My husband has high bloood pressure. I'm trying to feed him as healthy as possible. What are some foods, recipies, menus for people with hypertension? We don't smoke, eat fried food, pork, pre-packaged processed food, or bad carbs. That eliminates alot of the sodium and nitrates. So, we are pretty clear on what not to eat, unless I'm overlooking something. I've read about the Dash but I need a sample menu and a few good meal and snack ideas.
I went to the American Heart Association and I take issue with it. They reccomend tub margerine over butter? That's unacceptable. 1% dairy products. I don't think so. I'm going to have to find a more organic approach. I did find alot of the tools and resources on the website very helpful. I am printing the DASH guide and going to start there with recipies - using organic options
Sounds like you are doing a good job but if it's genetics that is making it high nothing food or exercise will work. Medication is the only way to help that kind.
My sister has high, my brother has high, I have low, so did my mom. I cannot get mine up by doing much of anything. My sister can eat total healthy and ride her bike miles per day, do everything she can and unless she takes her meds it stays up.
To have the most direct and immediate impact on my blood pressure, I cut the salt.
I have eliminated all of the added salt in my diet. Its the hidden salt that gets me. Campbells soup, especially the cream of Xxxx soup has an enormous amount of salt. Sodas (coke, pepsi, 7-Up) have salt. Hot dogs, breakfast sausage, bologna has a LOT of hidden salt. Now, when I buy a prepackaged meat or pizza or just about anything else, I ALWAYS read the ingredient lable. If I find too much salt, I just don't buy it. This has caused me to do more cooking from scratch, but that has had a positive impact on my food budget and my health.
My spice cabinet HAD lots of spices where salt was the first ingredient. I cleaned out all of the Xxxx salt items, like Garlic salt. I was amazed to find that the spice Lemon Pepper's first ingredient was salt. (The ingredients are listed in the order of their amounts in the spice/package/product. The most being first.)
Stress can cause a horrible increase in blood pressure. I was in a high stress job and when I retired, my stress dropped to nothing and my blood pressure dropped 50 points. It didn't all happen immediately, but I dropped 30 points in the first 2 weeks.
For recipes, go to allrecipes.com. I love it. Its FREE unless you want to sign up for some of their programs which are good, but not necessary.
ETA: If you really are dedicated to organis items, plant a garden. Tomatoes are incredibly easy to grow and taste so much better than what you can get at the store, even farmer's markets. Swiss chard is an excellent alternative to spinach and its the easiest plant I've ever tried to grow. Both tomatoes and swiss chard can be grown in a pot on an apartment balcony if that's the only place you have.
I hoped this helps. Good luck to you and yours.
Google the American Heart Association for recipes
I suggest using the information on the Amercian Heart Association website.
Here you go: http://www.heart.org/HEARTORG/GettingHealthy/NutritionCen...
