Foods that lower high blood pressure

Vegan Hunter · **Posted:** Sun Mar 04, 2012 10:23 am

Well, I've got it. High BP, that is. Been on this WOE for a little over a year, and have been doing well. I have not been to the doctor, but I intend to go get blood drawn soon. My folks were down last weekend and my mom took my BP. Well, it was 143/100 :crybaby:

. When they left, I went and bought my own pressure reader and it has been consistantly 140/95. Really brought home that while I have made great strides toward better health, I still have plenty of work to do. I still need to work on keeping the fat out, and exercising more.

So this morning I have been looking around the web trying to educate myself on ways to lower blood pressure, and instead I have found site after site vomiting up bad advice.

One .com sites Dr. Mercola and his rail against potatoes and grains. The mayo clinic's site talks about lowfat dairy being a valued part of one's daily diet, but says stay away from cholesterol???

The last site I'll reference is the most disappointing, Livestrong.com.
http://www.livestrong.com/article/32138 ... wer-blood/
Read for yourself to see why I am so disappointed with this site.

I know finding bad info on the WWW is no new topic here, but I continue to be saddened by the tons of misinformation out there.

Steve · **Joined:** Thu Oct 19, 2006 8:19 pm **Posts:** 816

Vegan Hunter,

I think I found the answer to BP. By the way I am a long time McDougallar and never had a raise in BP until I turned 54. Then the BP started rising and I figured, Oh well, this just happens with age. My BP had been under 120/80 the whole time. Under 110/70 when I exercised. But all of a sudden My BP went to 130, then 140 and finally in January of 2010 to 154 over 85. Then I saw the lecture by Jeff Novic called "Should I eat that?" that February and I adopted his recommendations (which really are in the McDougall plan already but we tend to drift). Jeff has a really easy system. It helps to get teh sodium out of you diet and some other tricks. Within a few weeks my BP was under 120/80 again. Also I cut about 35 pounds to boot. Here is a link to the DVD on this website. http://drmcdougall.com/store_should_i_eat_that.html So now I think it does happen with age but also with what you are eating. Good luck.

Steve

BarbG · **Joined:** Sun May 31, 2009 9:57 pm **Posts:** 199

Steve or anyone,
Do you know if the DVD you link to is substantially different info than Jeff's label-reading DVD?
Thanks,
Barbara

LauraW · **Joined:** Thu Feb 09, 2012 11:23 am **Posts:** 59

Vegan Hunter wrote:

Well, I've got it. High BP, that is. Been on this WOE for a little over a year, and have been doing well.

Wow. I'll be interested to see what kind of advice you get, Vegan Hunter. I didn't think a person could develop hypertension on this type of diet.

Wishing you all the best...

Laura

Donna R · **Joined:** Fri Oct 20, 2006 1:28 pm **Posts:** 905

you probably know blood pressure is to be taken while you are resting, I read recently you should be resting for 5 minutes. when active of course it will be higher. did you take it in both arms? it's said it shouldn't be more than 10 points difference (upper reading) in each arm. if more there can be another problem.

some find stopping coffee will bring the bp down.

good luck!

Vegan Hunter · **Posted:** Sun Mar 04, 2012 2:18 pm

LauraW wrote:

Vegan Hunter wrote:

Well, I've got it. High BP, that is. Been on this WOE for a little over a year, and have been doing well.

Wow. I'll be interested to see what kind of advice you get, Vegan Hunter. I didn't think a person could develop hypertension on this type of diet.

Wishing you all the best...

Laura

I don't think I developed it lately. I think it has been here all along. It was the first time I took my pressure since my SAD diet days, and it was high then.

Technically, you could probably say I don't follow the Mcdougall Plan, because I have allowed plenty of tortilla chips and crackers in over the last year,enough to blow the low oil approach out of the water. Not enough exercise either. I am addressing both issues hoping to see a significant drop in BP.

Vegan Hunter · **Posted:** Sun Mar 04, 2012 2:26 pm

Donna R wrote:

you probably know blood pressure is to be taken while you are resting, I read recently you should be resting for 5 minutes. when active of course it will be higher. did you take it in both arms? it's said it shouldn't be more than 10 points difference (upper reading) in each arm. if more there can be another problem.

some find stopping coffee will bring the bp down.

good luck!

Yeah, I am starting a record of different readings throughout the day to establish an average. I do take it first thing in the morning. So far I am just using my left arm, because that is what the instructions suggest. Will try the right to see the difference.

I have stopped coffee. I might drink a cup of tea once or twice a week, but mostly caffeine is out.

Thanks for the input!

Donna R · **Joined:** Fri Oct 20, 2006 1:28 pm **Posts:** 905

you know what to do and are on the right track! plus you have the good advice of folk in this forum. :lol:

regular chips are high in salt as well as oil. I was doing pretty good following McDougall and Esselstyn but had a heart attack and quad bypass. (female, 68 years old, 26 years a vegetarian) so now I'm eating no added oil (plan to make a small exception when eating out which isn't often.) I'm taking med for high blood pressure, at least for now. diabetes is under good control since I quit the oil.

I might never eat another potato chip or french fry. but I can live without them.

bestbatchyet · **Joined:** Thu May 27, 2010 4:21 pm **Posts:** 57

I make my own chips by baking corn tortillas in the oven.
Buy a stack soft corn tortillas and cut them into 1/6s and lay out on a baking pan and bake at about 350-375 for 12 -15 minutes. The first time you have to watch them to get the temp and time right for your oven. After that set the timer. You can also use whole wheat pita to bake and make chips too. I dip in salsa or bean dips. I'ts cheaper to make your own and you avoid the salt and oil.

LauraW · **Joined:** Thu Feb 09, 2012 11:23 am **Posts:** 59

Donna R wrote:

I was doing pretty good following McDougall and Esselstyn but had a heart attack and quad bypass. (female, 68 years old, 26 years a vegetarian) so now I'm eating no added oil

I don't understand. Were you eating added oil before? Because, if you were, you weren't doing McDougall or Esselstyn.

Burgess · **Posted:** Sun Mar 04, 2012 3:52 pm

Here are the conclusions of my experience, at 67, but as a layman. I think the following steps must be taken, with the first ones being the most important:

1. Become very lean. I am now BMI 18. I eat zero added fat and no high-fat foods (such as nuts or avocados or processed foods). Done. Here is my diet, which consists of almost all whole foods: http://anti-itisdiet.blogspot.com/2010/ ... i-eat.html

2. Exercise daily. I walk 2 hrs/day and do light weights. Done.

3. Handle stress well. I am still working on this -- especially cutting out worries about things I cannot control, and eliminating "hurry sickness." I am making progress, but this has been a problem all my adult life.

4. Eat beets, watermelon, and other foods which supposedly will help increase the production of nitric oxide, which supposedly dilates the arteries thus lowering blood pressure. I "learned" about these foods from Michael Greger, MD on his site, http://nutritionfacts.org. The beet discussion appears at: http://nutritionfacts.org/videos/hearts ... ip-a-beet/

In my particular case, I suspect that my shrinking lungs might play a role in blood pressure higher than it should be considering how healthy I am otherwise. For a few months I was getting regular readings of 150/90. Now by implementing stress reduction and possibly by eating beets etc. regularly in small quantities my readings are more like 130/80 (though sometimes as low as 110/65). That is still too high but I am going in the right direction.

P. S. -- I generally get my highest readings in the mornings when I am internally "pushing" to get a lot of boring chores out of the way. My readings tend to be lowest in the evenings, especially after doing a lot of yoga style stretching.

Edited March 5 to add beet link.

Donna R · **Joined:** Fri Oct 20, 2006 1:28 pm **Posts:** 905

LauraW, I didn't explain it well.

re: >>I don't understand. Were you eating added oil before? Because, if you were, you weren't doing McDougall or Esselstyn.>>

for a couple of years I was "mostly" doing McDougall but did have some added oil, like in snack crackers to take on trips. or a little in a skillet with hash browns. but about 3 months before the heart attack I quit that. I did eat walnuts and avocados. I think my arteries were already blocked. high blood pressure and diabetes are hard on the heart. the good news is my neck and leg arteries aren't blocked. and the surgeon said I have great lungs!

the irony is that other people (including most of my blood relatives) who eat sad, very sad, don't have the heart problems I did.

Vegan Hunter · **Posted:** Sun Mar 04, 2012 6:02 pm

Burgess wrote:

Here are the conclusions of my experience, at 67, but as a layman. I think the following steps must be taken, with the first ones being the most important:

1. Become very lean. I am now BMI 18. I eat zero added fat and no high-fat foods (such as nuts or avocados or processed foods). Done. Here is my diet, which consists of almost all whole foods: http://anti-itisdiet.blogspot.com/2010/ ... i-eat.html

2. Exercise daily. I walk 2 hrs/day and do light weights. Done.

3. Handle stress well. I am still working on this -- especially cutting out worries about things I cannot control, and eliminating "hurry sickness." I am making progress, but this has been a problem all my adult life.

4. Eat beets, watermelon, and other foods which supposedly will help increase the production of nitric oxide, which supposedly dilates the arteries thus lowering blood pressure. I "learned" about these foods from Michael Greger, MD on his site, http://nutritionfacts.org. (It is down at the moment, for me, so I can't provide a particular link.)

In my particular case, I suspect that my shrinking lungs might play a role in blood pressure higher than it should be considering how healthy I am otherwise. For a few months I was getting regular readings of 150/90. Now by implementing stress reduction and possibly by eating beets etc. regularly in small quantities my readings are more like 130/80 (though sometimes as low as 110/65). That is still too high but I am going in the right direction.

P. S. -- I generally get my highest readings in the mornings when I am internally "pushing" to get a lot of boring chores out of the way. My readings tend to be lowest in the evenings, especially after doing a lot of yoga style stretching.

I like the get really lean part. That is a plan of mine. My BMI is hovering around 32 right now. It"s been 15 years since I was anywhere approaching "lean".

I have stated before that I hate beets, but I also have seen the videos to which you refer, and am making a concerted effort to include beets in my diet.

Two words to sum up beet eating, Purple poop.

I do eat alot of watermelon when it is in season, and I include greens almost everyday.

I have a feeling stress plays a big factor in my life. Got to figure that one out. I read John Robbin's "Healthy at 100", and one thing that struck me about the societies studied for their longevity was their lack of stress. Here we have developed a society based on stress. Hurry, hurry, hurry.

Thanks for the words of advice,

Steve · **Joined:** Thu Oct 19, 2006 8:19 pm **Posts:** 816

Barbara. The "Should I Eat That" DVD comes from one of the Advanced Study Weekends. Jeff goes over the labels really well. In this case he gives a four part system of not exceeding a certain sodium level, fat level, and avoiding non plan foods. By the way my weight loss was in about 3 months. Others posted that they lost about the same weight, 35 to 40 pounds. I emailed Jeff and he shared that one of the camera men from the advanced study weekend lost a lot of weight when he saw the camera man at the next advanced study weekend. I am not sure what the Label DVD is but the one I linked to has got the four part system that yielded good BP and weight loss for me. This talk was worth the whole price of the advanced study weekend. I was glad to purchase the full format DVD too.

Steve

HealthFreak · **Posted:** Sun Mar 04, 2012 9:22 pm

Read The High Blood Pressure Solution by Richard Moore md. That was the first book that made me realize the power of diet in reducing blood pressure. The next step was to follow the McDougall diet.

It has worked for me going on five years. Eat high potassium and low sodium foods, which is essentially a whole foods plant based diet. The other key is regular vigorous exercise.

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