9 Foods That Lower Blood Pressure Naturally

Discover the Foods that Lower Blood Pressure Naturally and Begin Eating Your Way to Lower Blood Pressure …

Foods that lower blood pressure naturally are easily found in your local grocery store and the reason these foods work so well to lower high blood pressure is because they contain large amounts of potassium.[1]

The body requires a healthy dose of potassium daily (4700mgs) and if you don’t eat enough foods that lower blood pressure naturally the result may be hypertension (high blood pressure). [2]

IF you are on diuretics or drink fairly large quantities of coffee and tea, both of which stimulate urination, you may need to eat even more foods that contain potassium in order to lower blood pressure naturally.[3]

Linus Pauling, Nobel Prize recipient (Chemistry 1954), said that “all disease can be traced to malnutrition.” And in the case of Primary Hypertension, that occurs without underlying heart disease, it is more than likely true. It’s at least worth exploring. So …

If your doctor has told you that he or she wants you to begin taking prescription medication to resolve your high blood pressure, and, you don’t want to take medication, then it is time to pay close attention to the 9 foods that lower blood pressure naturally because a significant reduction in blood pressure can be realized with the addition of more potassium rich foods injected into your daily diet.

Super Tubers Lower Blood Pressure

One of the powerful foods that lower blood pressure naturally is the potato. Baked potatoes are an excellent source of potassium, magnesium, vitamins B6 and C. They also contain some calcium, copper and niacin.

The meat of a large potato contains approximately 600 – 700 milligrams of potassium but that amount more than doubles if you eat the skin providing a power punch of over 1600 milligrams when both meat and skin are consumed. Many people peel their potatoes. I rarely do. I even boil potatoes (with carrots and onions) and keep their skins on. It just makes good nutrient sense.

Beets are another excellent source of potassium and whether they are steamed, boiled, or pickled they still pack a powerful punch when it comes to lowering blood pressure naturally.

Carrots aren’t simply good for your eyes. They work wonders upon your cardiovascular system as well. Loaded with vitamins and minerals carrots are an excellent source of potassium. Whether you eat them raw or cook them, they are one of the foods that lower blood pressure naturally.

By making a “Russian” style potato salad you can combine all three super tubers and create a delicious, mouth watering treat with foods that lower blood pressure naturally.

Milk Lowers Blood Pressure – Raw Milk Is Best

Milk is packed with nutrients and 4 (8 ounce) glasses of milk per day will help you achieve 1700 milligrams of Potassium and a whole days supply of Calcium. Since it is difficult to ingest the recommended 4700 milligrams of potassium each day unless you eat certain foods rich in the mineral you now know why your momma told you to drink your milk.

Now …

The milk you buy in a store isn’t really milk. It is some substance that comes from a cow that has been pasteurized, homogenized, polluted with chemicals, hormones and possibly pesticides and antibiotics. It is far from what nature provides from a cow fed only natural grasses and hay. If you want REAL milk you’ll have to locate a farmer who will sell you pure, clean, raw milk just as the cow creates and nature intended but …

That is difficult to do because those who wish to keep you sick have made it against the law to sell raw milk. Millions of people prospered for years drinking milk directly from the cow but under the guise of protection you can no longer get REAL, raw cows milk in a store. Instead you get some toxic concoction that is nutrient dead for the most part and can cause harm from long-term consumption. So …

IF you really want the benefits nature intended from good wholesome milk you will need to locate a nice farmer and talk him/her into selling you some raw milk on the sly and of course keeping that a secret. Now …

Be advised. RAW Milk can fracking kill you! At least the CDC wants you to believe that you would be putting your life in danger. Prescription drugs kill over 100,000 people in the USA EVERY year [4] and that’s ok but don’t consume raw milk! Here’s what the CDC has to say about raw milk:

“Raw milk can cause serious infections. Raw milk and raw milk products (such as cheeses and yogurts made with raw milk) can be contaminated with bacteria that can cause serious illness, hospitalization, or death. These harmful bacteria include Brucella, Campylobacter, Listeria, Mycobacterium bovis, Salmonella, Shiga toxin-producing E. coli, Shigella, Streptococcus pyogenes, and Yersinia enterocolitica. From 1998 through 2009, 93 outbreaks due to consumption of raw milk or raw milk products were reported to CDC. These resulted in 1,837 illnesses, 195 hospitalizations, and 2 deaths. Because not all cases of foodborne illness are recognized and reported, the actual number of illnesses associated with raw milk likely is greater.” 

Consuming wholesome raw milk could cause death in some people due to bacteria. In fact as you can read in the above paragraph the CDC says that during a ten tear period (10 YEARS) there were 1837 illnesses and two deaths attributed to raw milk. That is an average of 183.7 people (out of a population of 300 million) becoming sick every year from raw milk. However …

During a fifteen year period from 1980 – 1995 (15 years) 1318 people died in the USA due to lightning strikes. So lightning kills more people per year than raw milk doesn’t it? And how often do you think about being killed by a bolt of lightning from the blue? So …

Instead of asking how dangerous raw milk could be to your health maybe you should be more concerned about the dangers of toxic blood pressure drugs and research how many people were hospitalized due to high blood pressure medications? How many deaths occurred due to toxic heart drugs? Do your research and the numbers will stagger you and so will the amount of revenues produced by those toxic drugs! But what the hell let’s demonize raw milk!

Blood Pressure Monitors 

When you have high blood pressure you’ll need to monitor your pressure every day in order to check the progress you make towards lowering your blood pressure into respectable limits.

Your doctor will want you to do this in order to see if lifestyle changes such as diet and exercise do the trick. This means you will need a quality blood pressure monitor.

Omron makes quality products. They may be a little more expensive than a “Walgreens” blood pressure monitor but they are worth the money. I bought one for my mom so she could easily monitor her blood pressure during the course of a day.

IF you opt for medication instead of using foods and regular exercise to lower your blood pressure naturally your doctor will want a daily record of how your blood pressure medication is working. This way he/she can make any necessary adjustments.

Lower Blood Pressure with Legumes

Beans, peas and lentils are rich sources of Potassium, B vitamins, Calcium and Magnesium.

Lentils are especially rich in Folate and Potassium.

Another benefit of legumes is that they are also chalked full of fiber and protein. Enjoy a tasty batch of home-made baked beans or lentil soup.

Add sweet garden peas to your diet by using them as a side dish or in salads.

Eat beans, lentils and peas often and reap the benefits of lower blood pressure.

Lower Blood Pressure with Leafy Greens!

A mere 100 grams of spinich ( a tad more than 1/2 cup cooked) packs a whopping 676% of the daily Vitamin K , 241% of the Vitamin A, 18% of the Vitamin E, 10% of the Riboflavin, 15% of the Calcium, 11% of the Iron, 21% of the Magnesium, 9% (302 milligrams) of the Potassium, 36% of the Manganese, 8% of the Selenium and 30% of the Folate needed for good health. Spinach is a powerhouse, a super food vegetable.

Other “supper food” leafy greans include collard greens, mustard greens and chard. All are great sources of Potassium, Magnesium and Calcium. They also contain some vegetable protein, fiber and are a rich source of disease fighting anti-oxidants. Those who are on blood thinning medication should check with their physcian before consuming large amounts of these vegetables because they could have a negative impact on those who need to limit their Vitamin K intake to ruduce clotting.

Cooking Vegan Will Lower Blood Pressure – May Even Reverse Atherosclerosis

One of the best ways to lower blood pressure is to change how you eat and cook. Food can be a healing friend when you choose wisely and a plant based diet is a wise choice. In fact if your high blood pressure is due to atherosclerosis (artery plaque) going vegan can help reverse atherosclerosis.

Vegan cooking is healthy for your heart and total cardiovascular system. Go vegan and watch your blood pressure plummet. It’s a lifestyle change that will improve your health.

It is a well known fact that people who eat a plant based diet suffer less heart disease, less cancer and are more healthy overall. IF you don’t like the idea of giving up meat totally simply become a half-baked vegan and eat vegan 3 – 4 times a week. You’ll still see positive changes. Is improved health worth it?

Cruciferous Power – Vegetables Packed with Phytonutrients!

Brussel sprouts, cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, rutabaga, radish, kale, bok choy, turnips, turnip greens, watercress and collard greens are cruciferous vegetables. And these babies are packed full of vitamins, minerals and phytonutrients. For example:

One cup of Brussel’s Sprouts contains 449 milligrams of potassium plus a nice amount of calcium and magnesium and a load of antioxidants all of which will help you lower your blood pressure naturally without harmful drugs.

Cauliflower and broccoli are similar in nutrition power. All of these nutrient dense vegetables are also big-time cancer fighters!

Wheat Germ – The Super Grain

Wheat germ is rich in Calcium, Magnesium, Potassium and B Complex vitamins and fiber.

Add some wheat germ to your morning oatmeal along with a tablespoon of blackstrap molasses (also rich in calcium, potassium and magnesium) for taste, poor on the milk, enjoy with whole wheat toast and an apple.

Other whole grains include barley, rye and brown rice.

Super Fruits

Avocado. Avocado is an absolute super fruit when it comes to lowering blood pressure. With almost 700 milligrams of Potassium and a nice showing of Vitamins C, A and B complex plus calcium, magnesium, selenium, omega 3 fatty acids and up to 9 grams of fiber in one California avocado this fruit is a super blood pressure lowing machine.

Bananas. 1 large banana will provide almost 500 milligrams of Potassium. They are also a very good source of the Vitamins B6, Folate, C and contain minerals such as magnesium, manganese, copper, calcium, phosphorus and selenium as well. The only drawback to bananas is that they contain high amounts of natural fruit sugars, sucrose, fructose and glucose. Diabetics need to be cautious of eating bananas.

Kiwi. Kiwi fruit is jam packed with Vitamin’s K, C, Folate and the minerals Potassium, Calcium, Magnesium and Phosphorus. Kiwi also contains high amounts of natural fruit sugars.

Pomegranate. One Pomegranate supplies almost 700 milligrams of Potassium. Pomegrante is also high in Vitamin K, offers a good amount of Folate and is a good source of Magnesium, Copper, Manganese and Selenium. Like other fruits Pomegranate contains high amounts of natural fruit sugars.

Papaya. One cup of papaya delivers 360 milligrams of potassium, 144% of daily Vitamin C, and also serves up calcium and magnesium in decent quantities.

Oranges. Oranges, though not as power-packed as bananas, kiwi or pomegranate, are still a good source of minerals and vitamins. One orange contains 100% of the daily requirement for vitamin C. Like bananas oranges contain high amounts of natural fruit sugars.

Super fruits, like super vegetables also deliver a vast amount of phytonutrients to reduce LDL cholesterol oxidation, fight disease and improve your overall health.

Study Shows Grape Seed Extract Lowers Blood Pressure

Grape Seed Extract For Blood Pressure? Yes [4,5], in fact scientists from from the University of California at Davis did a study and found that grape seed extract does lower blood pressure.

Those who have high blood pressure and proactively increase their consumption of foods that lower blood pressure, exercise 30 to 45 minutes per day (walking is good) along with the addition of grape seed extract may be very pleased with the results.

They may find simple changes in lifestyle to be a safe way to lower blood pressure without resorting to harmful prescription drugs (harmful due to side effects).

Wild Salmon

Not all Salmon are created equal. Stay away from “farm raised” fish. Do the “wild thing.” Most Salmon contain large amounts of healthy fish oil (great for artery health), large amounts of Potassium, Selenium, Magnesium, Calcium and the B vitamin complex. Other cold water, oily fish such as Mackerel and Sardines provide similar beneficial amounts.

Wild Salmon, almost any variety (Coho, Pink, Silver, Chinook, Atlantic), is a super food. Canned Salmon, Mackerel and Sardines contain ALL the benefits of fresh and wild with the added value of increased Calcium because you can eat the soft bones.

Don’t like fish and have high blood pressure? I suggest you learn to like fish real fast because fish oil supplements, though very beneficial, do not provide the nutrients the whole food, wild fish, contains.

Garlic

Garlic has been shown to significantly lower total cholesterol, triglycerides and blood pressure in at least one double blind study and several others show that both systolic and diastolic readings show marked improvement in those consuming liberal amounts of garlic.

Nobody seems to know the exact reasons why garlic lowers blood pressure, just that it does. Garlic also thins the blood so if you are on a medication to thin your blood such as aspirin, warfarin, coumadin or Pradaxa you should check with your health care provider (doctor) before you use garlic to lower your blood pressure naturally.

Fresh garlic offers a small amount of vitamins and minerals but that isn’t where the power comes from. Garlic is full of sulfur (sulphur) from which it derives a lot of its antimicrobial properties but nobody seems to know where its power to lower blood pressure comes from. It works best fresh or in powdered capsule form. If you cook it cook it sparingly because the more you cook it the weaker it gets.

Summary

It’s your health and …

It isn’t as easy as you may think to eat your way to health these days simply because it takes quality food and a lot of it in order to achieve the optimum levels of nutrients to lower blood pressure naturally.

If you’re concerned with calories choose from the foods above that are richest in nutrients for the calories consumed. For example you can eat tons of vegetables without consuming a whole lot of calories. In any event …

If you want to lower blood pressure naturally then start eating the 9 quality whole foods mentioned above.

Eliminate white bread (go wheat or whole grain instead), pasta, refined sugar, prepackaged food, trans-fats, white rice and all “refined,” or quick, easy to prepare garbage found on store shelves and in the freezer sections.

IF you follow the suggestions in this article you will most likely see the results you want and experience first hand foods that lower blood pressure naturally. 

References:

1. Effects of potassium supplementation on markers of osmoregulation and volume regulation: results of a fully controlled dietary intervention study – Riphagen IJ1, Gijsbers L, van Gastel MD, Kema IP, Gansevoort RT, Navis G, Bakker SJ, Geleijnse JM.
2. Potassium in diet- National Institutes of Health U.S. National Library of Medicine
3. Urinary sodium or potassium excretion and blood pressure in adults of Shandong province, China: preliminary results of the SMASH project. – Chen X1, Guo X1, Ma J2, Zhang J1, Tang J1, Yan L2, Xu C1, Zhang X3, Ren J1, Lu Z1, Zhang G1, Dong J1, Xu A4.
4. April 15, 1998
   Incidence of Adverse Drug Reactions in Hospitalized Patients
   A Meta-analysis of Prospective Studies
   Jason Lazarou, MSc; Bruce H. Pomeranz, MD, PhD; Paul N. Corey, PhD
   From the Departments of Zoology (Mr Lazarou and Dr Pomeranz), Physiology (Dr Pomeranz), and Public Health Sciences (Dr Corey), University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario. JAMA. 1998
5. Grape Seed Extract for Blood Pressure?
   Study: Grape Seed Extract May Help Tame Prehypertension
   By Miranda Hitti
   Reviewed by Louise Chang, MD on March 27, 2006
6. 2009 Dec;58(12):1743-6. doi: 10.1016/j.metabol.2009.05.030. Epub 2009 Jul 15.
   Effect of grape seed extract on blood pressure in subjects with the metabolic syndrome
   Brahmesh Sivaprakasapillai 1, Indika Edirisinghe, Jody Randolph, Francene Steinberg, Tissa Kappagoda
   Affiliation
   1Department of Internal Medicine, University of California Davis, Davis, CA 95616, USA.