High blood pressure is a disease that affects over 65 million Americans over the age of 18. Twenty-eight percent of adults have prehypertension and are at risk for developing heart disease and stroke. It is also a common diagnosis for men and women over 55. High blood pressure is defined as blood pressure higher than 120/80 mmHg. Left unmanaged, it can lead to kidney, heart, eye and brain damage. The most common approaches to treating high blood pressure is diet, exercise and medications.
Limiting Sodium
Many years ago, before the advancement of refrigeration, salt was used to preserve food. Since then, food manufacturers have lowered the amount of salt (also called sodium) in food, but it is still high in many common types of food we eat and can contribute to high blood pressure. The average adult eats between 2900 and 4300g of sodium a day. Most of us can comfortably survive on less than 2300mg. Common sources of sodium are table salt, monosodium glutamate (MSG), baking soda, baking powder, disodium phosphate or other foods that contain the words sodium and Na. A good place to start reducing your sodium intake is by eliminating the following foods from your diet: salted snacks, frozen and prebreaded fish, ham, bacon, corned beef and packaged luncheon meats, commercially prepared hash, meat pies and frozen dinners, cheese, seasoned salts and condiments like ketchup, mayonnaise and salad dressings.
Heart Healthy Eating Plans
Another good way to limit your sodium intake is by using a heart healthy eating plan---the same plan that others use to manage heart disease and high cholesterol. At the core of the eating plan is limiting calories to approximately 2,000 calories per day (slightly less for women and more for men), limiting saturated fat to 8 to 10 percent of total caloric intake, 30 percent from fat, less than 300mg of cholesterol, and limiting sodium (salt) intake to 2400mg a day. Adhering to a heart healthy eating plan is a good place to start if you have high blood pressure.
The DASH Eating Plan
If the suggestions above have failed to manage your high blood pressure, consider the DASH eating plan. DASH stands for Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension. The DASH eating plan was developed by scientists at the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute (NHLBI) and is designed to help people lower their risks for heart disease (including high blood pressure) using specific guidelines. The NHLBI publishes two guidelines for lowering blood pressure---one based on 2300mg of sodium per day and one on 1500mg per day. The DASH eating plan is a sensible approach to limiting sodium and includes increasing fruits, vegetables and low or non-fat dairy products.
