Berlin. Proper nutrition can reduce and prevent high blood pressure. The DASH diet is said to be particularly helpful. What does it bring?
As you get older, your body becomes less and less forgiving of an unhealthy diet. In addition to harmless ailments such as indigestion or heartburn, it can also cause or maintain high blood pressure. A long-term change in diet can help. But which foods help to lower blood pressure naturally? The so-called is considered particularly effective DASH diet.
Why is diet so important for high blood pressure?
High blood pressure can have various causes. These include genetic predisposition, chronic stress, lack of exercise, obesity and alcohol and tobacco consumption. But nutrition is also considered a key influencing factor. Because anyone who eats unhealthy foods doesn’t just risk becoming overweight.
Certain foods can Vascular deposits (arteriosclerosis) favor. The biggest culprits are saturated fats in sausage, butter or cream and sugar. They all promote calcification in the arteries, which causes the vessels to narrow. This makes it harder for the blood to flow. The result: The heart has to pump harder and blood pressure rises. If left untreated, high blood pressure can be extremely dangerous; The vascular changes can lead to, among other things, a heart attack or stroke.
Everyone can influence most risk factors – including diet. “High blood pressure is reversible if you take the right measures,” explains nutritionist Dr. Matthias Riedl in his podcast This is how healthy eating works. Above all, a diet that lowers blood pressure “a huge measure”that you should use.
The right diet is not only used for treatment, but also for prevention: those who eat healthily from a young age can reduce the risk of high blood pressure. The following applies: the earlier, the better. Because “arteriosclerosis starts at some point and continues to increase over the decades,” emphasizes Riedl.
Our expert
Dr. Matthias Riedl is a nutritional doctor, diabetologist and medical director of Medicum Hamburg. Since 2015 he has been part of the NDR program “The Nutrition Docs”, which he designed, in which Dr. Riedl, together with other doctors, developed nutritional strategies for specific patient cases. Several books accompanying the show were published. In addition, Dr. Riedl has been running the podcast “This is how healthy eating works” in collaboration with the Funke media group since 2022.
Which diet has a positive effect on high blood pressure?
What is considered a healthy diet? Experts recommend the so-called DASH diet for high blood pressure patients, which stands for “Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension” – in German: Dietary approach to hypertension. This is not a short-term diet, but rather a long-term dietary change that can prevent and treat high blood pressure.
The concept comes from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, an agency of the US Department of Health, and has also been used for many years by the German High Pressure League (DHL) recommended. It can be a useful addition to medical treatment with antihypertensive drugs.
DASH diet for high blood pressure: lots of vegetables, little meat
The DASH diet is not much different from the general recommendations for a balanced diet:
- Vegetables, fruits, legumes, nuts and fiber-rich cereals such as whole grains form the basis.
- They are supplemented with fish, healthy oils, few low-fat dairy products and little low-fat meat.
- However, you should avoid too much salt, sugar, unhealthy fats and alcohol as much as possible.
A US study in 2017 proved that the DASH diet works: If a person only follows 20 percent of the nutritional principles, The risk of death decreases by around 12 percent after ten years. The risk of dying from cardiovascular diseases also decreases. The study authors concluded this from an analysis of data from around 74,000 test subjects.
Also interesting
DASH diet: This is what high blood pressure patients should eat
| Recommended | Not recommended | |
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| Vegetables | ||
| Fruit | ||
| Grain | ||
| dairy products | ||
| legumes | ||
| Nuts | ||
| Meat/fish | ||
| Fats/oils | ||
| sweets | ||
| Drinks |
High blood pressure: Diet should contain as little salt as possible
A central tenet of the DASH diet is to reduce salt consumption. Conventional table salt (sodium chloride) binds water in the body, which increases blood volume and pressure in the vessels. According to the German Heart Foundation, approximately Half of high blood pressure patients are salt sensitive. This means that your blood pressure increases if you consume a lot of salt.
High salt consumption in Germany
The German Nutrition Society (DGE) recommends that adults consume a maximum of six grams of salt in their diet. However, this amount is often exceeded, as the study on the health of adults in Germany (DEGS) commissioned by the Robert Kocht Institute shows. Around half of the men and 38.5 percent of the women took more than 10 grams of salt daily to yourself.
It could make “a difference like day and night” pay attention to salt consumptionemphasizes nutritional doctor Riedl. When cooking, you can easily save on salt by replacing it with herbs or spices. It becomes more difficult with foods that contain a lot of salt, such as bread, cheese, canned fish, sausage or processed meat with curing salt.
Riedl also warns finished products: “Ultra-highly processed products are a curse for blood pressure.” A ready meal can contain up to 2.5 grams of salt, more than a third of the recommended daily amount. If you want to keep your blood pressure low, you should avoid pizza, frozen meals and fries.
Also interesting
Potassium in vegetables has a blood pressure lowering effect
While too much salt increases blood pressure, potassium can lower it. As a natural antagonist of sodium, it ensures that the blood vessels expand and the body excretes more water and more sodium. That’s why there is something called Blood pressure saltwhich in addition to sodium chloride also potassium chloride contains.
A Chinese study with around 21,000 participants shows that partial replacement of sodium chloride in the diet can have a strong health-promoting effect. “A quarter of sodium chloride has been replaced with potassium chloride. This increase in potassium led to a… Reduction in the risk of strokes by almost 15 percent,” explains Riedl.
The high potassium content of vegetables is one of the reasons why experts recommend a vegetable-based diet for high blood pressure patients: “Vegetables are beneficial in many ways preventive or therapeutic effect against high blood pressure,” says Riedl. Many fruits and nuts are also rich in potassium and are foods that lower blood pressure. However, since fruit often contains a lot of sugar and nuts are high in calories, they should only be consumed in moderation as part of the diet against high blood pressure.
More on the subject of blood pressure
Sources
Sotos-Prieto, M. [u.a.]: Association of Changes in Diet Quality with Total and Cause-Specific Mortalityin: New England Journal of MedicineChristmas. 2017, Vol. 377 (2): 143-153.
DASH Eating Planin: nhlbi.nih.gov (National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute)
DEGS: Study on the health of adults in Germanyin: rki.de (Robert Koch Institute)
Reduce high blood pressure with the DASH diet, in. hochdruckliga.de
Table salt, in: dge.de (German Society for Nutrition)
Podcast. Dr. Matthias Riedl. This is how healthy eating works: How to prevent high blood pressure, episode 23.
