High blood pressure is a prevalent problem in the United States today as well as in many other counties. People with high blood pressure run a greater risk for heart disease and stroke. Controlling this condition is a very important factor to be able to achieve and maintain good health. Your nutritional regime can act as a very effective tool for lowering blood pressure thus keeping a healthy heart and nervous system.
While a great number of people have a terrible dislike for vegetables and sometime fruits, they are robbing themselves at a chance of a healthy life with a far better quality than they currently have. One of the biggest issues with people that eat a lot of processed foods, are addicted to sugar, and even spicy food, is the fact that they don’t really get the full flavor of fruits and vegetables because of their damaged taste buds. Staying away from chemically processed foods, sugar and strong spicy food for a short period of time will help regain your healthy tasty buds.
The Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension (DASH) conducted a study which examined the effect on blood pressure of a diet that was rich in fruits, vegetables, and low-fat dairy products and that restricted the amount of saturated and total fat.
Researchers found that people with high blood pressure who had followed this nutritional approach reduced their systolic blood pressure (the upper number of a blood pressure reading) by about 11 mm Hg and their diastolic blood pressure (the lower number) by almost 6 mm Hg – as much as medications can achieve.
In the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute’s Family Heart Study, 4,466 subjects consumed between an average of a shade over 3 servings of fruits and vegetables a day to more than 4 servings a day. Men and women with the highest daily consumption (more than 4 servings a day) had significantly lower levels of LDL (bad) cholesterol than those with lower consumption. How fruits and vegetables lower cholesterol is still something of a mystery.
©Copyright – Hector Sectzer
