I say "probably OK", because coffee labelled "decaffeinated" does not necessarily mean all caffeine is removed, it only means it contains much less than regular coffee; but the remaining amount may still be enough to elevate blood pressure. This factor is important because it is well known that regular intakes of caffeine, whether it be in coffee, tea, or fizzy drinks, does tend to contribute towards high blood pressure.



Regular coffee is particularly high in potassium and extremely low in sodium, so from the mineral perspective, in theory it has a tendency to reduce blood pressure; but whether this is enough to overcome the blood pressure elevation effect of the caffeine is open to debate.

For someone suffering with hypertension it would be advised to leave coffee off the menu or drink it seldom if you are sure it is truly decaffeinated. This may not be such a big forfeit as there are many alternatives to drinking caffeine-containing beverages that without a shadow of a doubt are conducive to lowering blood pressure.

For example coffee and tea drinking habits could be replaced by mixing a little honey, the juice of a freshly squeezed lemon and warm water instead; or for cold drinks one could also return to nature, and resort to freshly made fruit juices that can be flavoured to taste.

It is perhaps prudent for sufferers of high blood pressure to invest in a juicing machine and try to develop a habit of juicing enough fruit and vegetables to make drinks that not only taste good but also leaves one confident of their nutritional content and the blood pressure lowering tendency.

Juices made fresh each morning is far better than those purchased from the supermarket shelves in cartons labled "Fresh Juice"; for one the pre-packed counterparts are not really fresh and secondly their active mineral and enzyme contents are very much not diminished making them less effective in the fight agains hypertension.

One can juice apples, cantaloupes, melons, pineapples, grapes, oranges, ginger, carrots etc. and mix them in any combination and proportions in order to arrive at personal favourites.

I personally juice large amounts of carrots to make carrot juice (about 5lb of carrots will make 50 fl oz. of juice) and flavour it using relatively small amounts of sweetened condensed milk, a sprinkling of ground nutmeg and fresh ginger juice to my taste.

Another favourite of mine is juicing fresh crisp apples, with a few sour cooking apples and then flavouring the whole lot with ginger juice to taste.

Beverages made this way are best kept chilled and consumed the same day as there are no preservatives in them.

You could do similar to your taste.

Taking this theme another stage you could use a food blender to liquidise soft fruits like apricots, strawberries, ripe plums, ripe bananas etc. and use them as the basis for making sorbets or low fat yougurt / milk shakes, or nutritious homemade ice cream.

The possibilities are endless.

by Bilal Rose, Medicationless