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4 diet tips to manage hypertension

Make these changes in your diet to regulate your blood pressure.

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Written By: Shriya Sinha | Published : February 12, 2019, 2:43 PM

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Hypertension

Your lifestyle habits and surrounding environment is responsible for your health. Factors like sedentary lifestyle, excessive consumption of salt, high blood cholesterol and poor dietary habits causes your blood pressure to abnormally rise and results in Hypertension. Unmanaged hypertension can lead to a stroke and other heart diseases. To monitor the occurrence of the condition one needs to constantly monitor their systolic and diastolic levels. It is advised to eat a healthy diet and active lifestyle that regulates your blood pressure and reduces cholesterol levels. Here we list down a few things that you should follow to bring about a healthy change that combats hypertension for you.

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Bananas

Eat food rich in potassium: Potassium helps to regulate effectively high sodium levels in your body. Five servings of fresh fruits and vegetables are important to get the daily required intake of potassium. Foods like broccoli, oranges, celery, avocados, mushroom, and sweet potato are great sources of potassium. Bananas are an excellent all-season fruit that you can simply add in your smoothies to consume the daily intake of potassium.  Also Read - Smoking for calm, paying with dependence: Doctor explains mental health and tobacco connection

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Caffeine

Control caffeine intake: Caffeine blocks your hormone that is required to keep the arteries in a dilated condition. Therefore, caffeine leads to a short and sudden spike in your blood pressure levels. Try and limit your caffeine intake to 200 mg daily and completely abstain from caffeine before going for any physical activity or exercise.

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Salt

Limit sodium intake: If you suffer from hypertension then your daily consumption of salt should be around half teaspoon. Avoid processed junk food and try eating home cooked food. Always check the food labels whenever you buy ready to eat meals form the market. If the label reads 20% or more DV of sodium, just don’t buy it. Add various spices not just salt to your food to enhance the flavour. Avoid adding table salt to your meal preparations.  Also Read - Oral microbiota and pregnancy: Why immune changes can affect oral health

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Spinach

Increase food rich in magnesium: Magnesium helps to effectively helps to reduce the systolic blood pressure if consumed regularly. The recommended daily allowance of magnesium is around 350-400 mg. Foods high in magnesium are wheatgerm, buckwheat, spinach, garbanzo beans, almonds, black beans and broccoli.