Blood Pressure.

Beating Blood Pressure.

My family has a history of high blood pressure. This has interested me into exploring how nutrition can help prevent it.
What follows, are my best tips to lower the risk.

The higher your blood pressure, the shorter your life expectancy. There's a reason that high blood pressure has the natty title, "silent killer", which is that it almost never shows symptoms, until – bang! – a heart attack or stroke. A quarter of the UK population has high blood pressure, and yet a third of these people don't even know it. So, getting your ticker checked out is a smart move to make - the figure you should be aiming for is 140/85mmHg.

Much of your blood pressure (BP) is beyond your control – your genes have a lot to answer for, and your BP gradually climbs as you get older. But there's still a lot you can do to regulate your BP, and thinking about what you eat is a vital part of this.
Watch your weight
Put down that greasy burger! Being overweight bumps up your blood pressure and stresses your heart. If you're overweight and have high blood pressure, simply shedding 5-10% of your weight can lower your blood pressure enough to reduce your heart attack risk by 20%.
Salt
Salt can raise your blood pressure to danger levels, and most of us eat too much of it: the average intake in the UK is 10-12g per day, roughly double the recommended maximum of 6g. Reducing your salt intake is one of the quickest ways to lower your BP. You can ditch the salt cellar, and stop sprinkling it all over your food. But watch out – around 75% of the salt in our diets sneaks in via processed foods.
You need to:
Cut down on salty foods like crisps, bacon, cheese and soy sauce.
Cut down on fast food and ready meals.
Check labels on foods like baked beans, tinned spaghetti, tomato ketchup, pizzas, soups, tinned vegetables, tinned beans and lentils, and even hot chocolate and breakfast cereals – some brands are much higher in salt than others.
Make as much of your food from scratch as you can.
Use herbs and spices to season your food instead of salt.
Saturated fat
Saturated fats raise the level of harmful cholesterol in your blood, furring up your arteries and making them less elastic. This makes it harder for your heart to pump blood around your body,
creating resistance so that your blood pressure rises.

Reduce your intake of sat-fat by:
Trimming fat from meat, and removing skin from poultry.
Choosing low-fat dairy products.
Using low-fat olive spread rather than butter .
Cutting down on processed foods (especially fast food, and processed meats such as sausages).
When you do buy processed foods, check the label for the saturated fat content.
Alcohol
The safe drinking limits are no more than 3-4 units of alcohol per day for men (2-3 for women). And even less than that can raise your blood pressure – probably just 2-3 units per day. Two units is a mere pint of standard-strength beer, or about a glass of wine. That Special Brew and pork scratchings combo is probably not a great idea, then.
Caffeine
Caffeine is no longer seen as a dietary evil – but it can raise your blood pressure. If your blood pressure is on the high side, stick to decaff, or at least curb your daily triple-Americano habit.


Good for blood pressure

Unsaturated fats
While saturated fats boost your blood pressure, their unsaturated counterparts can lower it, reducing your "bad" cholesterol levels and helping to keep your arteries fur-free. Your heart finds it easier to do its job, reducing your risk of heart attacks and strokes.

A moderate amount of unsaturated fats is healthy (just don't let your total fat intake creep too high, or the weight will creep on too). Nature's bounty of unsaturated fats includes olive oil, oily fish, nuts and seeds, and oils such as corn oil, safflower, and nut and seed oils. A fish oil supplement is a good idea, too.

Potassium
It's the sodium in salt that raises your blood pressure, and potassium works to counterbalance this harmful effect. You'll get enough of this mineral if you get munching on bananas, nuts, seeds, lentils, figs and green leafy vegetables.

If you make these changes to your diet, you may not be aware of your blood pressure going down, but you should feel better in other respects. Cutting out the fatty, salty junk, cooking from scratch, and filling up on low-fat protein, wholegrain carbs, healthy oils and plenty of fruit and veg, will give you more energy, boost your immunity, and help shift any excess flab. Result, all rou