Here’s some more food ideas to keep your blood pressure under control (continued from part 1)…

4. Lots of fruit and vegetables

For healthy blood pressure we need less sodium and more potassium, magnesium and calcium. Potassium blunts the effect of sodium on blood pressure. The best way to get more potassium into your diet is to eat more fruit and vegetables. Aim for at least 2-3 serves of fruit and 4-5 serves (about 2-3 cups) of vegetables every day. Bananas, grapefruit, oranges, dried fruit, green vegetables, mushrooms, avocado and tomatoes are all high in potassium. And magnesium usually tags along in the same foods.

A word of warning about grapefruit: it can affect some blood pressure medications. If you are taking medication for high blood pressure, check with your doctor before splurging on grapefruit.

If you hope to by-pass the fruit and vegetables by taking a potassium supplement, think again. Too much potassium can be dangerous for your heart, and you will miss out on all the other health benefits of fruit and vegetables.

5. Low fat milk and yoghurt

Low fat dairy foods are important for strong bones and teeth and also for healthy blood pressure. If you don’t like dairy foods, eat sardines and salmon. The bones provide lots of calcium. There is no strong evidence that taking a calcium supplement will help lower blood pressure. It’s better to stick to real food. So whip up a banana smoothie, dollop some yoghurt on muesli or have sardines and sliced tomato on grainy toast for lunch.

6. Legumes, nuts and wholegrains

Dried beans, split peas, lentils, nuts and wholegrains are all rich in magnesium. Eat porridge or muesli for breakfast, snack on a small handful of nuts most days, and make a legume meal a couple of times a week – toss a few red lentils into stews and soups to thicken them, add a can of beans to mince or simply enjoy baked beans on grainy toast.

7. Omega-3 fats

Omega-3 fats found in oily fish, walnuts, flaxseed and canola oil help reduce high blood pressure. These fats help relax the blood vessel walls so they can expand as blood rushes through. One study of 46,500 people aged over 40, some with normal, some with high blood pressure, found that those who ate more omega-3 rich foods had lower blood pressure.  The NZ National Heart Foundation recommends that people get their omega-3’s from food. But if you don’t eat oily fish and are at risk for heart disease or stroke (this includes having high blood pressure) the New Zealand Cardiovascular Guidelines recommend taking an EPA/DHA supplement of 1 milligram per day. Be sure to let your doctor know if you take omega-3 supplements as the blood thinning effects are quite potent.

Part 3 here …

1. Yoghurt – ideally plain, reduced fat and as fresh as possible

‘Friendly’ bugs to help digestion, and calcium to keep bones strong and blood pressure down.

2. Fish, especially salmon and tuna

Vitamin B12 and Omega-3 fats for healthy blood, joints and eyes. People who eat fish at least once a week have a much lower risk of age-related macular degeneration. Omega-3 fats from canola oil, flaxseed and walnuts, as well as monounsaturated fats from avocado and olive oil also seem to reduce the risk (Arch Opthalmol, 2006).

3. Nuts

Fibre, unsaturated fat and vitamin E for a healthy heart, digestive system and eyes (walnuts)

4. Avocado

Monounsaturated fat, vitamin E, folate and vitamin B6 for a healthy heart, brain, immune system and eyes

5. Rolled oats

Soluble fibre & resistant starch for a healthy bowel and to reduce cholesterol, plus zinc, iron, potassium, vitamin E

6. Green tea

Less caffeine and lots of antioxidants

7. Legumes – dried beans, baked beans, split peas, lentils

Soluble fibre and resistant starch for a healthy bowel, lower cholesterol and weight control

8. The ‘Greens’ – spinach, silverbeet, Asian greens, broccoli

Vitamin A, C, K, folate and antioxidants

9. Berries

Vitamin C and antioxidants

10. Oranges, lemons and grapefruit (marmalade doesn’t count!)

Vitamin C and antioxidants

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People who eat a Mediterranean-style diet with lots of vegetables, legumes, fruit, fish, wholegrains and monounsaturated fat (mostly olive oil) with some yoghurt, cheese and wine seem to live longer (BMJ, 2005)

The Auckland Food Show is on this weekend. I went with a friend today. Here’s my take on it.

[tweetmeme]Most unusual food: Halfords Earth Gems
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Earth Gems are multi-coloured, bite-sized vegetables that ‘are the jewel of the South American Incas’. They grow like a potato but are from the beetroot family and have an earthy taste. You sure know you are eating something straight from the ground. I think they are an acquired taste! With all those colours they are bound to have plenty of antioxidants.

Most native Kiwi drink: Kawakawa Fire Tea

A caffeine free tea made from kawakawa, lemongrass and ginger by T leaf T. It’s packaged beautifully with a simple Maori design. A lovely present and it tastes great.

Food I bought today and have already used: Australian semi-dried tomatoes and Monin vanilla syrup

I used the tomatoes on pizza but should have kept them for a salad. They were too delicious to waste on pizza. I mixed the vanilla syrup with low fat milk for a delicious instant vanilla milkshake. I also bought Monin’s Chai Green Tea Extract to make Chai Latte – a sweet, milky alternative to coffee.

What I’ll use tomorrow: New Zealand Breakfast Tea

A black tea blended with manuka. It smells like honey but tastes like tea. It should taste great with grainy toast and honey for breakfast.

Best buy: Dutch Maasdam cheese

It was half-price – about $20 per kilo. I bought a huge chunk!

Most interesting food: Cherry juice that helps you sleep

This tart cherry juice is made from Montmorency cherries from Canada. According to the promotional leaflet these cherries have significant levels of melatonin which promotes sleep. It’s 100% juice with no added sugar or preservatives which is good. It comes in a concentrate which must be kept in the fridge or freezer to maintain its nutritional value.

Food that brought back the best childhood memories: Fresh walnuts

There was always a tray of walnuts drying in the sun at my grandparents. We would spend ages helping my Nana to crack them open. My grand-dad liked them dipped in icing. Walnuts contain alpha-linolenic acid (a type of omega-3 fat) so make a healthy snack, preferably without the icing!

Biggest trend this year: Anything with omega-3 in it.

There was flax seed oil, biscuits, pills for kids that taste like jelly lollies, and even smoothies made with flax seed oil. Parents seemed most enthusiastic about these foods. I just hope they don’t mega-dose their kids. Omega-3 fats are good and most of us could do with a bit more but as with all nutrition too much of one nutrient is likely to upset the balance of others. Also flaxseed, like walnuts, contains alpha-linolenic acid which converts to EPA (the omega-3 fat in oily fish) in the body. The conversion rate is about 8% so you need to eat quite a bit of flaxseed to get the same effect as a from a meal of salmon.

Most organised person

The woman who had a suitcase on wheels filled with all her purchases. She had already made one trip back to the car to unload and was on her second round.

Most popular stand

Anything with chocolate!

Found these digging around on the net … mostly from down under!

Glenn Cardwell: Getting kids to eat their veggies … Vegetables were probably never that big in the human diet. We evolved eating meat, seafood, nuts, seeds, fruits, tubers, fungi, berries and insects because that’s where the kilojoules are. When you need energy (kJs/Cals) each day to survive, why bother eating a leaf (lettuce), a flower (broccoli) or something else that is mainly water …

c: I don’t subscribe to the evolution theory, I’m more a creation girl – it makes me feel more special. And the people I have read about who lived 3-4000 years ago definitely knew their grandparents.  But I love the idea of talking positively to your children about vegetables! What about kids and meat?

Dieticians missed point on story: 60 Minutes – National – NZ Herald News … TV3′s 60 Minutes says criticism by nutrition experts on its report on the effects of food colouring on children was disappointing and failed to focus on the real issue – that Britain is phasing out some artificial colours while New Zealand is doing nothing….

c: Medical and other science experts such as dietitians get exasperated with some media reporters who either deliberately or out of ignorance use anecdoctal evidence or dubious ‘studies’ to sensationalise their story. Of course dietitians don’t condone artificial colours and, whether or not  they cause your kids to ‘lose the plot’, it would be good to see these unnecessary additives phased out.

Editorial: Don’t tinker with our daily bread – Health – NZ Herald News … It is not too difficult to see why many public health authorities support the mandatory fortifying of bread with folic acid. No one questions folate’s effectiveness in reducing the incidence of certain birth defects, notably spina bifida, if it is taken in sufficient quantity around the time a woman becomes pregnant …

c:Nice commentary but there are hints of negative effects on the US population -update today on kiwiblog and read my own folate posts.

Omega-3 deficiency causes 96,000 US deaths per year, say researchers … Omega-3 deficiency is the sixth biggest killer of Americans and more deadly than excess trans fat intake, according to a new study. The Harvard University researchers looked at 12 dietary, lifestyle and metabolic risk factors such as tobacco smoking and high blood pressure and used a mathematical model to determine how many fatalities could have been prevented if better practices had been observed …

c: This is really interesting but keep in mind it’s an analysis of numbers – and we all know how they can be manipulated! Still, I’ll be sure to keep up my weekly salmon dinner and salmon sushi snacks – delicious.

A rural town in Australia has voted overwhelmingly to ban the sale of bottled water over concerns about its environmental impact. … Campaigners say Bundanoon, in New South Wales, may be the first community in the world to have such a ban…

c: Good on them! Why pay for something you can get naturally. Bottled water has its place – it’s made it trendy to drink water – that’s got to be a good thing. But if you want to be even more ‘on trend’ and eco-friendly simply drink filtered tap water (see TIME mags megatrend on this).

Blood glucose control ranks high in US death causes

c: From the same mathematical analysis as the omega-3 story.  Blood glucose ranked 5th and omega-3 ranked 6th in preventable causes of death ie it doesn’t include accidents. I’m surprised at inactivity ranking 4th. I’d better go for that bike ride – even though it’s freezing cold outside and I’d rather sit inside and eat cake!

Price of milk too much for many families, study finds – Nutrition – NZ Herald News … Price increases for milk and other dairy products are having a detrimental effect on children’s health, University of Otago researchers say …

c: This means almost 2 out of 3 Kiwi kids don’t drink milk daily – that’s terrible! Instead of cereal with milk what are they eating for breakfast – toast and a can of fizzy? Perhaps we will have to re-introduce milk at schools. How about banana smoothies or Milo instead of sausage sizzles and lollies (see my article on toddlers healthy bones).