Contents:
- Medical Video: How To Reduce High Blood Pressure Naturally | How To Prevent High Blood Pressure Naturally
- Guide to designing food habits for hypertension
- 1. Pay attention to calorie intake and food portions
- 2. Avoid salt (sodium)
- 3. Find out what you need to eat
- 4. Limit caffeine and alcohol
Medical Video: How To Reduce High Blood Pressure Naturally | How To Prevent High Blood Pressure Naturally
Hypertension should not be considered trivial. If not handled properly, this disease will trigger various complications that can endanger your health. One way you can control blood pressure is to start implementing a healthy diet, starting from choosing a food menu, counting calories, and monitoring portions. Having a healthy diet can even reduce the need to take hypertension medication. Consider below how to design a food menu for hypertension.
Guide to designing food habits for hypertension
1. Pay attention to calorie intake and food portions
Eating in large portions, especially also high in calories, can lead to being overweight or obese which will eventually trigger hypertension - or worsen it.
So, change your eating habits slowly by starting to record food diaries. Record what you eat and drink, how many times you eat (here are the times), including how much you eat.
Food diaries can help you realize how much your daily intake is. Reducing calories and the portion of the food you consume not only helps you lose weight, but also controls your blood pressure.
2. Avoid salt (sodium)
Foods for hypertension should not contain a lot of salt. Even the less salt you eat, the better your blood pressure controls. To start limiting salt intake in your diet, try these suggestions:
- Make a food journal to record the amount of salt in the food you eat.
- Reduce salt levels to 2,300 milligrams (about 1 teaspoon of salt) every day, in total. If necessary, ask the doctor whether you should reduce it lower than the dose or not.
- Always read nutrition labels, especially the sodium levels contained in each food label.
- Choose foods that have 5% or less sodium Daily Value.
- Avoid foods that have sodium Daily Value above 20%.
- Avoid canned foods, processed foods, and fast food.
- Use spices other than salt. For example spices such as cereal, ginger, coriander, garlic, onion, cumin, etc. for flavoring your natural cuisine.
3. Find out what you need to eat
When choosing food sources for hypertension, make sure the foods you choose are high in potassium, magnesium, and fiber to help control blood pressure.
Fruits and vegetables are examples of food sources that are high in potassium, magnesium, and fiber, as well as low in salt. Nuts and seeds, lean meat, and poultry are good sources of magnesium. Now, to increase the amount of potassium, magnesium and natural fiber, you can consume the following foods:
- Apple
- Apricot
- Banana
- Beetroot
- Broccoli
- Carrot
- Mustard
- Green beans
- Dates
- Wine
- Green beans
- Cabbage leaves
- Lima beans
- Mango
- Melon
- Orange
- Peach
- Pineapple
- Potato
- Raisins
- Spinach
- Pumpkin
- Strawberry
- Sweet potato
- Tangerine
- Tomato
- Tuna
- Yogurt (fat free)
4. Limit caffeine and alcohol
Caffeine and alcohol consumed in excess can increase your blood sugar and blood pressure. If you have high blood sugar or blood pressure after drinking coffee, limit your caffeine intake to 200 milligrams, around 2 cups of coffee per day.
For men, you must limit yourself to consuming 2 glasses of alcohol per day. While women, limit yourself to maximum alcohol consumption of 1 glass per day.
