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I've been a vegan for about one year now. I'm actually about a 95% vegan because if I go on a business trip or to the relatives' house I may eat small amounts of animal based foods. I was already thin and in shape when I started the diet, but my blood pressure had been creeping up in the preceding years. It was always low until I reached my 40s. I read The China Study and changed my diet immediately.

I don't call myself a McDougaller because I eat ample amounts of nuts, use a little bit of added oil and eat as much whole fruit as I want. I also eat whole grains, beans and as many vegetables as possible each day.

I check my blood pressure at work on the industrial machines that are similar to the ones in drug stores. I also check it at home with a wrist monitor that is on the list of approved devices for the British Hypertension Society. A typical reading at work last year was 138/88. A typical reading at home was 130/80. Today a typical reading at work is 122/80 and an average reading at home is 115/75. My dad thinks it is because I got married last year and my wife and I got a dog, but I believe it's my dietary change. I'm always striving to improve my diet but that is my progress so far.

It is fabulous, isn't it?

Congratulations!!

Thank you. Yes I am amazed at how effective the diet change has been. As excited as I am about it, I'm still a little amazed at how other people react, especially people I know who are taking high blood pressure meds. They just shrug their shoulders and aren't interested in changing their diet. The one exception to this is a co-worker who changed to a low fat vegan diet at about the same time I changed. He was taking three BP meds, he is now off of all of them.

Another thing I noticed about the plant based diet is that I lost 2-3% body fat without losing any weight. My bathroom scale that calculates body fat percentage was consistently 2-3 % less than it was when I was eating meat, eggs and cheese even though my weight remained the same. That happened right away. Since then I've also lost ten pounds.

In addition to eating a high-fiber, whole-plant-foods, very low-fat diet, you might keep the following reserve weapons in your arsenal:

1. Cut out all salt. This was tough at first, but now my tastes have adjusted to the point where I can eat a plain baked potato, chew it slowly, and it actually tastes good.

2. Stop reading, watching, or listening to news programs. I let news come to me rather than immersing myself in it. This step alone reduces my BP by about 10/5 points.

Haha! Even when news comes to me my bp goes up.