As Part of Your Diet Consider These 5 Foods to Reduce Blood Pressure

When diagnosed with high blood pressure a change in diet is normally called for. While your doctor will often prescribe medications there are also natural ways that will often control your blood pressure without the need for prescription drugs.

The #1 advice given to high blood pressure sufferers is to cut down the salt intake. Foods to avoid include fast foods, fried foods, oily foods, frozen dinners, canned vegetables, pickled foods, instant noodles, processed foods, bouillon cubes, steak sauce, barbecue sauce and more. It can get quite depressing if you just focused on what you cannot eat. It is better to have a positive approach instead by focusing on what you can and should eat.

So, here are 5 kinds of food that will help you fight your high blood pressure woes.

1. Garlic
You can either add fresh cloves of garlic to your cooking or take garlic supplements. Garlic helps lower blood pressure because it contains components that can dilate your arteries. This means your blood is able to flow easier. There have been several studies done to investigate if garlic really does help lower blood pressure. The University of Adelaide in South Australia did a review on 11 studies that involved garlic supplements. They concluded that garlic supplements can successfully lower systolic and diastolic blood pressure when taken on a regular basis. However, do not expect that eating garlic by itself will make your blood problem go away. It’s only an aid and not the entire solution. Also, the fact that it’s a blood thinner makes it unsuitable for certain people.

2. Celery
Celery is an old Chinese remedy to lower blood pressure. The University of Chicago Medical Center did some research on it and found that phtalide (3nb), a compound found in celery, helps improve blood flow. It’s interesting how the research came about. For one week, the father of one of the researchers consumed about 4 stalks of celery everyday. As a result, his blood pressure dropped from 158/96 to 118/82.
There are several ways to add celery to your diet. You can use it as an ingredient in your soups. You can also eat celery sticks as a snack or juice it along with tomatoes or carrots.

3. Tomatoes
Lycopene found in tomatoes effectively lowers blood pressure. This is confirmed by a study conducted by Dr. Esther Paran of Soroka Medical Center in Israel. He selected patients that were not responding well to hypertension medications and gave them a daily supplement of tomato extract. Within 4 weeks, they experienced a significant reduction in their blood pressure. It is recommended that you eat at least 4 tomatoes daily to see positive results. You can make tomato juice, add tomatoes to your salad and sauces or make tomato salsa. You can also run to the pharmacy to buy tomato-concentrate pills.

4. High Fiber Foods
Don’t forget to include high fiber foods to your diet. That simply means eat a lot of fresh fruits, vegetables and whole grain.

5. Potassium Rich Foods
A contributing factor to high blood pressure is not having enough potassium and too much sodium. It’s best to get your daily potassium from natural foods instead of supplements. Potassium rich foods include potatoes, meat, oranges, and bananas. Too much potassium is also not good and can be dangerous to your health. You want a good balance of potassium-to-sodium.

You can bring down your blood pressure effectively when you start to eat right. It’s not easy to make dietary changes. You may feel it difficult to break old habits. However, you’ll find the effort you put in will soon bring about pleasant results to your health.