How to Keep Your Blood Pressure Down Using a Diet

There are some people who can't afford health insurance to see a doctor, even with the Affordable Health Care Act.  Some people do not trust doctors, and believe they work for pharmaceutical companies.  Hell, some people just don't want to go to the doctor.  This article is for those people.

Keep in mind, if you can afford to go to a doctor and get blood pressure medicine, do that.  Ignore everything I'm saying here and do what your doctor tells you to do.

Another thing to keep in mind about the advice I'm giving is that I'm aiming to inform people who don't have a lot of cash.  When I tell you about things you can eat, you'll notice they aren't exactly extravagant recipes.  This diet is a simple and affordable way to keep your blood pressure down.  If you have enough money to spend on eating really expensive healthy food, you should just use that money to go to a doctor and get some blood pressure medication.   

Now that I've got that out of the way, I'm going to tell you from personal experience how to get your blood pressure down to reasonable levels using just your diet.  If you're inclined to exercise, that certainly doesn't hurt either, but I can't vouch for that.  Also, as an aside, smoking is bad for your blood pressure.  I haven't quit yet, but my blood pressure has still gone down to reasonable levels with this diet.  Even so, you shouldn't smoke if you have high blood pressure, though I do recommend getting your blood pressure down a bit before trying.  Quitting is stressful and may raise your blood pressure. 

To start, you're going to need to learn to read food labels.  There are certain things mentioned on food labels that you do not want, and others you do want.  Let's talk about those first. 

Here's a list of things you should try to avoid.  

1.  Sodium
2.  Caffeine
3.  Saturated Fat
4.  Sugar
5.  High Calories

Sodium is the most important to keep in check, but it's important that you realize that you still need some sodium, just about half of what a regular person will be consuming.  A person without high blood pressure should not go over 2400mg of sodium a day, so you're looking at between 1200 and 1500mg a day.  This is the hardest part of this diet.  If you have high blood pressure for a dietary reason, rather than something like stress or anxiety, than you probably have it because you ate too much sodium, which means your diet is about to drastically change.  Most really tasty food is high in sodium, and it's a bummer.  You can work around this if you play it smart, though.  I'll explain what foods to look for and what foods to avoid later.  Keep in mind, you do not want to avoid sodium completely.  You're body still needs it, it's just important that you don't overdo it. 

For me personally, caffeine spikes my blood pressure like crazy.  I avoid it at all costs, and if you're following my diet, you should too.  Yes, that does mean no coffee, and no sweet tea.  If you absolutely must have coffee, drink decaf, and drink it sparingly.  I can assure you, you do not need coffee.  I haven't had it in over a year, and I love the stuff. 

Saturated fat is the bad fat.  It's really not that hard to keep this low in your diet, as the stuff you're avoiding for sodium and sugar are, for the most part, the same stuff you'll be avoiding for saturated fat.  Keep in mind, poly and monounsaturated fats are actually good for your heart in moderation. 

The biggest reason you'll be keeping your sugar to a minimum is to watch your weight.  Sugar causes weight gain like crazy, and weight gain causes your blood pressure to rise.  You don't have to cut sugar completely out of your life, just keep it moderate.  You don't need dessert after every dinner.  I put high calories on the list for the same reason. 

Now let's look at what you should be looking for.  

1.  Potassium
2. Anything heart healthy, such as wheat and grains
3.  Vitamins (in food)

Potassium is like the anti sodium.  It helps your body regulate sodium, so you're going to want plenty of it. 

Wheat and grains are good for your heart, and the healthier your heart is, the better you're blood pressure is going to be. 

Vitamins (in food) are good for your overall health, and most foods that are high in them are low in the bad stuff. 

Now let's start with what you should not be eating.  

Under no circumstances should you ever be eating frozen dinners.  Most of them have almost as much sodium in them as you're allowed to have all day, and some of them exceed it.  This includes the weight watchers and healthy choice varieties.  I know they're easy to make, but there are much healthier foods that are just as easy to make, which I'll talk about later. 

Fast food is notorious for having a lot of sodium.  Actually, most restaurants in general sell high sodium food.  It's not going to kill you to eat at one of these places once a month or so, but do not eat at them on a regular basis.  If you have the willpower, try to avoid them altogether. 

Salt in general needs to be avoided.  This is the hardest thing to avoid, as most prepackaged food comes with at least some salt in it.  You're going to have to learn to eat fresh food, where you control whether or not there is salt involved.

Cheese and pizza are high in sodium.  Reading that may have broken your heart, but unfortunately it is the case.  There are low sodium cheese sticks that you can buy, but they still have a significant amount in them and should be eaten in moderation.  As for pizza, you can look for low sodium recipes online.  You may not like what you're going to need to put on it, but it's an option.  Forget about frozen pizzas or pizza restaurants, they're all awful for you.  Save them for special occasions if you're a huge pizza fanatic. 

Cookies are cakes are the most deceitful food when on a low sodium diet.  They aren't high in sodium,  In fact, most of them are very low in sodium.  Obviously they're high in sugar, but most of them are incredibly high in saturated fat as well.  These need to be avoided for general heart health and to avoid weight gain.  This doesn't mean you can never have a cookie again.  Just eat one once in a while.  Moderation is important here.

Soda needs to be avoided.  Regular soda is full of caffeine and sugar, and is terrible for your weight.  Most diet soda is still caffeinated, and from personal experience, I found that weight gain doesn't seem to stop even with the diet caffeine free drinks.  Put simply, just don't drink soda, it's bad for you.  In addition, a good rule to keep is to not drink your calories. 

Canned food is usually high in sodium as well, unless it says "no salt added" on the can.  Try fresh food instead.  Avoid canned meat at all costs.

Now let's talk about what you should try eating.  

The most important food (or drink) in general is water.  You need to be drinking water.  Staying hydrated is incredibly useful for any heart related issues.  It also helps keep your weight down.  Water is amazing, drink water. 

I highly recommend kale.  It barely has any sodium in it, and is full of vitamins.  In my experience, it's the closest thing I've found to the perfect food, health wise.  Put some vinaigrette on it for flavor, it's not too bad for you.  Add some chicken or turkey (that you cooked yourself).  Put it on a sandwich instead of lettuce.  There's all kinds of things you can eat kale with.  Try it!

Pinto and kidney beans are really healthy.  While the best way to eat them is to cook them yourself, there are canned varieties with no salt added, and they're low in sodium and very high in potassium.  Beans are also very high in fiber and protein, and work well as a meat substitute.  Don't use them as a vegetable substitute though, as they do not have much in the way of vitamins.  Personally, I liked eating them in brown rice. 

Reduced fat peanut butter is a pretty good option for lunch.  It has some sodium, but not too much and as mentioned before, you are going to need some and peanut butter isn't a bad place to get it.  It has some of the healthy fats in it too, and has less sugar than you would think (4g, which is pretty low).  Put it on some wheat bread, have a banana or apple with it, and top it off with some fat free Greek yogurt and you have a pretty healthy lunch.

Breakfast is a tough meal for people with high blood pressure, but I did find a couple things that work fine.  Frosted Mini Wheats are sodium free, and the sugar isn't too bad either.  Add skim milk, and you get some potassium, too.  Oatmeal isn't a bad choice either.  These are better options than eggs, biscuits, pop tarts, etc. 

When it comes to meat, I usually bake turkey chops.  It's easy preparation.  I usually set my oven to 350 degrees, wrap the turkey chop in aluminum foil, put it in there for 45 minutes and it's good to go.  Chicken is fine too.  There are also tuna packets that are low sodium and taste pretty good on some kale or salad. 

Most things in the produce isle are going to be good.  Pretty much any vegetable or fruit is going to be fine, as long as it's fresh and doesn't come from a can or jar.  Some vegetables like corn and green beans can be found unflavored in the frozen food isle, and they're usually low sodium and healthy. 

You may have noticed that I've told you to buy a lot of bland food, but haven't told you how to flavor it.  Worry not, there are ways!  In my experience, the best way to flavor vegetables and rice is with Ms. Dash.  Any flavor will do.  These are basically just a mixture of different spices, and are completely sodium free, and calorie free too!  Some of them even have some potassium in them.  I also recommend googling "Mr. Spice".  You can buy salt free sauces from that website, and they're all really good.  He has a good variety too, ranging from steak and bbq sauce to honey mustard.  They're a tad pricey, but worth it.  They have good customer service, as well.

Here's a few food that are a bit iffy, but ok in a pinch. 

If you find yourself low on potassium one day and haven't had too much sugar, try a nesquick chocolate or vanilla milk.  They're high in sugar, but they're fairly low in sodium and have over 800mg of potassium per bottle. 

In the same situation, Pom juice can work too.  It doesn't have added sugar, but it's naturally high in sugar.  However, you're looking at 600mg of potassium per serving. 

For flavoring, Simply Asia's Five Spice and Hibachi flavorings are surprisingly low in sodium.  They do have salt in them, but you're looking at 60-70mg of sodium per serving.  If you haven't had much sodium that day, it's not a bad option for beans and rice, or to put on meat before you cook it. 


Hopefully this can help some people who are feeling desperate and don't know what to do about their blood pressure.  Before I stop writing, I want to emphasize:  if you can afford to see a doctor, please do that.  If your doctor tells you to not doing something I recommended, listen to him.  I'm not a doctor, just a person who find himself broke a lot of the time and found a way to bring my blood pressure down.  It might not work for you, and if it doesn't seem like it is, stop doing it.  If you have high blood pressure due to something like stress or anxiety rather than because of what you're eating, I'd wager there's a good chance my method won't help you, and you'll have to find another way (though I can't imagine eating better would hurt).