Tag: high blood pressure

Rice Cakes: Simple Yet Versatile Snack!

Do you like snacking? I love snacking. Sometimes it’s frustrating having high blood pressure, because I have to be so selective about what I eat. If you take a look at the nutritional label for most yummy treats such as cookies and crackers, they are loaded with salt. It’s intense how overly reliant we have become on salt to add flavor to so many foods.

Then I met the versatile rice cake. What a fun discovery on my journey to lower blood pressure naturally by eating a low salt diet.

In our local Whole Foods Market here in California, it’s possible to find rice cakes that are unsalted! It’s pretty exciting for me, because I use it as a blank canvas to make my rice cake snack art. Ok I don’t really make art. Haha! I just put lots of different toppings on it to enjoy! The rice cake by itself is a bit plain, so it’s all about how you dress it up. Have fun and be creative!

Some toppings for unsalted rice cakes I enjoy include:

  • mashed avocado with lime, cilantro, and minced garlic
  • maple syrup
  • honey
  • unsalted peanut butter plus jam
  • unsalted almond butter plus a drizzle of maple syrup

You get the idea! The possibilities are endless. The salt is not endless. WOOHOO! Do you have any ideas about yummy toppings for rice cakes? Please leave a comment and let me know!

This is my favorite brand of unsalted rice cake! I found it at Whole Foods Market.

Sweet Potatoes, More Than a Thanksgiving Treat!

For those of you in the United States, you know that sweet potatoes often make their sweet appearance on the Thanksgiving table. Today, I want to share that the health benefits of this magnificent root vegetable make it deserving of a place at the dinner table more often than just once a year! In fact, I serve sweet potato as the main carb in my lunch or dinner at least 2 times a week!

Sweet potatoes can help lower risk for cancer, improve blood sugar control, reduce LDL (bad) cholesterol, lower chances of eye disease such as macular degeneration, and so much more!

How Do Sweet Potatoes Help Lower Blood Pressure Naturally? Long story short, sweet potatoes are a rich source of potassium and magnesium. Potassium helps to remove extra sodium and fluid out of the body. Magnesium helps blood vessels to relax. Both of these superstars join forces to lower your blood pressure naturally and make it easier for your heart to pump blood around the body! Of course, the science is more complicated than this. To prevent these blog posts from being too boring and textbook like, if you want more details, please do refer to the reference links toward the end of the page.

Tonight, I enjoyed roasted sweet potatoes (see recipe here; I left out the salt and it was still fabulous), steamed green beans, cabbage and tofu with just a dash of teriyaki sauce for flavor. Cooking doesn’t have to be complicated. I often like to think about it as bringing different pieces together. I happened to have these ingredients, so just decided it would be just find to serve them as a meal together!

Remember, keeping healthy meals simple can help you stay true to this habit of heart healthy eating! Don’t get sucked into making complicated healthy meals unless you have time to do so. Lofty goals of fancy meals too often might result in frustration and suddenly, McDonald’s drive through is looking more enticing! Focus on what’s reasonable for you.

See below for my simple dinner tonight! Heart healthy, delicious, good for leftovers and fantastic for this journey to lower blood pressure naturally!

How do you prefer to enjoy sweet potatoes? Would love to learn some new recipes!

sweet potato lower blood pressure naturally
Sweet potatoes can help lower blood pressure naturally!

References

Cheers to Ginger Tea and Your Heart!

There is a lot we are told to avoid when that high blood pressure diagnosis rolls in. Don’t drink too much caffeine. Avoid drinking too much alcohol.

What is the best drink for high blood pressure?

Good news! There are many options out there that are quite delicious and can even lower blood pressure naturally.

Today, I’d like to share about ginger tea! Ginger tea is naturally caffeine-free brewed from ginger root. To save time, you can make ginger tea from tea bags (dried ginger) or you can make it from fresh ginger root by boiling chunks of it in hot water.

Ginger may potentially lower your blood pressure naturally. As with many natural remedies, more scientific research is needed. Of course, it’s always good to check with your doctor first before adding them to your diet if you are uncertain. Especially since ginger may interact with certain blood pressure medications.

For almost any food or drink for lowering blood pressure naturally, be mindful of using it in moderation. It is best combined with a balanced lifestyle of healthy low salt diet and consistent exercise. Quick fixes are usually not the healthy way.

Please don’t drink 8 cups of ginger tea, then eat pizza all day and do no physical activity. Balance is key.

When I’m away from home, sometimes I’ll bring a few ginger tea bags with me to enjoy after dinner. It’s an easy way to include a healthy hot drink during times of travel! See below for my current favorite ginger tea! It’s delicious with a small dash of honey 🙂🍯

Delicious tea that may help with lowering blood pressure naturally (and also benefit digestion!)

Reference:

https://www.iosrjournals.org/iosr-jnhs/papers/vol6-issue5/Version-3/M0605037986.pdf

Daily Cardio on the Sammamish Trail in Redmond, Washington

There are many different ways you can start introducing more physical activity in your day to lower blood pressure naturally. It might be walking, swimming, or even other pool activities.

The key is to start moving and try for at least 30 minutes a day of continuous movement. If that’s not possible, don’t despair! Breaking it up into 2 separate segments of 15 minutes each is beneficial too!

You might be thinking: well there’s no way I’m going to drag myself to the gym and walk on a treadmill at the end of a long day. That’s totally fair.

When it comes to lowering blood pressure naturally by exercise, choose what fits into your life and is sustainable as a habit. Consistency is highly effective. Aim for 30 minutes at least 5 days a week.

I personally enjoy taking walks. The sights and sounds of getting outside is helpful for improved mental health (yay lower anxiety!). It’s also convenient for me to just lace up my shoes and step outside. Also, for those of you with back, hip or knee pain, walking is lower impact and less painful.

If you’re ever in the Seattle, Washington region and want to experience more than the typical tourist attractions, head on over to Redmond and take a nice brisk walk down the gorgeous Sammamish River Trail. I’ll include a few pictures below for your reference!

What are you doing on a daily basis to increase the level of physical activity? Please share!

The Sammamish River Trail is 10 miles long and passes through the city of Redmond.

Kitchenettes, Travel and High Blood Pressure

When traveling with high blood pressure, it can be challenging when it comes to lack of control over meals. If you’ve been following this blog, you know I am a big supporter of balance. Finding some kind of compromise is really the key; even during travel.

One way to gain some control and maintain a low salt diet when traveling is to choose hotels that have kitchenettes.

This way, if you indulge a little during lunchtime, you can grab a few simple ingredients to throw together a salad and enjoy with fresh fruit and nuts for dinner. This allows you to minimize the amount of salt and unhealthy fats for one of the meals.

It’s not the perfect solution, but I find perfection hard to keep up with. (I also have a post on tips for eating out, as that happens quite a bit during travels.)

I’m currently in Redmond, Washington and staying at the Hyatt House Redmond. It has a nice little kitchenette, living room, and bedroom. The rates are reasonable. The facilities aren’t fancy, but they meet my goals of space and control over what I eat. The staff is nice, and there are beautiful trails right outside the door. More on that later!

See below for a few photos. Have you ever made your own meals when traveling? If you have any easy go-to recipes to share, I would love to hear!

Hyatt House Redmond has kitchenettes, which helps with making low salt meals during travel.