【Video】Can’t lower your blood pressure? 5 natural foods that can bring you good luck! Nutritionist Cheng Hanyu: Don’t exceed the daily sodium intake limit

Are you also troubled by high blood pressure? Hypertension is the main risk factor for cardiovascular disease, stroke and kidney disease. Nutritionists say that if you want to control high blood pressure, in addition to paying attention to not consuming too much sodium in your daily diet, eating the right foods can also have a certain auxiliary effect in lowering blood pressure! For example, five major food categories, including tomatoes, coriander, and citrus fruits, are good choices for controlling blood pressure.

Hypertension is one of the main causes of cardiovascular disease

Hypertension is not only a global health issue, but also a common risk factor for major chronic diseases such as cardiovascular disease, stroke, diabetes, kidney disease, and eye disease! According to the statistics of the top ten causes of death in Taiwan released by the Ministry of Health and Welfare in 2018, cardiovascular diseases related to hypertension, such as heart disease, cerebrovascular disease and hypertensive diseases, ranked 2nd, 4th and 8th respectively among the top ten causes of death, indicating that blood pressure problems have seriously threatened the health of the Taiwanese people.

Therefore, if you don’t want to lose your life due to high blood pressure, it is very important to have a clear understanding of your own blood pressure status and actively control your blood pressure! As for how the problem of high blood pressure occurs? Nutritionist Cheng Hanyu said that clinically, the causes of high blood pressure in the human body are believed to be genetics and unhealthy diet and lifestyle, including obesity, smoking, drinking, lack of exercise, etc.; among them, a part of the hypertensive group is often related to excessive intake of sodium ions in the diet. This group of people with "sodium-sensitive hypertension" must pay more attention to their sodium intake.

Daily Sodium Intake Recommendations for Men and Women

Generally speaking, the Ministry of Health and Welfare recommends that adults should not consume more than 2,400 mg of sodium per day, which is equivalent to 6 grams of table salt. However, according to the results of the Taiwan National Nutrition and Health Status Change Survey from 2013 to 2016, the daily sodium intake of adult males in Taiwan is 3,700 to 4,600 mg, and the daily sodium intake of adult females is 2,800 to 3,600 mg, which is 1.5 to 2 times the recommended amount, which is quite shocking!

If people want to stay away from the dangers of high blood pressure, they should reduce the use of seasonings appropriately.

Eat the right 5 types of food to lower blood pressure

Therefore, if people want to stay away from the harm of high blood pressure, they should reduce the use of seasonings appropriately. However, nutritionist Cheng Hanyu reminds us that salt is not the only food that is salty and contains sodium! According to salt intake statistics from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), up to 77% of the salt people eat comes from packaged (processed foods) and restaurant (eating out) foods; the remaining 11% comes from cooking or adding extra salt at the table, and 12% comes from natural foods.

Therefore, if you want to reduce your sodium intake, it is equally important to reduce the intake of processed foods and dipping sauces in your diet. Nutritionist Cheng Hanyu suggests that in addition to reducing salt intake, moderate intake of the following 5 good foods that can help lower blood pressure in daily diet is also another health care option for the public:

【Recommended food 1／Coriander】

Nutrients that lower blood pressure: potassium ions, calcium, and folic acid.

Benefits: Not only pregnant women need folic acid supplements. Studies have shown that folic acid supplements can help reduce the risk of stroke in patients with high blood pressure. This study involved more than 20,000 hypertensive patients in China (none of whom had a history of stroke or heart disease). The patients were divided into two groups. One group took 10 mg of China's most commonly used antihypertensive drug; the other group took the same dose of antihypertensive drugs and also supplemented with 0.8 mg of folic acid. The study lasted from 2008 to 2013, with an average duration of 4.5 years. The results showed that patients who took antihypertensive drugs plus folic acid supplements had a 21% lower risk of stroke

【Recommended food 2/Tomato】

Nutrients that lower blood pressure: potassium ions, lycopene.

Benefits: Rich in potassium, it accelerates the elimination of sodium in the blood and helps lower blood pressure. In addition to not eating too salty food, people with high blood pressure should also increase their potassium intake to speed up the elimination of sodium in the blood. In addition, the Nashville Hypertension Institute in the United States has found that foods rich in potassium, such as tomatoes, can correct the problem of most people eating too much salt, enhance the natural flavor of food, and help lower blood pressure. It is generally recommended to "add oil and vinegar first and then heat" when cooking. Vinegar can hydrolyze and cut the connection between carbon and carbon; adding oil can dissolve oil-soluble lycopene; heating destroys the cell walls to release the lycopene in the cell walls, and can also allow tomatoes to release lycopene.

Moderate intake of flavonoids can help lower arterial blood pressure and the risk of hypertension, especially the flavonoids in orange juice - "hesperidin", which can help stabilize blood pressure.

【Recommended food 3／Citrus fruits】

Nutrients that lower blood pressure: flavonoids.

Benefits: Moderate intake of flavonoids can help lower arterial blood pressure and the risk of hypertension, especially the flavonoids in orange juice - "hesperidin" can help stabilize blood pressure.

Recommended food 4: Berries

Nutrients that lower blood pressure:

Benefits: Anthocyanins, which are powerful antioxidants, can help keep blood vessels unobstructed and reduce the likelihood of high blood pressure. The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition found in a study involving 150,000 respondents that drinking a glass of strawberry or blueberry juice per week can reduce the risk of high blood pressure. Scholars have found that people who regularly eat these anthocyanin-rich berries have an 8% lower risk of developing high blood pressure than those who do not eat them.

【Recommended food 5／Garlic】

Nutrient that lowers blood pressure: allicin.

Benefits: When garlic cells are chopped or chewed, alliinase is produced to convert allicin into allicin. Scholars conducted a systematic analysis of 11 clinical trials (RCTs) and found that eating 4 grams (about 2 cloves) of fresh garlic per day can reduce the systolic blood pressure of hypertensive patients by an average of 8.4 mm/Hg and the diastolic blood pressure by an average of 7.3 mm/Hg, which can help resist the occurrence of atherosclerosis.

Nutritionist's Tips:

In addition to recommending five major categories of food that can help regulate blood pressure, nutritionist Cheng Hanyu also reminded patients with high blood pressure that if they are taking blood pressure-lowering medications, they should avoid eating foods rich in furanocoumarin, such as grapefruit, white pomelo, and pomelos. Because many drugs are metabolized by the metabolic enzyme CYP450 3A4 in the small intestine and liver.

However, furanocoumarins can irreversibly inhibit the metabolic enzyme CYP450 3A4 in the small intestine and liver, thereby leading to increased blood concentrations of the drug and increasing the chance of adverse reactions (toxicity). Moreover, its effect of inhibiting drug metabolism can last for several hours or even 2 to 3 days, and it cannot be completely avoided even if the medication is taken at intervals, so patients must avoid this diet!