Foods that Lower Blood Pressure

Blood pressure is a very simple thing to understand. Our heart is a pump that pushes blood to all parts of our body. A pump can only push with pressure and it is a necessary thing you need to survive. Having very low pressure is a unhealthy and viewed as a more immediate concern than high pressure. You need enough force to push blood throughout the body.

The problem is that we have build ups in our body. Mainly they're in our arteries. It's like the blood wants to move through a very tight space, so pressure builds up. It is this pressure that will cause heart attacks and strokes if you don't take care of it. The pressure will inevitably hurt your heart and decrease the length of your life. This is why you need to know How to Lower High Blood Pressure Naturally. It is something that you cannot escape and it is something that is a must.

Even though exercise and your active lifestyle play a huge role in this process, I'm not going to talk to you about it here. I'm sticking to the subject of food and your diet for dealing with your problem. I'm sure you've seen commercials on television telling you if you eat a certain cereal for 6 weeks it will actually lower your blood pressure. I'll be the first to admit that honey nut cheerios work.

The reason that this cereal works so great is that it is high in fiber. It's one of those fibrous foods that people actually like to eat. But it doesn't mean you have to go out and buy cereal. Anything that is high in fiber will help clear out your arteries and reduce the overall pressure on your heart. You don't even have to eat the food if you don't want to. You can always take a fiber supplement to help out your body.

Here are some of the foods that lower blood pressure:

• beans/split peas (kidney, black, navy, chickpeas, black-eyed)
  
• wheat
  
• bran
  
• rye
  
• pumpernickel
  
• quinoa
  
• lentils
  
• bulgur
  
• flaxseed
  
• barley
  
• nuts
  
• oats/oatbran
  
• corn
  
• carrots
  
• fruits, especially skin on
  
• potato with skin
  
• dried fruits (raisins, prunes, figs,apricots,dates)
  
• brown rice
  
• popcorn
  
• veggies (artichokes, brussels sprouts, turnip greens)
  
• tomato paste
  

There is a lot more out there. I can't obviously list them all on this lens. I have a few links that you can use for references. Check out this Fiber Chart because it has a lot of information on this type of food. They have literally measured out everything to the cup size.

It isn't a matter of just eating the good foods that lower blood pressure. I wish it was that simple, but the reason you have a problem in the first place has to do with the foods you've been eating for a long time. People don't seem to realize that when you eat something bad it is slowly killing you. It might make you think twice when you bite into your next greasy meal.

Since I can't list all the possible combinations of food that are bad for you, I'm going to just give you a breakdown of the most obvious.

Salt/Sodium: This is a big culprit because salt is actually processed in a factory and isn't "natural". That catches people by surprise, but it's the truth. I'm sure you can think of a lot of salty treats that you've been eating. I love potato chips that are nice a salty. It's bad. There is an alternative if you're looking for it. You can get sea salt.

Hydrogenated Oils: This is the type of thing you're going to find in processed foods and most of the time it is used to help make the ingredients last longer. It isn't a natural type of oil, which is helpful to the body.

Trans Fat: This is another item that is going to be bad for you. You can't be eating trans fat when you're trying to lower high blood pressure. You just can't do it.

Sugar: I want to point out that sugar really isn't that bad. The problem in this case is just obesity. You're going to have high blood pressure if you're overweight because it just causes much more pressure on your body. The more fat you have, the less space there is for blood.

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