Hypertension

It's no joke that we love salt... it makes our food extra tasty! Unfortuantely, many of us love salt too much, which can lead to high blood pressure or hypertension. Approximately 1 billion people worldwide have high blood pressure, and the number is expected to increase to 1.5 billion by 2025. Although many other factors play a part in hypertension, the prevalence of the "silent killer" can be largely attributed to our salty diet.

The reason for the "silent killer" nickname is that hypertension can manifest virtually no symptoms until the individual experiences a fatal stroke, heart failure, or artetial aneurysm. One way to prevent these terrible outcomes is to take your blood pressure regularly!! If you are seeing high BP numbers (see chart below) on a regular basis, this is a clear indication that you need to watch what you're eating. Other factors contributing to hypertension are regular use of caffeine, alcohol, and/or nicotine.

It's really pretty easy to cut back on salt in your diet. Most of the sodium consumed by Americans comes from processed and packaged foods. If we (as a nation) could shy away from the convenience foods and focus more on cooking from scratch with fresh foods, our salt intake would decrease significantly. Cheese and cured meats are especially salty, as well as canned foods such as ravioli and soups.

Note that fruits and veggies are naturally low in sodium and are great for filling you up. Also try cooking with other spices instead of salt - garlic, vinegar, rosemary, thyme, cayenne pepper, ginger, lemon juice to name a few. And be sure to read the labels of the foods you purchase. Look specifically for the sodium content!

Boosting your potassium intake can also help lower blood pressure. Potatoes, tomatoes, kidney beans, yogurt, bananas, orange juice and halibut are some foods high in potassium!

We all love salt, and we need it in our diets, but anything over 1 teaspoon (2,300 mg) per day is way too much. In fact, if you are over 50, African American, or already have high blood pressure, diabetes or kidney disease, you should limit your intake to 1,500 mg per day. Your arteries will thank you when you pass up that fast food burger with a large order of fries today (1,300 mg of sodium total).

Blood Pressure Chart
                                            Systolic Pressure                 Diastolic Pressure
Normal:                                   90-119                               60-79    
Prehypertension:                   120-139                              80-89
Stage 1 Hypertension:           140-159                              90-99
Stage 2 Hypertension:             >160                                  >100