Stop Your Pills: These Eating Habits Help Lower Blood Pressure

What is blood pressure? It is an indicator of the force with which the blood presses on the walls of the arteries. The heart pumps blood, oxygen is transported throughout the body… When the vessels are healthy, they bend easily, maintaining a stable blood flow. However, when the arteries harden (due to age, unhealthy lifestyle, diseases), the heart has to work much harder to maintain blood flow.

If the pressure is constantly high, it is very dangerous – fragile blood vessels are damaged, and the consequences are the most unpleasant. Everyone must therefore monitor this health parameter. In order to avoid taking blood pressure pills in an emergency, incorporate healthy habits into your lifestyle that will help you control the process.

You might think sodium and table salt are the same thing, but not quite – salt is 60% sodium and 40% chlorine. And sodium in a separate form is also found in food, and at the same time it does not always taste salty.

Sodium directly affects the increase in pressure. Therefore, make a rule for reading food labels – so you can track the hidden sources of this substance, an excess of which is very harmful for hypertension. A lot of sodium is contained, for example, in some types of bread, cheese and other dairy products, as well as in ready-made sauces.

They also contain a lot of sodium – always, because salt is one of the preservatives. If you add canned beans, vegetables, meat products to your diet, do not overdo it. For example, canned beans can be washed to reduce the amount of sodium they contain. What cannot be washed away, eat it with lots of green salad.

There are tasty and healthy alternatives to common table salt. Seaweed salts (kelp or kelp) and gomasio or sesame salt are perhaps the tastiest and most tried and true. They can be used in the same way as usual – poured into a salt shaker and seasoned with food. The sodium content of these substitutes is low and the exotic taste will help open new taste facets!

One way to disguise salt reduction (especially if you haven’t limited yourself to it before) is to generously season your foods with salt-free seasonings, such as herbs and spices. Use garlic, onions, lemon juice, onion powder and experiment with fresh and dried herbs.

Lentils, beans, whole grains, fruits and vegetables—anything high in fiber—helps lower blood pressure. These foods help support cardiovascular health not only through their fiber content, but also through micronutrients and antioxidants.

It’s no secret that we get high amounts of sodium from two main sources: processed foods and foodservice. So, one of the most effective ways to drastically reduce your sodium intake is to stop eating out. But you may not be ready to give up eating out altogether. So the best strategy is to know what you’re ordering and choose meals that are low in sodium.