Avoid These Foods If you Wish to Control High BP

When a patient is diagnosed with high BP, doctors mostly suggest an altered diet plan as a natural way to reduce high blood pressure.The DASH(Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension) diet is the one most recommended as it incorporates healthy high fibre, high potassium & low sodium diet foods that lower blood pressure such as fruits & vegetables, whole grains, nuts, low fat dairy products, lean meats etc.
But for the DASH diet to be effective the patient also needs to avoid certain foods that increase the risk of high blood pressure.

Here Are Some Foods To Avoid If You Have High Blood Pressure:

• Sodium Salt –The first thing that your doctor will tell you if you have high blood pressure is to limit your salt intake. Salt is literally villain number one for hypertension! Salt raises the amount of sodium in the bloodstream which results in extra fluid in the body and puts extra pressure on the blood vessels that carry blood throughout our body. This extra water stored in the body raises the blood pressure. The lower the sodium content in your diet, better the chances of controlling your high blood pressure and therefore, people having hypertension should limit the salt intake to between 2,300 to 1,500 mg per day. Processed, packaged or frozen foods such as chips, deli meat, frozen pizza, canned products are some of the saltiest foods around. While grocery shopping, check the nutritional facts on food packages and select those with 5% or less daily value sodium and avoid those with 20% or more daily value sodium.
• Saturated & Trans Fat – Food items which contain saturated fats and trans fats are high in sugar content and low-fibre carbohydrates which increase LDL levels of cholesterol thereby increasing the risk of high blood pressure as well as heart problems. Prepackaged, processed, frozen and canned food items such as chicken skin, processed deli and lunch meat (cured, seasoned, and preserved with salt), butter, canned tomato soups, full fat dairy products, chips, pretzels, frozen pizza, all have high levels of either saturated or trans fats.
• Pickles – Pickles are preserved for an extended time and any preservation process requires large amounts of salt for the product to not decay and keep it edible for long. The longer vegetables sit in canning and preserving liquids, the more sodium they can pick up and can cause an increase in blood pressure levels.
• Sugar – Sugar is bad for weight gain and diabetes, but studies have shown that sugar can also be a cause for high blood pressure. Artificially sweetened juices, aerated drinks can cause obesity in people of all ages and can put those overweight at a risk of high blood pressure.
• Alcohol – Although a small amount of alcohol (one drink for women and two or less per day for men) may help regulate your blood pressure indulging in too much drinking can result in hypertension. Alcohol is full of calories that may lead to obesity and also impedes the effective working of high blood pressure medications.

Note of caution: This article is for information purposes only. Always consult your doctor before altering any diet plans, medications or in case of any other blood pressure-related troubles.