Best Diet to Lower Your Blood Pressure
The DASH diet, which stands for Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension, is one of the most effective dietary ways to lower your blood pressure. “The DASH diet is low in sodium (less than 2300 mg per day), high in fruits, vegetables and whole grains, and low in foods that are high in saturated fats. [It] has been ranked the healthiest overall diet by a panel of experts from U.S. News and World Reports,” says Jeff Landsman, MD, primary care provider at Mercy Personal Physicians in Lutherville, Maryland.
“Fish, chicken, and vegetable protein (nuts, seeds and legumes) are highlighted as great choices, with an emphasis on the whole grains that provide so many of the unique dietary fibers that we need,” says Julie Miller Jones, Ph.D., emeritus professor of nutrition at St. Catherine University in St. Paul, Minnesota.
This diet for high blood pressure, which has been studied for almost 30 years, is proven to both lower blood pressure and reduce the risk of nearly all chronic diseases. “In fact, in a recent meta-analysis that involved over 900,000 subjects, The DASH dietary pattern was associated with a nearly 20% decreased risk of cardiovascular disease, coronary heart disease, stroke, and diabetes,” says Jones.
Potassium-rich foods promoted by the American Heart Association to help reduce blood pressure include:
Apricots
Avocados
Melons (cantaloupe or honeydew)
