Adding one food to diet could lower blood pressure, claims dietitian

Introducing a simple tinned food into your diet could hold the key to lowering blood pressure, thanks to its rich calcium content according to a dietitian. Elevated blood pressure, a top risk factor for heart disease, arises when blood applies excessive pressure against the arterial walls.

Among the many factors influencing blood pressure, dietary choices are on the most influential. Dietitian Veronica Rouse explains that one of the dietary changes that can make a significant difference is adding tinned sardines to your meal plan. Speaking to EatingWell, she said: “Canned sardines are packed with omega-3 fatty acids and calcium, both beneficial for blood pressure. Omega 3s help lower blood pressure by reducing inflammation, and calcium is an important mineral in the DASH diet, an eating pattern designed to lower blood pressure.”

But the story doesn’t end with tinned sardines; bananas and broccoli also have a role to play due to their high potassium levels, reports SurreyLive.

Experts at the University of Waterloo in Canada highlighted an intriguing strategy – upping the ratio of dietary potassium relative to sodium (commonly found in salt) could effectively diminish blood pressure levels.

Published in the American Journal of Physiology-Renal Physiology, their research casts the spotlight on how shifting diets and crucial dietary ratios influence our health daily.

Dr Anita Layton has shed light on the potential benefits of increasing your intake of bananas and broccoli, which could be more effective than merely cutting down on salt.

She stated: “Usually, when we have high blood pressure, we are advised to eat less salt.

“Our research suggests that adding more potassium-rich foods to your diet, such as bananas or broccoli, might have a greater positive impact on your blood pressure than just cutting sodium.”

Moreover, study leader Melissa Stadt has linked the advantageous effects of potassium to our ancestral diet, as reported by the Daily Express.

She elaborated: “Early humans ate lots of fruits and vegetables, and as a result, our body’s regulatory systems may have evolved to work best with a high potassium, low sodium diet.

“Today, western diets tend to be much higher in sodium and lower in potassium. That may explain why high blood pressure is found mainly in industrialised societies, not in isolated societies.”

Blood Pressure UK highlights that approximately one-third of adults in the UK suffer from high blood pressure, yet about half remain undiagnosed, translating to nearly five million individuals in England alone.

For further information on high blood pressure, visit the NHS website.