HAVING HIGH BLOOD PRESSURE?

Tips in Controlling Your Blood Pressure

Having high blood pressure (BP) is the result of a lack of control in diet and poor lifestyle management. It can lead to a more dangerous health condition called hypertension which results to damage of the brain and even death. Needless to say, it is important that you watch what you really eat to control your blood pressure. 


Stay away from food that have preservatives. Preservatives are composed of salt or sodium so they would likely cause high blood pressure especially to older generations. Eat more fresh food picked from the garden or at the market rather than eat foods with these.
And should you actually eat foods with preservatives, try to eat them at lower doses. There will be times that you will have to mix in foods with preservatives to what you are eating but limit the amount of preservatives that comes into your system.

Certain foods like tomatoes contain susbtances that help fight off bad cholesterol and lower the blood pressure. Tomato is also a good source of vitamins and minerals that cater to the need of the body.

Garlic is another food source that helps lower it. Sure, it can taste pretty nasty while others enjoy the flavor, it can be a great help to those who are experiencing high blood pressure as its effects can easily be felt.

Most of us do not like spinach but what you do not know is that it brings down the pressure just like garlic. So, next time you want to eat spinach make sure that you incorporate both food items together to fully take advantage of the effect it gives to the body.

There are certain types of fish that can actually help maintain your blood pressure. Fish that are rich in omega-3 fatty acids help keep your heart healthy. Fish meat like tuna are great sources of omega-3 fatty acids.

There is simply no need for a special diet just to lower your BP. All of these are readily available on your supermarket and finally, you can eat as much as you want, without feeling guilty about your health.

DIABETES DIET

Healthy Eating Plans For Diabetic Patients

If you’ve happened to know what all the hospitals served people with diabetes, you’d probably can get a short list of what to get in the supermarket for those who are with diabetic in your family because, it’s true that diabetic patients has not much of food variation to begin with.

When talking about healthy eating plans for people with diabetes, it is important to know what food element is namely ‘bad’ for them. Until very recently, diabetics were routinely counseled to reduce carbohydrates, or in certain serious cases are abstained thoroughly from carbohydrates. Food source are depending on much on vegetable food source, and as for energy, much are derived from animal fat and proteins. But this kind of diet has a huge downside. Saturated fat from animal fats and certain proteins aggravated dangerous cardiovascular diseases, which most diabetics also suffered from, like heart diseases and high blood pressure.

 Physicians and dietician recently has found a new favor – rather than depending on low carbohydrate diet, a diet of high unrefined carbohydrate is by far most beneficial. However, the amount of carbohydrate intake should still be monitored to be no more than 70% of the total dietary intake. This is because by eating unrefined carbohydrate, diabetics are able to digest the carbohydrate to get energy in a much slower pace, making them feel fuller for a much longer period and at the same time, significantly reduce the average insulin requirement. The key is to supply the body with slow-burning fuel that will not cause a sudden increase of sugar in the blood, which can lead to excess insulin production.

Avoid saturated fats altogether and go for unsaturated instead. The best source of fat and protein is through vegetarian. These two categories should actually made up most of the dietary content of a diabetic. In serious cases of diabetes, no red meats are allowed, and even chicken and fish should be limited to once or twice per week. But that doesn’t mean that if your diabetes is not in a serious level, you can eat all of these food groups as you want to. It is advisable to stay away entirely from red meat and choose fish and poultry more often. The best protein of the vegetarian group is soy protein which is loaded with lecithin. Lecithin is a type of fat emulsifier and contains quite a big amount of choline, which is found to be useful in preventing and treating neurological complication of diabetes.

Anything that is highly sweet like cakes, biscuits, pastries as well as fruits and fruit juices should be strictly avoided in the initial state of treatment. But it is best to maintain on its restriction at all time possible. Nonetheless, acid fruits and sub-acid fruits can be taken into consideration but still have to be eaten with moderation.

Diabetes Food Pyramid listing according to food group:-

Sources of carbohydrate for diabetics:

All kinds of unrefined carbohydrate products. For example – Brown rice; wholemeal bread and other food products made from unrefined grain flour; wheat bran; oat bran; oat flour products; flaxmeal, wholegrain cereals; wheatgerm; brewer’s yeast; and buckwheat noodles.

Vegetables sources:

Jerusalem artichokes; Brussels sprouts; Spirulina; Green beans; garlic; cucumber; raw green vegetables; broccoli; and peppers. Since most fruit juice is not advisable for consumption, perhaps you can choose to have vegetable juice instead. For diabetics, vegetables are best eaten raw and opt for organic ones to reap most benefits.

Fruits:

After awhile, you may be allowed by your physician to eat some fruits, but there’s a limit and only certain fruits are allowed to eat like oranges, grapefruit or tangerines. Only homemade juice with no added sugar can be consumed. Servings should be restricted to small portions and half cup max.

Meats and meat substitutes:

Red meat is not advisable to take, even after the initial phase. As an alternative, you can have lean chicken and fish. Cooking method should not include excessive oil usage or better yet, none at all. Try steaming, grilling or roasting. Your best daily protein supply should be from vegetable and foremost -soybeans and tofu.

Dairy:

Milk can be consumed occasionally too but choose low-fat or nonfat milk or yogurt. You can have eggs once in a week but keep it to boiled or poached eggs.

Fats:

When it comes to fats for diabetics, choose mainly vegetable fats which have high amount of unsaturated fats in spite of saturated ones, such as from avocado, olive and corn oil.

Foods to avoid: Sweets, food high in saturated fats, alcohol and caffeine should be avoided at all times if possible. But in case of cravings, it can be consumed in a very small amount as possible – just for the sake to satisfy those cravings.

BALANCED DIET, HEALTH AND NUTRITION

The Best Way For Getting A Good Health

A balanced diet comprising of diverse and healthy foods is key to promoting good health. After all, we are what we eat - Research continues to prove that eating healthy food promotes good health and unhealthy food habits lead to a diseased body. Foods contain vital nutrients that aid our body’s metabolic function. However, a lack of consumption of these nutrients or feeding upon the wrong kinds of food leads to an accumulation of toxins within the body, resulting in chronic diseases in the long run.

A nutritious diet while ensuring overall well being, helps to maintain a healthy Body Mass Index (BMI), reduces the risk of several debilitating diseases like cancer, cardiovascular ailments, diabetes, osteoporosis and stroke. Thus a nutritious & healthy diet is important in the prevention and cure of various diseases.

Diet for diseases

There are several health conditions that can be caused or aggravated by the food we eat. However, there are also several foods that you can include in your diet to help prevent or treat diseases. It is simplest to draw up a balanced diet chart as this will ensure that you get all the nutrients you require on a regular basis. A nutrition diet chart is a diet chart that helps you to keep a track of your nutritional diet requirements and is a very useful tool when drawing up a personalized diet plan.

Heart diseases: 

Coronary heart diseases are a very common health problem and they are closely linked to a diet that is high in unhealthy fats. Decreasing one’s intake of fatty foods, especially fried food, will go a long way in preventing heart diseases. On the other hand, a healthy diet chart with an adequate amount of high fiber foods is seen to prevent heart diseases. People who suffer from heart problems are often advised to follow a specific high fiber diet for heart diseases that is rich in raw fruits and vegetables.

Diabetes:

While genetics does play an important role in the onset of diabetes, an unhealthy lifestyle and bad eating habits are also contributing factors. A diabetes diet chart is a diet plan that is high in fiber and low in fat with a minimum amount of saturated fats. A Vegan diet is very effective in controlling this problem.

Anemia: 

Anemia is generally caused by nutritional deficiencies and is most commonly associated with a diet that is low in iron. Iron rich foods such as green leafy vegetables should be included in a diet for anemia.

In addition to these diseases, conditions such as high cholesterol, high blood pressure, gout, and even cancer are affected by the individual’s diet. There are several diet plans such as the Alkaline Acid Diet plan, the Low Glycemic Index diet and the DASH diet plan that are meant to treat specific medical conditions.

Healthy Food Groups

Since no single food group can nourish the body with all the vital ingredients it requires, it is important that we consume a variety of healthy foods to derive the nutrition our body needs. There are five main food groups, they are:

• Fruits

• Vegetables

• Cereals and Pulses

• Dairy

• Poultry, Fish and Meat products

A healthy balanced diet of these five food groups ensures essential vitamins, minerals and dietary fiber. The food group serving size will depend upon various factors like age, activity level, body size and gender. It is also important that one eat a variety of healthy foods from within and across the food groups. As some foods from within a food group provide more nutrients than others. This will ensure that one gets the maximum recommended nutrition from the food group; besides the food variety will make for an interesting meal.

Diet for weight loss

Problems related to excessive weight gain are commonplace as we tend to lead a sedentary lifestyle and have unhealthy eating habits. People with excessive weight gain often try to crash diet in the hope of obtaining a svelte figure. However, this type of a restrictive diet chart for weight loss is extremely unhealthy and not easy to stick to and so the individual succumbs to temptation and goes back to his/her unhealthy eating habits. The cycle of repeated trial and failure can leave the individual disillusioned and finally the person stops trying to lose weight. However, a simple and easy weight loss diet chart can work wonders for overweight and obese people. It is best to follow a daily diet chart as this will help you to stick to your diet. In order to balance a diet chart, it is important to take into account your physical activity levels as a person who exercises daily will have a higher calorie need as compared to a person who leads a sedentary lifestyle.

You can include healthy snacks in your daily diet charts as this will allow you to snack without having to worry about excessive weight gain. It is important to have realistic goals and dieticians often suggest that overweight individuals should not concentrate on weight loss but rather try to follow a healthy diet plan. Once a person has decided that sticking to a healthy diet chart on a daily basis is their main goal, they will not unnecessarily fret over their progress in terms of weight loss. This will allow a person to lose weight at a steady pace with a higher chance of sticking to their diet plan. Once an individual has lost a considerable amount of weight, they can then use a follow-up diet chart to ensure that the weight loss is permanent. Keep in mind that a healthy balanced diet will lead to a slimmer and healthier you!

In conclusion, it must be noted that allopathic medicine treats the symptoms rather than the root cause of the disease, which is usually caused by wrong eating habits leading to an accumulation of toxins within the system. Whereas a nutritious healthy diet can rectify underlying causes of diseases and restore one to wholeness of mind and body. Once we realize the connection between a wholesome balanced diet and good health, our food will be our medicine and maintaining good health will be a matter of making the right food choices and leading a healthy lifestyle.