Health, Fitness and Nutrition: Food That Can Help Prevent or Lower High Blood Pressure

 

Buy 1 Meal Deal for $4.99 and get the 2nd cheeseburger FREE, gave me a big round belly. In Part 1 of our 4-part series on health, fitness and nutrition, we wrote about food that prevents sugar diabetes and help us to live a healthier life. In part 2, we wrote about food that lowers our high cholesterol levels and explained what goes on in our digestive system from the moment we chew our food to the elimination of the food. This time in Part 3 of our 4 Part series, we’ll take a look at high blood pressure and how we can get control of it through the food we choose to eat. But first let’s look at a few challenges we all encounter.

Inner City Food Challenges

In the inner cities, the first thing one should notice on every street corner is a number of fast -food restaurant chains, family owned eateries and local liquor stores. At first look, we may question, “What’s wrong with that? That’s normal because that’s what I grew up with. Well that’s not normal in the suburban neighborhoods, only in the poor black and brown neighborhoods? The evidence is all around us, if we pay attention to detail. The liquor stores on every corner are loaded with chips, cookies, candy, beer, wine and some hard liquor. And the fast-food chains are competing against one another with their mix and match 2 sandwiches for five dollars, not including the fries and drink. When children, teenagers and young adults grow up in such communities and all we see for food is the processed food such as crispy chicken sandwiches, cheeseburgers, fries, soda, pizza, hot dogs, noodles and prepackaged microwaveable quick fix foods loaded with over 500 to 1000 milligrams of sodium, we become conditioned to the taste and the desire to eat healthy food becomes less and less attractive. Eating right, becomes an inner-city food challenge.

Hyped Up Food Advertisers

Add to this environment, the TV commercials advertising the meal deals, the movies advertising their version of the meal deals, and the entertainment industry promoting drinking and smoking certain brands we brain wash a generation of young people to believe this is the good life. This is in my opinion the beginning of generational high blood pressure and many other diseases to come. If you can visually see and understand this big picture, then perhaps you can understand what we put in our bodies starts with our home community and what we’re surrounded with. What we eat is just as important as the air we breath.

The Doctor Visit

Since all food and drink ends up in our blood stream, the nurse or doctor needs to take a look. The normal procedure is the nurse or doctor will connect us to a blood pressure machine and may order bloodwork to find out further what’s going on in our body and blood. Between the blood pressure monitor and the blood drawn from our arm, our blood tattle-tells on us every time. It lets the nurse or doctor know whether or not we have been eating balanced meals or something else.

In short, think of our blood vessels as the small tube that we see inside of a water gun. When that small tube is restricted with particles of dirt or Kool-aid sugar, it takes more pressure for our index finger to squirt the water out. Likewise with the heart, it takes more work for our heart to pump blood through our blood vessels. The more the heart muscle has to work, the weaker it becomes over time. It eventually gets tired and we feel tired fast from just a little bit of work. In time we begin to see and feel the consequences of our health choices. At that painful moment, we decide to go visit the doctor. Fortunately, the medical staff will give us their recommendations to help move us toward self-improvement.

How to Prevent or Lower High Blood Pressure

So, what are the types of food that we need to eat to prevent or lower high blood pressure? The answer lies within this short, short list of food eaten daily. We all need to eat more fruits such as green apples, strawberries, blueberries, oranges, grapefruit and melons; green vegetables such as broccoli, spinach, collard greens, cabbage along with carrots, cauliflower and other foods such as black beans, bran, and drink lots of water. Each of these items listed helps remove the build-up all around the walls of our blood vessels and allow our blood to flow freely. Remember clogged blood vessels is caused by eating too much processed food filled with additives, salt and sugar intertwined with stress and a lack of sleep leads high blood pressure. Clean blood vessels will help the body to lose weight, feel lighter and energized to go exercise. That being said, think of fruits and vegetables as your lifetime medicine from now on. You’ll see and feel your body changing for the better, especially when you add to your routine getting plenty of rest so that your body can work for you each day. In closing, pass on your love of eating right to your loved ones, especially if you’re living in the inner city. Eating right, is above all things an excellent practice. After all, practice is where it all begins.