Hypertension is a condition, you'd never know if you have it until you don’t take your blood pressure. It is the most important indicator of good health. It is the pressure of the blood running through the arteries as it leaves the heart and distributes it throughout the body.
It is crucial to maintain your blood pressure at or below 120/80 mm to prevent the risk of having heart problems or other life-threatening diseases.
The food that you eat can have a negative or positive effect on your blood pressure.
Nowadays, busy lifestyle and variance in eating habits enforce people to consume highly processed food items, ready to eat foods which are generally high in salt or sodium derivates. Also, wrong dietary habits like frequent use of table salt in salads, soups or eating more of sodium rich pickles, papad etc combined with less intake of water leads to high sodium levels in the body.
DIETARY APPROACH
Thumb rule :- Reduce intake of salt by Consuming not more than 1 tsp if you have high blood pressure. Exclude use of table salt completely.
Getting enough of potassium, magnesium, and fibre in your diet helps lower your blood pressure.
Include consumption of green, orange, and red coloured fruits and vegetables as they are high in potassium and minerals that help lower your blood pressure. One should aim to have 5-9 servings of fruits and vegetables per day.
Eat nuts, legumes and seeds.
Use alternatives to salt :- Increase use of herbs , salt free seasonings and spices to add taste to your food. Eg basil, cinnamon, cloves, ginger, nutmeg, oregano, parsley , rosemary , thyme etc.
Avoid buying canned fish , meat and buy fresh instead. Also prefer vinegar- and lemon juice-based marinades over pickled or marinated food in brine.
Cut back on sauces , chutneys , pickles , papad , cheese, packaged mixes for instant meal options.
Read the food labels properly , baking soda has salt , avoid buying soya sauce, monosodium glutamate (MSG), seasoned salts, and some antacids.Limit intake of saturated fats and instant increase monounsaturated fats such as olive oil , safflower oil etc.
Exercising daily and increased physical activity also helps lower blood pressure and loosing weight in case of overweight individuals can help lower blood pressure.
Take prescribed drugs by the doctor as indicated and keep a check on your blood pressure early morning.
Making lifestyle changes such as modification in diet, exercising, losing excess weight, eating food that promote lower your blood pressure and avoid the complications such as heart disease, kidney disease etc .