Nearly 800,000 adults in the United States have high blood pressure, putting them at heightened risk of heart disease, reports the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. If you have high blood pressure talk to your doctor about treatments right for you. Additionally, consider a healthy diet to lower high blood pressure.
DASH Diet
The Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension (DASH) diet was designed by the National Heart Blood and Lung Institute specifically for lowering high blood pressure. The diet emphasizes the intake of fresh fruits, veggies, whole grains and low-fat dairy. DASH dieters are asked to limit sodium consumption to 1,500 mg or less per day. To reduce heart attack risk, the DASH diet also requires you to avoid saturated fat and trans fat rich foods like red meat and baked goods.
Mediterranean Diet
The Mediterranean diet is an eating plan that's designed to simulate the dietary habits of European countries like Italy and Spain. The foundation of this eating plan is fresh vegetables, nuts, olive oil and whole grains. Adopting a Mediterranean diet can combat hypertension, Demosthenes B. Panagiotakos of Harokopio University reports. In a study found in the April 2007 issue of "Preventive Medicine," Panagiotakos found that strict Mediterranean dieters had a 50 percent lower chance of having high blood pressure compared with those that didn't follow the Mediterranean diet.
Atkins Diet
Atkins is a low-carb diet that allows generous amounts of fat and protein rich foods like eggs, bacon and beef. However, Atkins dieters are supposed to strictly limit intake of carb rich foods like bread and cereal. In research published in the April 2007 "JAMA" Christopher D. Gardner of Stanford University found that the Atkins diet outperformed popular diets like the Ornish Diet and the Zone Diet for weight and blood pressure reduction over a 12-month period.
Paleo Diet
The Paleo diet attempts to recreate the diets of human ancestors that lived during the Paleolithic era. The diet forbids the consumption of modern day foods like fast food and grains. Paleo dieters instead eat generous amounts of "caveman cuisine" including grilled meat and veggies. Switching to a paleo diet can help you shed extra pounds and lower blood pressure, the University of California reports. The paleo diet works as it is very low in sodium and rich in heart-healthy potassium.
References
- Centers for Disease Control: Hypertension
- National Heart Blood and Lung Institute: Your Guide to Lowering Your Blood Pressure with DASH
- "Preventive Medicine": Adherence to the Mediterranean food pattern predicts the prevalence of hypertension, hypercholesterolemia, diabetes and obesity, among healthy adults; the accuracy of the MedDietScore
- "JAMA": Comparison of the Atkins, Zone, Ornish, and LEARN Diets for Change in Weight and Related Risk Factors Among Overweight Premenopausal Women
- University of California: Benefits of Paleolithic diet
