The pressure of blood against your artery walls is known as blood pressure. When the pressure on the walls increases beyond the normal level, it is known as hypertension or high blood pressure. Also referred to as a silent killer, high blood pressure or hypertension can cause some severe problems like blood vessel damage, which can lead to heart diseases, stroke, kidney disease, and other issues. Hypertension is considered to be a silent killer as it can go unnoticed and untreated because it shows decidedly few symptoms or sometimes no symptoms at all for years.
One of the best ways of reducing your blood pressure and keeping your hypertension under control is to follow a proper diet and good food habits. DASH diet is considered to be the best diet for hypertension patients.
What is the DASH diet?
An eating plan that is used to control hypertension by increasing the number of foods that are high in nutrients such as magnesium, calcium, potassium, fiber, and protein is known as DASH diet or Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension. An eating plan is made which is rich in veggies, whole grains, fruits, fish, nuts, legumes, poultry, and low-fat dairy. The dietary approaches to stop hypertension or DASH diet helps you in lowering the blood pressure as it has less sugar and salt than the typical diet that we take. It cuts down the intake of sweetened beverages, red meat, desserts, processed meats, and fats.
In order to start the DASH diet, you need to have a certain number of servings from different food groups. The number of serving you take depends on how many calories your body needs per day. Those who followed the DASH diet for several years have reduced the risks of strokes and other coronary artery diseases due to hypertension.
The primary goal of the DASH diet is to increase your intake of natural potassium, fiber, and magnesium which help you control your hypertension. Also, seeds, legumes, poultry, nuts, and lean meats are good your hypertension. Here are some of the foods that are high in natural potassium, fiber, and magnesium, which you can choose for your DASH diet:
Apples: 5 grams of fiber, 13 milligrams of calcium, 239 milligrams of potassium, and 10 milligrams of vitamin C.
Apricots: 100 gm of apricots has 12% of vitamin A, 6% potassium, and 12% of vitamin C.
Bananas: A single banana contains 30 grams of carbohydrate, 1 gram of protein, and 110 calories.
Broccoli: Raw broccoli contains 3% protein, 7% carbohydrates, and almost 90% water and almost no fat.
Collards: One cup of boiled collard greens contain 63 calories, 5.15 g (g) of protein, 7.6 g of fiber, 40 mg of magnesium, 222 mg of potassium and more.
Some of the other foods rich in natural potassium, fiber, and magnesium are green beans, dates, grapes, green peas, kale, carrots, lima beans, mangoes, melons, oranges, peaches, pineapples, potatoes, and raisins. You should also take spinach, squash, strawberries, sweet potatoes, tangerines, tomatoes, tuna, beet greens, and fat-free yogurt.
