It is said that there are some 73 million adults in the United States alone today who are suffering from high blood pressure and that over 50,000 people will die as a result of this condition during the next year. Unhappily, a large number of these deaths are unnecessary and one of the quickest and simplest ways to reduce your blood pressure is to change your diet.



We have seen dramatic changes in our lives in the last few years and one particularly significant change for nearly all of us is seen in what we eat. Those days of enjoying three home-cooked meals a day have gone and have been replaced by to a large extend by convenience and fast foods which has resulted in various different problems including the rising problems of obesity and high blood pressure. Happily, this is a state of affairs which can be easily reversed.

Convenience and fast foods carry two major problems and they are salt and fat, both of which have been clearly proven to increase your blood pressure.

Salt is added to a huge number of food during the manufacturing and packaging process to add flavor and act as a preservative and your daily intake of salt can be extremely high without you adding further salt to your meals at the table. In particular, canned foods frequently contain very high levels of salt as do pizza and frozen dinners, so look carefully at the label and determine just how much salt (sodium) products contain before you purchase them. Your overall daily intake of salt should be as low as you can get it but should not be more than 2,400 milligrams which is about a teaspoonful.

Fat is another enemy when it comes to high blood pressure and, while a bit of fat in the diet is good for you, you should stay away from high fat food wherever you can. In addition to fats and oils themselves (such as butter, lard, margarine, vegetable oil and meat dripping) many of our favorite foods are very high in fat. Keep an eye out for foods such as cream, salami, regular ground beef, fried chicken, bacon, nuts, cookies, sausages, french fries, ice cream, pies, pastries, cheddar, cream cheese, cakes, whole milk and nearly all fast foods.

Now at this stage you may well be thinking that this list covers almost everything you eat and that if you cut all this out of your diet you are going to starve to death. The good news is that nothing could be farther from the truth and that the choice of foods open to you is extensive. There are two ways to go about solving this problem.

The first method is to just replace items in your current diet with foods which are lower in salt or fat. For example, 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 replace some of your current high fat favorites. For example, add more fresh fruit and vegetables into your meal planning and replace french fries with boiled or baked potatoes and instead of frying food {try grilling|grill it. Grilled meat and fish is not only far better for you but it also tastes delicious.

High blood pressure really does not need to be a problem for most people and some simply changes to what we eat can resolve the problem very quickly and very easily.