(Continued from Part 2) … here are the final three ways to reduce high blood pressure, and a note about the effective DASH diet…

8. Just a small drink

People who drink lots of alcohol can reduce their blood pressure by cutting back. In fact alcohol may increase blood pressure even in moderate drinkers. The National Heart Foundation recommends a maximum of two drinks per day for women and maximum three for men. A standard drink is 100mls wine, 300mls beer or 30mls spirits. A bottle of wine contains 7-8 standard drinks depending on the alcohol content.

9. Skip the sugar

When we cut back on saturated fat in pies, pastries, fatty, processed meat, full cream dairy foods what do we eat instead? One study compared three healthy, low saturated fat diets. One was high in monounsaturated fat, one high in protein and one high in carbohydrate. To put it in food terms, think of a sandwich. Instead of having a salami and cheese sandwich, they either had avocado or peanut butter (mono), baked beans or tuna (protein) or jam (carbohydrate). The protein and monounsaturated fat diets had the best effects on blood pressure and blood fats.

Many of us think if we just swap to the low fat, low glycemic index (GI) version of cakes, biscuits, sweet yoghurt and juice, we are doing the right thing. But a number of nutrition experts now think that eating a low fat diet with lots of processed foods containing sugar and especially fructose (the sugar naturally occurring in fruit and sometimes used by manufacturers to give foods a lower GI) may have harmful health effects including raising blood pressure. Fructose causes an increase in uric acid which in turn inhibits nitric oxide. It is nitric oxide that helps maintain normal blood pressure.

10. Control the coffee

The National Heart Foundation recommends a maximum of five cups of coffee a day. Remember that a double shot latte counts as about three to four cups of instant coffee. If you drink lots of coffee, cutting back to a more moderate level may help your blood pressure.

The DASH Diet

DASH stands for Dietary Approaches for Stopping Hypertension. In this well-known study, the people on the diet reduced their blood pressure within two weeks. Amazingly this was without reducing salt or alcohol! The people who also cut back on salt reduced their blood pressure even more. The DASH eating plan is low in saturated fat, total fat and cholesterol and high in protein, fibre, calcium, potassium and magnesium. It recommends 4-5 serves of fruit, 4-5 serves of vegetables and 2-3 serves of low fat dairy foods each day. It allows only small serves of lean meat and recommends a few vegetarian meals using dried beans, peas or lentils each week as well as some nuts or seeds most days. It limits sweets and sugars.

My favourite coffee is a bowl of trim latte from Zarbos – a popular deli in Auckland. A bowl? Yes it really is a bowl with no handle. Double shot coffee and lots of reduced fat milk served with a tiny morsel of chocolate brownie on the side – yum! All that milk gives me about a third of my daily calcium needs and at least 200mg caffeine to keep me hyped for the rest of the day. A teaspoon of instant coffee has about 80mg caffeine and tea has less.  Health experts recommend we drink no more than 3 or 4 cups of coffee a day. One bowl of latte would almost meet the daily limit!

People vary in their sensitivity to coffee and caffeine – the stimulant in coffee, tea and cocoa. For some people, even one cup of coffee will set their heart racing and their hands trembling. And caffeine isn’t the only substance in coffee that people can be sensitive to.

I am currently on a self-imposed coffee restriction to alleviate arthritis in my hand. Cut the coffee and the arthritis goes. I’ve limited myself to one a week – although I don’t always stick to it! When I first worked out this coffee – arthritis link I could find no research proving it. But in the past 10 years a number of studies have found a link between excessive coffee intake and an increase in arthritic factor – a precursor to arthritis – in people who are genetically pre-disposed. Without any genetic tests I could guess that I have the coffee sensitive gene. I don’t think researchers have yet found the exact substance in coffee that causes this problem.

So now I am drinking mostly tea – black tea for breakfast, earl grey tea in the morning, green tea in the afternoon and chamomile at night. Nothing like a bit of variety! It’s likely doing wonders for my health – all those antioxidants. But I do miss meeting friends for coffee – the smell, the milky froth swirled into the shape of a leaf and the sublime flavour when it’s made properly. It just doesn’t seem right to pay $3 for a lonely tea bag floating in a pot of boiling water. I may as well stay home and write on my blog!

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Related article:
How do you like your coffee?

I found this cool cafe graphic on Digg by two eyes (flickr cc).

How do you like your coffee?   :-) C