Dietician & Nutritionist

Hypertension Management: Look out at what & when you eat?

We enjoy food and our meals with friends and family best when the food tastes really great. Along with the curry powder and the whole spices that go into giving our favourite foods the best tastes, it’s the salt in the food. Salt plays an important role in imparting flavours and taste to the food. But when a person is diagnosed with high Blood Pressure or Hypertension what our physician first advices is to stop all the salt in our food, both cooking salt and table salt.

But there is far more to a Hypertension control diet than just minimizing your daily salt intake. Adding seasonal and locally produced fruits, fresh vegetables, low-fat dairy foods, sprouts, nuts, whole-grains, and trans-fat free foods also have healthful effects on blood pressure levels.

 In whatever food we eat, there isn’t a single food which does not have "magic" ingredient in their preparation list. Salt and most minerals are present in almost all packaged and non-packaged foods as preservatives or adjuncts to keep them edible for a long time. But there is a way out to stay away from these excess salts and fats. Instead, it's the foundation for an all-around mindful eating strategy that is effective for blood pressure control.

Watching your diet and having a great physical activity regimen helps in controlling the blood pressure or Hypertension levels in control in a long run. Along with lifestyle correction, avoiding stress, doing “Yoga” or “Mindful Thinking and speaking” helps manage Hypertension or blood pressure with regular medications.

Regularise diet & lifestyle effectively

Eating food is the most vital and fundamental process of our daily living. But what we eat, how much we eat and how many times we eat equally plays an important role. When we go in supermarkets we spend a short while at the fresh produce shelves. Most of the times we spend lot of time at bread selection, cheese selection, meat selection and so on...though most of the supermarkets begin with fresh produce counters in the beginning with a serious thought that most people will have a look and get a thought to buy more of the fresh produces. But we spend least time there. Start your lifestyle correction by spending more time near fresh produce selection, lesser at meat and milk produces and even lesser at frozen and packaged food sections. In this way you will start the transformation journey of controlling and fighting Hypertension effectively. 

Just like watching what you eat, checking when you eat is also important change in high blood pressure management is watching your meal timings or not skipping meals, increasing water intake, watching over the sleep timings is also the next big step towards High blood pressure or Hypertension management. With that checking other health parameters, watching your weight and body circumferences also proves essential in good Hypertension control.

Take advice from a “Nutrition expert” and know more about Mindful eating and selection criteria to manage your Hypertension or blood pressure effectively.

Regular Monitoring of Blood Pressure

We can see high blood pressure or Hypertension and most of the times it shows no to low symptoms, it’s only possible when you visit your physician that they check and help you understand the ranges for your Systolic and Diastolic pressures. You may be at an increased risk for high blood pressure or Hypertension if you are smoking regularly, you are overweight, eat a diet that’s low on fresh produce and fibre or high in trans-fat and salt, drink excess alcohol regularly, take too much stress or don’t do much physical activity. In case you have any of the above issues, you must regularly follow-up with your physician and get your Blood pressure levels measured.

The ones with known hypertension or high blood pressure levels for over many years should have a regular checking done; one may buy a portable home-monitoring device and keep a log of the levels at home. It helps in effectively managing your levels with a regular doctor’s visit, having a great diet, doing good physical activity and limiting or eliminating smoking and drinking habit.

Talk to your physician and know more about which devices help in monitoring your blood pressure at home.

Correct your diet and lifestyle issues by connecting with a “Nutrition expert” so that managing Hypertension or High Blood pressure will be easier and effective at home.