High blood pressure can cause hardening and thickening of the arteries which can lead to health complications such as heart attack and stroke. But the condition can go unnoticed because symptoms don’t always show. The best way to find out if you have high blood pressure is to have your reading regularly checked. Eating a high amount of salt in your food can be one of the causes of a high reading, so making changes to what you eat can make a significant difference.
As part of a healthy, balanced diet, health experts recommend eating plenty of potassium-rich foods to counteract the negative effects of salt on blood pressure.
Blood Pressure UK explains: “Your kidneys help to control your blood pressure by controlling the amount of fluid stored in your body. The more fluid, the higher your blood pressure.
“Your kidneys do this by filtering your blood and sucking out any extra fluid, which it then stores in your bladder as urine.
“This process uses a delicate balance of sodium and potassium to pull the water across a wall of cells from the bloodstream into a collecting channel that leads to the bladder.
“Eating salt raises the amount of sodium in your bloodstream and wrecks the delicate balance, reducing the ability of your kidneys to remove the water.”
But by eating more fruit and vegetables you will increase your potassium levels which will help restore the delicate balance.
The high blood pressure charity adds: “This will help your kidneys to work more efficiently – and help to lower your blood pressure to a healthy level.”
Here are five foods which may surprise you with there potassium content, as stated by SELF Nutrition Data:
- Black beans – one cup (172g) gives you 611mg of potassium
- Sweet potatoes – one medium-sized sweet potato contains 541mg of potassium
- Spinach – one cup of frozen spinach contains 540mg of potassium
- Watermelon – 572g of watermelon will give you 640mg of potassium
- Avocados – One half of an avocado (100g) contains 487mg of potassium
