By Dr Amit Kumar Chaurasia
High blood pressure or hypertension is a common health problem that affects millions of people worldwide. High blood pressure can cause a variety of health problems, including kidney disease. However, making diet and lifestyle changes can help prevent or manage high blood pressure and reduce the risk of kidney disease. The National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) recommends the DASH diet for heart-healthy eating habits. This diet not only lowers blood pressure but also helps in reducing the risk of kidney disease. A low-salt diet is important for controlling high blood pressure, and it emphasizes not adding table salt to food.
High Blood Pressure: Key Features of the DASH Diet
What does the DASH diet emphasize? These include fruits, vegetables, and whole grains, fat-free or low-fat dairy products, lean proteins such as fish, poultry, and beans, healthy monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats, including nuts and seeds, and foods rich in potassium, calcium, magnesium Are included. , fiber and lean protein. What Foods Does the DASH Diet Restrict? It restricts foods high in saturated and trans-fats, high-sodium foods, sugar-sweetened beverages and sweets.
To achieve optimal health, nutrition goals should be to consume 27% calories from total fat, 6% calories from saturated fat, 18% calories from protein, 55% calories from carbs, 150 mg cholesterol, 2300 mg cal. sodium (if reduced to 1500 mg to control high blood pressure), 4700 mg potassium, 1250 mg calcium, 500 mg magnesium and 30 g fiber.
Best food for high blood pressure patients
Here are some types of food that high blood pressure patients can consume to maintain a healthy diet:
Cereal: This category includes breads, cereals, rice and pasta. Focus on whole grains, such as whole grain bread or brown rice, by looking for foods marked as 100% whole grain or whole wheat. Avoid spreading butter, cream, cheese and sausage.
vegetables: High blood pressure patients can consume tomatoes, carrots, broccoli, sweet potatoes, greens and other vegetables. Exceptions – avocados and coconuts.
dairy: Low-fat or fat-free milk, yogurt, cheese, and other dairy products are good choices for high blood pressure patients.
Lean meat, poultry and fish: Trim away skin and fat from meat and then boil, grill, roast or poach instead of frying. Heart-healthy fish, such as salmon, herring and tuna (rich in omega-3 fatty acids), are also good choices.
Nuts, seeds, and legumes: Almonds, sunflower seeds, kidney beans, peas, lentils, and soybean products (tofu, tempeh) are good meat substitutes. However, nuts are high in calories, so patients with high blood pressure should consume them in moderation.
fats and oils: Patients with high blood pressure should consume 30% or less of their daily calories from fat. They should avoid trans fats found in crackers, baked goods and fried items, and limit saturated fat to less than 10% of total daily calories by limiting meat, butter, cheese, whole milk, cream and eggs. Needed
Sweets: Patients with high blood pressure can choose sweets that are fat-free or low-fat, such as sorbet, fruit juice, and jellybeans. They can also use artificial sweeteners judiciously, such as aspartame and sucralose.
Alcohol and Caffeine: Men should limit alcohol intake to two or fewer drinks and women should limit it to one or less.
Fiber: The recommended amount, for adults, is 22 to 34 grams.
Mineral Potassium: Recommended Daily Amount 4700 mg. It can be difficult to get the recommended daily amount of 15 from food alone, but bananas are a rich source of potassium)
Calcium: Recommended amount between 1000-1300mg.
Vitamins :
Vitamin B12: 2.4 micrograms recommended.
Vitamin D: 15 micrograms recommended; There are about 20 micrograms in 3 ounces of salmon.
Also Read: High Blood Sugar: 10 Best Fruits For People With Diabetes
(Disclaimer: Dr Amit Kumar Chaurasia is Chief Cath Lab & TAVI, Cardiology Unit II, Artemis Hospital, Gurgaon. The views expressed in this article are those of the author. Zee News does not endorse the same.)