The Link Between Lifestyle Choices and Persistent High Blood Pressure

There are 4 common dietary mistakes that we make more often than expected, that can easily make it almost impossible to maintain normal blood pressure. 

1. Re-think salt

Salt brings taste to our foods, growing up we ate most of our foods with salt. When you get diagnosed with high blood pressure, you may want to really cut down on salt consumption because salt contains lots of sodium. 

Sodium tends to cause hypertension as it also leads to fluid retention in the body, basically when there’s too much fluid retention, higher blood pressure is expected. 

The recommended sodium/salt intake should not be more than 2300mg in adults, and for reference, the small teaspoon is about 2400mg. 

Are you thinking what I’m thinking, yes you have been taking too much salt, but that was then, now that you know you can easily reduce your intake of salt even by simply; 

1. not adding more salt to already cooked food.
2.  Use a very small amount of salt when cooking.
3. Cutting off over-processed foods and snacks as they may contain too much unnecessary salt.

2. You are in love with snacks and processed foods

You are trying to limit sodium intake, but if you love, love sausages, and bacon you are not helping yourself.

These foods contain so much sodium, the sodium comes from the preservatives used, or even from added salts that we use to give food taste. 

Put up a sticky note, Say No to unhealthy snacks. when you choose healthy, natural, well-prepared foods and healthy snacks your blood pressure will be normal on most days. You will see. 

Aside from these over-processed foods containing lots of added salt, they also contain unnecessary saturated fats which go nowhere but into our fatty cells for storage, around our organs like the heart, and even inside blood vessels causing clogging, all this lead to higher blood pressure. 

The added sugar in these over-processed snacks can only predispose us to diabetes as the excess glucose being stored as fat can lead to unnecessary weight gain and obesity which are risk factors for developing Type 2 diabetes.

3. You are leaving out avocado, oranges, spinach, and tomatoes when you serve

These foods I just mentioned are potassium-rich, and why do you need them, potassium negates/nullifies the effects of sodium in the body. 

What this means is that there is a potassium sodium pump in the body, when you take in foods rich in potassium, you will be able to reduce the amount of sodium.

This will make it easy for you to manage hypertension. That is why you want to put these potassium-rich foods closer and take more of them to keep your blood pressure in check.

4. You are not eating enough dietary fibre

Fruits and vegetables, whole grains, nuts, and seeds are foods rich in dietary fibre. 

When I talk about dietary fibre, I’m talking about weight management and portion control, and this is so important because a normal weight makes it very easy for you to manage hypertension.

Dietary fibre also carries many other phytochemicals that can still be beneficial for your body.