It is said that there are in the region of 73 million adults in the US alone today who are suffering from high blood pressure and that over 50,000 individuals will die as a result of the condition during the course of this year. Sadly, many of these deaths could be prevented and one of the simplest and quickest ways to reduce your blood pressure is to alter your eating habits.
There have been significant changes in our lives in recent years and one particularly significant change for most of us is seen in our eating habits. The days of enjoying three home-cooked meals each day have gone and have been replaced by to a large extend by convenience foods and fast food which has led to a number of different problems including the rising problems of obesity and high blood pressure. Happily, this is a situation which can be easily and quickly reversed.
Fast and convenience foods carry two main problems and these are fat and salt, both of which have been shown to increase your blood pressure.
Salt is added to an enormous number of food during the manufacturing and packaging process to add flavor and act as a preservative and your daily salt intake can be extremely high without even adding further salt to your food at the table. In particular, canned foods often contain high levels of salt as do frozen dinners and pizza, so look closely at the labeling and see exactly how much salt (sodium) products have in them before you buy them. Your overall daily intake of sodium should be as low as you can get it but should not be more than 2,400 milligrams which is equivalent to about a teaspoonful.
Another adversary when it comes to high blood pressure is fat and, while a bit of fat in your food is healthy, high fat food ought to be avoided whenever possible. As well as fats and oils themselves (like butter, lard, vegetable oil, margarine and meat dripping) many of our favorite foods are high in fat. Keep an eye out for foods like cream, french fries, pastries, fried chicken, corned beef, pies, ice cream, whole milk, sausages, nuts, bacon, cream cheese, cakes, salami, cheddar, cookies and almost all fast foods.
At this point you may well be thinking that this list of food items contains just about everything you eat and that if you cut all of these out of your diet you will starve to death. The good news is that this is far from the case and that the range of foods still open to you is extensive. There are two ways to tackle the problem.
The first method is to simply replace items in your current diet with food items which are lower in fat or salt. For example, replace normal full-fat milk with half-fat or semi-skimmed milk and regular ground beef with lean ground beef.
The second method is to add new foods into your diet and replace some of your current favorite high fat foods. For example, add more fresh fruit and vegetables into your meal plan and replace french fries with boiled potatoes and rather than frying food try grilling|grill it. Grilled meat and fish is not only much better for you but it also tastes delicious.
High blood pressure really does not have to be a problem for most people and a few simply changes to what we eat can solve the problem easily and quickly.
No comments: