9 Dietary Upgrades to Lower Blood Pressure
- Colleen Woods, MS, RDN, CLC
- 16 hours ago
- 7 min read
Whether you’ve recently been told you have slightly elevated blood pressure or you’ve been trying to manage a hypertension diagnosis for years, it can be scary.
High blood pressure, or hypertension, is dangerous. Medications exist, but the American Heart Association recommends also taking control of your blood pressure through a number of lifestyle changes.
Below you'll learn how to get on top of your blood pressure naturally that will leave you feeling good, improve your labs, and can have a positive effect on many aspects of your physical and mental health besides just blood pressure.
What Causes High Blood Pressure?
High blood pressure results from a consistently high force of blood flowing through blood vessels.
The heart works to push blood through the body from the left side of the heart down through the left side of the body, then back up the right side. The circulatory system carries nutrients and oxygen to every tissue and organ in the body through the blood.
As we age, blood vessels lose their elasticity, which makes the heart work harder to push blood through weak arteries and veins. This can lead to high blood pressure.
Other causes of high blood pressure include damage to, narrowing of and plaque build up in the blood vessels. These can be a result of:
Poor diet (high in saturated and trans fats, sugar or sodium)
Smoking
Drinking alcohol
Being sedentary
Untreated sleep apnea
Diabetes
Chronic stress
When blood pressure is high for too long, it can damage the walls of blood vessels, causing them to develop tiny tears. To fix these tears, the body sends repair cells that stick to the site. Over time, substances such as cholesterol and fats may also stick to these damaged sites, forming plaque.
Why is High Blood Pressure Dangerous?
How Do I Know if I Have High Blood Pressure?
Normal blood pressure | <120 systolic AND <80 diastolic |
Pre-hypertension | 120-129 systolic AND <80 diastolic |
Hypertension Stage 1 | 130-139 systolic, OR 80-89 diastolic |
Hypertension Stage 2 | 140+ systolic, OR 90+ diastolic |
Seek immediate help if your systolic reading is 180 or diastolic reading is over 120. This is considered a medical crisis and requires emergency medical treatment.
High blood pressure can lead to:
heart attack
stroke
kidney failure
sexual dysfunction
vision loss
High blood pressure is often called the silent killer because many people don’t have any symptoms in advance. We may tend to think of older people as having strokes, heart attacks, or kidney failure from a long life of high blood pressure.
Sadly, though, children can have high blood pressure and cardiovascular disease is the number 1 killer of new moms in the US according to the American Heart Association.
What Should I Eat to Reduce my Blood Pressure?
Everyone should have their blood pressure tested by a health professional. You can certainly test it at home or at a pharmacy, but if readings are high, ensure it’s tested properly at a doctor’s office.
If your doctor is concerned about your blood pressure, work with your clinical team to manage it. Treatment may include medications, but will likely also include working with a dietitian on making tweaks to your diet. What you eat can help medications work better.
Here’s what a dietitian will likely recommend to help lower a person’s blood pressure:
Reduce table salt
Instead of shaking salt on to your meal, add herbs and spices for flavor. Someone with high blood pressure should have no more than 1500mg of salt per day, or a little over ½ teaspoon from all sources throughout the day.
Limit frozen and canned foods
Sodium is often hidden in frozen and canned foods both for taste and preservation. Reduce reliance on frozen foods or purchase frozen foods low in sodium (<5% DV per serving).
Rinse canned foods before serving. This can reduce the sodium content by up to 40%.
Prepare more meals at home
Preparing meals from scratch gives you back control of the sodium, fat, and sugar content.
If eating out, try to choose foods that contain mostly vegetables, as meats and poultries both naturally contain sodium and have sodium added to them for enhanced flavor.
Choose non-salty snacks
Chips and pretzels are favorite snacks in the US, but contribute to sodium intake and the salt adds up quickly. Consider flavoring popcorn with nutritional yeast, herbs or spices, eating slices of fruits or vegetables, or munching on unsalted nuts.
Increase potassium intake
Potassium counteracts sodium by making the body eliminate sodium through urine. Potassium also helps ease tension in blood vessels.
Fruits and vegetables are rich in potassium. (Someone with a kidney condition needs a prescribed safe level of potassium. Consult your healthcare professional.)
Drink water
Drinking water can help dilute the salt our bodies maintain, but water also replaces other beverages that can raise blood pressure.
Limit Alcohol
No amount of alcohol is beneficial to health and science suggests alcohol raises blood pressure.
Read nutrition labels
Nutrition labels provide the Percent Daily Value (%DV) of sodium per serving. The aim is to keep the %DV to less than 5% per serving.
It’s great to identify foods that boast “Lower Sodium” or “Reduced Sodium,” but it’s important to see if that marketing holds up when you look at the nutrient label. Just because a soup is “lower sodium” doesn’t mean it’s at a level that is safe for people with hypertension.
Try the DASH Diet
Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension (DASH) is a proven method of lowering sodium in the diet, and therefore, lowering blood pressure. Consult with a dietitian to guide you on this diet.
What Else Can I Do to Reduce My Blood Pressure?
Aside from reducing salt, increasing potassium intake through fruits and veggies, drinking more water and less alcohol, there are other things within your control that you can do to lower your blood pressure.
Physical Activity
Always consult with your health care provider first, but increasing physical activity is highly recommended. Think of movement as the catalyst needed to move those fats, sugars, and salts through the body. You don’t want anything sticking around.
Physical activity improves circulation, can help open up blood vessels, reduce stress, and reduce weight. All of these contribute to lower blood pressure. Aim for at least 150 minutes of moderate exercise per week (or 25 minutes per day).
Relieve Stress
Try stress-relieving techniques like breathing, taking a walk, or aromatherapy if you have a lot of chronic stress in your life. Talking to a therapist may also help. Stress has been known to lead to heart attacks. It’s important to monitor your levels of stress and find something that can limit the resulting inflammation.
Lose Weight
Being overweight puts extra strain on the heart. Work with your health care professional or make an appointment with a dietitian if you want some help losing weight. (Dietitians are actually a lot of fun to work with!)
Quit smoking
By now everyone knows smoking destroys healthy tissues and organs, dismantling them one cell at a time. They narrow blood vessels and make both the heart and the lungs work harder until they don’t anymore. If you need help quitting, ask your doctor or call 1-800-QUIT-NOW.
Medication
Pregnant women with risk of high blood pressure or pre-eclampsia may want to ask their obstetrician about low-dose aspirin. There currently is not consensus on the best treatment method for pre-eclampsia, but the health care field has started seeing the best results with low-dose aspirin. Not all obstetricians are aware of this though. For more information, visit https://www.preeclampsia.org/aspirin.
All patients should discuss medication with their doctor. The doctor may prescribe anti-hypertensive medication, but ensure they are aware of all medications and supplements you’re taking to prevent unwanted interactions.
Foods to Lower Blood Pressure
Produce
Fruits and vegetables provide the biggest bang for your buck to lower blood pressure through diet. They’re not only rich in potassium and low in natural sodium, but the fiber can help lower cholesterol and the antioxidants can reduce free radicals caused by inflammation, both leading to healthier arteries.
Protein
Other swaps you can make include replacing red meat with leaner proteins like fish, beans, lentils, quinoa, unsalted nuts and nut butters, soy, and skinless poultry.
Whole Grains
The Dietary Guidelines for Americans recommend making half your grains whole grains.
Whole grains retain the fiber, vitamins, minerals, and healthy fats after processing. These include popcorn, whole grain bread/pasta/crackers, corn, stone ground tortilla chips, corn tortillas, oats, barley, quinoa, millet, sorghum, and brown rice.
Refined grains, on the other hand, only retain the starch. These include white bread/ pasta/crackers, white flour tortillas, white rice, pastries, pancakes or waffles made with unbleached flour, and most pizza crusts. Refined grains should be limited due to minimal nutrient contribution and added sugar.
Dairy
Dairy has been controversial. Cheese is typically high is sodium, however, 8 oz. of non-fat or low fat milk can be important to maintain calcium and vitamin D levels. Yogurt can support strong bones and a healthy gut if it has live cultures and no added sugar.
Plant-based milk, cheese, and yogurt may be good options, but because they can vary so much, read the label and watch for sodium and added sugar.
Oils & Fats
The best oils to use are the ones that are higher in mono- and poly-unsaturated fats and lower in saturated fat.
Olive oil, avocado oil, and yes, canola oil, in moderation are great for baking, cooking, and salad dressings when replacing butter or coconut oil.
Healthy fats that can help improve blood flow include avocados, salmon, mackerel, sardines, tuna, and unsalted nuts, especially walnuts.
DASH Quick & Easy Recipe – Salmon with Quinoa Fruit Salad
Prep Time: 10 mins.
Cook Time: 25 mins
Total Time: 35 mins.
Yield: 2 servings
Ingredients
½ cup dried quinoa
8 oz salmon filet
1 Tbsp dried dill (or paprika or any no sodium seasoning for salmon)
8 strawberries, rinsed and stemmed
1 avocado
¼ red onion
Juice of 1 lime
2 Tbsp olive or avocado oil
Optional: basil or cilantro for garnish
Directions:
Boil a pot of 1 cup of water or broth. Add quinoa and simmer for 15 minutes until water is absorbed. Place in fridge to cool.
Preheat oven to 350 and line a sheet pan with parchment paper or foil.
Place salmon on lined sheet pan and season with your choice of non-sodium herbs or spices.
When oven is pre-heated, place salmon on middle rack and cook for 10 minutes (or until reaches internal temperature of 145 degrees.)
While the salmon cooks, dice strawberries, avocado, and onion. Add to cooled quinoa along with lime juice and oil and stir.
When salmon is done, use a spatula to cut the it in half. Place half a filet on each plate. Spoon out quinoa salad. Garnish with cilantro or basil. Enjoy!