Diet and healthy eating
The food you eat is closely linked to your blood pressure and health. Make changes to your diet to help lower your blood pressure and improve your health. Whether or not your blood pressure is raised, everyone can benefit by changing the food you eat in your diet. A healthy diet is suitable for the whole family. Changing what you and your family eat may seem difficult at first; old habits can be hard to change. But once you get used to the changes in your diet you will feel better your health will improve and will enjoy your food much more.
If you have high blood pressure then you may need to take medication. If you do, then making changes to your diet can help make your tablets
work more effectively. If you do not take medication you may find that you are able to control your high blood pressure and lower it
simply by eating different foods and being more active. Changes you can make to your diet and the foods you eat that will help to lower your blood pressure. Cutting down on salt, eating more fruit and vegetables and eating less fat and saturated fat will all have a beneficial effect not only on your blood pressure but on your general health too, helping to increase your energy and make you feel better. To see the impact on lowering your blood pressure by reducing salt in your diet many people find encouragement in regularly measuring their own blood pressure with automatic digital home monitors - follow this link for more information about recommended accurate machines. What is a healthy diet?You should base your meals on two groups of food:
There are two groups of food that you should only eat moderate amounts of:
You should only eat very limited amounts of high sugar and high fat foods Good food is a very important part of our life and in no way should you see these changes as restrictive. The changes that you make in your diet will make food more enjoyable and taste better. SaltWhy is salt important? The amount of salt that we eat has a direct effect on our blood pressure. The more salt we eat the higher our blood pressure. Further information about salt and blood pressure Fruit and Vegetables Why are fruit and vegetables important? The Department of Health recommends that everyone in the UK should eat at least five portions of fruit and vegetables per day but ideally you should be eating seven to nine portions. Eating more fruit and vegetables will lower your blood pressure. Fruit and vegetables are a good natural source of potassium. This has the opposite effect to sodium or salt and will help to lower your blood pressure Fruit and vegetables also contain antioxidants, eg, vitamins C and E, which may play an important role in preventing heart disease Fruit and vegetables are very low in salt, usually contain little fat and are a good source of fibre Vegetables are easy to cook and fruit does not need preparation How much is a portion?A portion of fruit and vegetables is 80 grams, which means:
*However much you eat or drink, pulses and juice can each only count as one portion per day It is best to eat fruit and vegetables freshly cooked or raw, but if this is not possible, frozen, dried and tinned vegetables are better than none. Tinned vegetables usually have salt added and tinned fruits may have large amounts of sugar so only choose ones with no added salt and no added sugar. Vegetables with sauces will have salt added. Try to have fruit juice at breakfast and dried fruit on cereals. Instead of having biscuits (full of fat and salt!) mid-morning or afternoon, have fruit or salt-free bread with fruit. Eating lots of fruits and vegetables is the best way to get potassium, and you should not take potassium supplements (tablets) unless prescribed by your doctor. Potatoes are counted as starch, not vegetables, but they are a very good source of carbohydrate and potassium. (Avoid chips or added salt!) Fat and CholesterolMost of us eat too much fat including too much saturated fat, which directly causes raised cholesterol and causes weight gain. Fatty foods contain huge numbers of calories compared to the same amount of carbohydrate foods and fruit and vegetables. Further information about fat and cholesterol SugarSugar, which includes table sugar (sucrose), glucose and syrups, is a refined carbohydrate which means that a lot of the goodness from the natural product has been removed during the manufacturing process. There is strong evidence that sugar, which is digested and absorbed quickly by the body, can cause raised blood sugar and insulin levels which in the long-term may be harmful to your health, being linked to diabetes and heart disease. Sugar is also an important cause of tooth decay. Eating too much sugar can lead to weight gain over time, which puts you at risk of high blood pressure. Sugary foods are high in calories and can lead to a quick energy rush followed by a slump afterwards. This may cause you to feel sluggish and low in energy and can lead to cravings for more sugary foods, so that you eat too much and put on weight. Sugar, like salt, is an acquired taste that can be altered, so avoid it as far as possible. Your sugar or sweet receptors on your tongue will adjust. Many processed foods, particularly those aimed at children, contain large amounts of sugar, eg, soft drinks, sweets, breakfast cereals, cakes, biscuits, chocolate and snacks. Watch out too for processed foods that carry labels like ‘low-fat’. Very often the fat in these foods has been replaced by sugar to keep the same taste and so the normal version and the low-fat version can contain the same amount of calories. Ethnic FoodsAfrican Caribbean In general, African-Caribbean people are more sensitive to salt and traditional food is often made with salted fish or meat soaked in salt before cooking. Many seasonings are very high in salt. Avoid salted meats and fish, and use fresh herbs and spices instead of these very salt-rich seasonings. Chinese Chinese cooking is often high in salt and mono-sodium glutamate. Many Chinese seasonings and sauces are also high in salt. Use fresh herbs and spices instead. South Asian If you are Asian then you are more likely to have a heart attack than other people in the UK. South Asian foods can be very high in saturated fat, particularly if ghee (butter) is used. Boiled or steamed rice should be used instead of pilau or biryani. Do not use any butter or saturated fats and do not add salt. If oil is necessary, use a monounsaturated fat such as olive or rapeseed oil and use in small amounts.
What happens now? Weight Lose weight if you are overweight. Eating healthy foods, choosing low fat and low sugar foods and eating less, and being more active, is the best way Activity Become more active. Start slowly if you have not previously been very active, and build up over several months Key Points Changes to the diet and food that you eat, as well as other changes in your lifestyle, will help you to lower your blood pressure and bring better health Changes that you make to your lifestyle will work on their own, but they also help to make any tablets you are taking more effective Reducing the amount of salt that you eat, and eating more fruits and vegetables, will lower your blood pressure Eating less saturated fat will help to lower your cholesterol, and this will lower your risk of heart attack or stroke Changing the foods that you eat will help you to feel better and become healthier, as well as reducing your blood pressure and cholesterol and your risk of heart attack and stroke
More pages about diet, fat, salt, blood pressure, and measuring it at home from David Gregory |
Everyone can
benefit from making changes to the foods they eat and their lifestyle to lower their blood pressure and therefore reduce their risk of heart attack
and stroke. Your blood pressure is very much affected by: