Struggle with High-Blood Pressure? Try this "DASH" High-Blood Pressure Diet Plan!

If your blood pressure is constantly 140/90, or higher, that means you have hypertension, or high blood pressure. Since it mostly does not display any symptoms, the only way to know for sure if you have high blood pressure is to measure it regularly and visit the doctor to confirm the diagnosis.

High blood pressure is called the “silent killer” for a reason – you don’t feel any symptoms, but it can do a lot of damage to your body. It puts additional pressure on your heart and blood vessels, and may lead to several serious complications such as:

• Aneurysm
• Heart attack
• Heart failure
• Stroke
• Kidney disease

Having a high blood pressure requires changes in your lifestyle, with the diet being one of the aspects that can greatly influence this condition.

How food influences your blood pressure

Some types of foods can aggravate your blood pressure. You should stay away from foods that contain a lot of salt. You should reduce the daily intake of sodium to 1,500 mg. Furthermore, stay away from sugar, as it leads to obesity which in return increases the blood pressure. The American Heart Association advises limiting  the intake of alcohol to one or two drinks per day as this also causes the increase in blood pressure.

Foods that are high in potassium, magnesium and fiber should be a part of your high blood pressure diet as they can be natural remedies that help you normalize the blood pressure. There is a vast range of fruits and vegetables rich in those nutrients, thus you can easily incorporate them into your dietary plan.

Foods that increase your blood pressure	Foods that help normalize blood pressure
Canned soups	Bananas
Pickled vegetables	Apricots
Deli meat	Potatoes
Frozen pizza	Spinach
Sweets	Green beans
Canned tomato products	Beets
Red meat	Oatmeal

Regulate your blood pressure with DASH diet

DASH (Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension) is a dietary plan that aims to reduce the foods that can spike up your blood pressure and it introduces various types of food that contain nutrients that can bring benefits to people suffering from high blood pressure. It was designed by the USA National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute with the aim to reduce blood pressure but it was found helpful with weight loss, reducing cholesterol and controlling diabetes, and for six years in a row it has been proclaimed as the best diet by US News and World Report.

The DASH diet is rich in fruits, vegetables, low-fat or nonfat dairy, whole grains, lean meat, fish and poultry, nuts and beans. It follows recommendations on the sodium intake and the consumption of healthy nutrients. It has been evaluated by numerous researches.

The DASH plan includes:

Type of food	Number of servings for 1600 – 3100 Calorie diets	Servings on a 2000 Calorie diet
Grains and grain products (include at least 3 whole grain foods each day)	6 – 12	7 – 8
Fruits	4 – 6	4 – 5
Vegetables	4 – 6	4 – 5
Low fat or non fat dairy foods	2 – 4	2 – 3
Lean meats, fish, poultry	1.5 – 2.5	2 or less
Nuts, seeds, and legumes	3 – 6 per week	4 – 5 per week
Fats and sweets	2 – 4	limited

High blood pressure diet plan

With many available recipes, it is easy to incorporate DASH plan and to have a diversified high blood pressure diet that suits your taste.

Breakfast

Applesauce French Toast

What you need:

• 4 egg whites
• 1/2 cup of milk
• 1 teaspoon of ground cinnamon
• 2 tablespoons of sugar
• 1/4 cup non-sweet applesauce
• 6 slices of whole wheat bread

How to prepare:

Mix all ingredients in a bowl and soak the bread slices, then cook them over a lightly greased skillet until they become golden brown. Serve it with some light yogurt.

Lunch

Pizza in a Pita

What you need:

• 2 pieces of whole wheat pita bread
• 1/2 cup of grated mozzarella cheese low on sodium
• 1/4 cup of tomato sauce
• Vegetables of your choosing

How to prepare:

Preheat the oven at 3500F (or 1800C). Split the bread into two pieces and put the tomato sauce, cheese and vegetables. Wrap in aluminum foil and bake it in the oven for 7-10 minutes. Serve it with some nonfat milk, and treat yourself with some cantaloupe afterwards.

Snack

Blueberry muffins

What you need:

• 1 – 1/2 cups of flour
• 1/2 cup of raw oatmeal
• 1/3 cup of sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon of baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon of baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon of salt
• 1 cup of milk
• 1/2 cup of dry milk
• 1/4 cup of oil
• 1 egg
• 2/3 cup of frozen blueberries

How to prepare:

Preheat the oven at 3500F (or 1800C). Mix the dry ingredients and the wet ingredients in two separate bowls. Pour the wet ingredients into the bowl with the dry ingredients and mix a little, then add the blueberries and mix again. Put the mixture into a muffin tin and bake for 20 minutes.

Dinner

Brown rice burgers

What you need:

• 2 cups of cooked brown rice
• ½ cup of chopped parsley
• 1 cup of finely grated carrot
• ½ cup of finely chopped onion
• 1 clove of minced garlic
• ¼ teaspoon of black pepper
• 1 teaspoon of salt
• 2 beaten eggs
• ½ cup of whole wheat flour
• 2 tablespoons of vegetable oil

How to prepare:

Mix all ingredients, except the vegetable oil, in one bowl, and divide the mixture into 12 patties. Put the vegetable oil into a skillet and heat it. Cook the patties for 4-5 minutes on each side. You can serve the burgers with side dishes such as baked potato, or a salad, such as a tomato spinach salad with balsamic vinaigrette. Treat yourself with some delicious fruit afterwards.

Before taking any actions in treating your high blood pressure, you should consult a doctor to confirm the diagnosis and get some helpful medical advice.

Featured photo credit: https://unsplash.com/ via unsplash.com

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