Eating Your Way to Lower Blood Pressure
added 10/18/10
About one in four American adults has high blood pressure, also known as hypertension. This disease has no warning signs or conspicuous symptoms as it quietly lurks, increasing your chances of getting heart or kidney disease or of having a stroke.
What high blood pressure means is that blood pushes against the walls of the blood vessels with stronger than normal force. This makes the arteries thick and stiff, speeding the growth of fatty cholesterol blockages that slow down the blood flow to the heart and the rest of the body. Over time, this can lead to heart attack or stroke.
Untreated high blood pressure can cause the heart to enlarge, leading to eventual weakening and failure to function normally. This can result in fluid build-up in the lungs, known as congestive heart failure. High blood pressure can cause the blood vessels of the kidneys to thicken and work poorly, and may eventually require dialysis treatment or a kidney transplant.
All of this can be avoided with a few simple strategies. Knowing your blood pressure reading is the first step. Keeping it low if it is optimal, or bringing it down if you have high blood pressure, is the key to preventing these serious health effects.
What To Eat on the DASH Diet
Rigorous study of diets that can lower high blood pressure has resulted in an effective eating plan called the DASH diet. DASH stands for Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension.
The DASH study compared the effects of the DASH diet—which was high in fruits, vegetables, nuts, whole-grain products, low-fat dairy and lean animal protein—with two other diets: a control diet resembling the usual U.S. diet: low in fruits and vegetables and high in fats, sweets and animal protein, resembling; and a diet part way between the DASH diet and the standard American diet: high in fruits, vegetables, and grains, but also high in fats and animal protein.
The dramatic results appeared quickly. Both the DASH diet and the fruit and vegetable “middle” diet reduced blood pressure significantly after only two weeks. Amazingly, the DASH diet reduced blood pressure two times as much as the fruits and vegetables “middle” diet. In fact, the DASH diet had the same effectiveness as medication at lowering blood pressure. Please note: If you have high blood pressure and are taking blood pressure medications, it is important to discuss the idea with your doctor first. Don’t just stop your medicines and start the diet.
The Secret: Whole Foods, Heavy on the Produce and Grains
What caused these impressive results? The researchers tested dietary patterns, and not individual nutrients. The blood pressure-lowering effect points to the combined positive contributions of fruits, vegetables, nuts, whole grains, low fat dairy, and fish, along with lower amounts of refined carbohydrates, total fat, saturated fats, red meat, and sugar.
A Typically DASHing Day of Eating
This is not an eating plan that you will go hungry trying to follow. A 2,000 calorie level DASH eating plan might look like the following:
A breakfast of ½-cup instant oatmeal topped with 1 cut-up medium banana; 1 mini whole-wheat bagel spread with 1 tablespoon peanut butter and 1 cup low-fat milk to drink.
Lunch might include ¾ -cup chicken salad, 1½ slices part skim mozzarella cheese, and 2 lettuce leaves stuffed into ½ of a large whole-wheat pita pocket. On the side, a balsamic vinegar-marinated raw vegetable medley and radishes, carrots, and celery sticks to nibble on. One cup of 1% milk to drink and, for dessert, ½ cup fruit cocktail in light syrup.
A delicious dinner menu could include 3-ounces of herb-baked whitefish on a bed of 1 cup of scallion rice. Side dishes of ½ cup each steamed broccoli and stewed tomatoes, and a cup of spinach salad made of spinach, cherry tomatoes and cucumber, topped with 1 tablespoon light Italian dressing. If you like, you could add a small whole-wheat dinner roll with 1 teaspoon soft margarine. To drink, 12 ounces of diet ginger ale. For dessert, ½ cup melon balls.
During the day, for snacks, you might choose ¼ cup dried apricots, ¾ cup (1-ounce) mini-pretzels, and 1/3 cup mixed nuts.
The Whole Family Can DASH!
The DASH diet is healthy for the whole family and is consistent with dietary recommendations for cholesterol lowering and cancer prevention. It is reasonably low in cost, with an estimated retail price of about $160 per week for a family of four.
The National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute has produced an online booklet: “Your Guide to Lowering Your Blood Pressure with DASH” with lots of recipes, a week’s worth of menus, and many other helpful tools to get you started.
http://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/public/heart/hbp/dash/new_dash.pdf
Also this six-page “quick start” guide can help:
http://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/public/heart/hbp/dash/dash_brief.pdf
