitri, soda can be added to the list of high-sugar, high-calorie items that play a major role in obesity and subsequent high blood pressure. Replace soda with these best drinks to reduce visceral fat.
