Figures show that there are some 73 million adults in the US alone today who are suffering from high blood pressure and that in excess of 50,000 people will die as a direct result of this problem during the next year. Sadly, many of these deaths are unnecessary and one of the simplest and quickest ways to reduce your blood pressure is to adjust your diet.
We have seen dramatic changes in our lifestyles in the last few years and one especially significant change for nearly all of us is seen in our diet. The days of enjoying three home-cooked meals every day are long gone and have been replaced by to a large extend by convenience foods and fast food which has resulted in a variety of different problems including the increasing problems of both obesity and high blood pressure. Luckily, this is a situation which can be easily and quickly reversed.
There are two major problems with many convenience and fast foods and they are salt and fat, both of which have been clearly proven to raise your blood pressure.
Salt is added to an extremely large range of food during processing to both add flavor and to 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 very high levels of salt as do pizza and frozen dinners, so look closely at the label and see just how much salt (sodium) products contain before you pick them. Your total daily intake of sodium should be as low as you can get it but ought not to be greater than 2,400 milligrams which is equivalent to about a teaspoonful.
Fat is another adversary when it comes to high blood pressure and, while a bit of fat in the diet is healthy, you should steer clear of high fat food whenever possible. In addition to fats and oils themselves (such as butter, vegetable oil, lard, margarine and meat dripping) many of our favorite foods are very high in fat. Keep an eye out for foods such as cream, regular ground beef, cookies, pastries, corned beef, sausages, cream cheese, cheddar, cakes, french fries, pies, nuts, salami, whole milk, ice cream, bacon, fried chicken and almost all fast foods.
At this stage you may be thinking that this list contains almost everything you eat and that if you cut all this out you will starve to death. Well, 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 deal with this problem.
The first method is to simply replace items in your present diet with foods which are lower in fat or salt. For instance, you could 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 food items into your diet and to replace some of your present high fat favorites. For instance, add more fresh fruit and vegetables into your meal planning and replace french fries with baked potatoes and instead of frying your food {try grilling|grill it. Not only is grilled meat and fish much better for you but it also tastes delicious.
High blood pressure really does not have to be a problem for most of us and a few simply changes to the way we eat can solve the problem very quickly and very easily.
TheBloodPressureCenter.com provides information and advice of all aspects of controlling your blood pressure including choosing the best blood pressure monitor for use at home to selecting foods that lower blood pressure
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