Fennel is a vegetable with a mild licorice flavor. You can find fennel teas and supplements for sale, or you can get a boost of fennel's healthy benefits by eating fresh fennel raw in salads or cooked as a side dish. Fennel is full of vitamins, minerals and other nutrients that are known to combat high blood pressure. Eating a diet rich in healthy vegetables, such as fennel, can be an effective way to lower your blood pressure.
Nutrients
Eating sliced, fresh fennel bulbs or the tasty, feather leaves of a fennel plant adds a variety of nutrients to your diet. Fennel is packed with vitamin C and folate. Enjoying fennel also adds high levels of calcium, potassium and magnesium to your diet. Raw, fresh fennel is rich in dietary fiber. Eating 1 cup of sliced fennel bulb adds almost three grams of fiber to your diet.
Benefits
Vitamin C has been linked to lowering blood pressure levels, according to a study performed at the Linus Pauling Institute at Oregon State University. Eating a diet rich in folate, calcium, potassium and magnesium can also reduce high blood pressure. By making sure you get plenty of dietary fiber, such as the fiber found in high levels in fresh fennel, you can reduce both your systolic and diastolic blood pressure levels.
How to Use It
Get more fennel in your diet by thinly slicing a fennel bulb and tossing the slices with a healthy vinaigrette. If you prefer the mellower taste of cooked fennel, steam or roast fennel wedges until tender before eating. Add fennel to your diet as often as you'd like to increase your levels of fennel's healthy nutrients and work to lower your blood pressure. If you prefer, you can drink fennel tea or take fennel capsules to add the vitamins and minerals found in fennel to your diet.
Warnings
Fennel is typically low in side effects. However, you may experience a reaction if you are allergic to fennel. If you have trouble breathing or break out into hives after eating fennel, call your doctor immediately. Do not use fennel to treat high blood pressure without talking to your doctor first. If your blood pressure is consistently very high, you may need to consider taking medication to lower your blood pressure, rather than relying on diet changes alone.
References
- "An A-Z Guide to Healing Foods: A Shopper's Reference"; Elise Marie Collins; 2010
- USDA: Fennel
- Linus Pauling Institute at Oregon State University; Vitamin C; Jane Higdon; January 2006
- Drugs.com: Fennel
- BBC: Good Food: Fennel Bulb
- American Diabetes: Load Up on These Healthy Nutrients
