Scientists have shown over recent years that a handful of well-known minerals are the key to naturally reducing high blood pressure. However, they have also seen that supplements for these very important players, while helpful, are not nearly as powerful as getting them from the foods we eat.
In today’s feature article, we’ll look at the minerals that are vital to blood pressure health and the 5 foods that work double-and even triple-duty to provide them, all the while including little to no negative nutritional baggage.
The four most important minerals for shoving high blood pressure down to where it belongs are:
- Potassium- This electrolyte is critical in balancing sodium in the body. An excess of sodium from over-processed foods in the diet has a terrible effect on the body. Adding a deficiency of Potassium makes it worse. Supplementing with this can be tricky, so do the safe thing and get it from food.
- Magnesium- This mineral is vital to so many processes in the body, including blood pressure, digestion, muscle health and respiration that a thousand pages can be written on this one alone. Most people, however, are deficient and don’t even know it- especially those who have bowel diseases that involve frequent diarrhea.
- Calcium- Not just for bone health, calcium deficiencies have contributed to muscle and joint problems, connective tissue diseases, and blood vessel deterioration. Since blood pressure is the force of the blood against the vessel walls, any degradation of that tissue creates disaster for blood pressure health.
- Zinc- Free radicals wreak havoc all over the body; inside and out, on every system in some way. On the circulatory system, free radicals create inflammation and lead to stenosis, or hardening of the arteries. Zinc is like a search and destroy feature. Its antioxidant properties eliminate the free radicals and restore electrical balance throughout the body.
Sure, you can get these minerals in an electrolyte beverage or in tablets from the health food store, but in order to actually metabolize them and get them to be absorbed into the body at the highest efficiency you have to take the supplements with food.
If you are going to be eating anyway, why not save yourself the expense and just eat the minerals to begin with?
One cup each of the top 5 super-duty foods that work overtime to get these minerals into your body can be rally filling spread out over the day with other foods you like.
They are also found listed on most of the medical diets, such as those restricting sodium, carbohydrates, processed foods, and meat.
- Swiss Chard- This leafy green is packed with nutrients and is great steamed or in salads. Aside from the fiber benefits inherent to all leafy greens, this one will actually give you 28% of your daily potassium needs and 38% of magnesium requirements.
- Oysters- These are good baked, steamed, and smoked, and a little bit goes a long way. Six oysters provide a whopping 750% of the DRV for zinc and almost 30% of magnesium needs. They are also really high in copper and iron, which are needed for heart health.
- Yogurt- This food isn’t on diets restricting dairy, but if you can have it, you should definitely be eating a couple servings of this every day. In just 1 cup, you’ll get 49% of your recommended calcium needs, along with zinc (16%), magnesium (12%), and potassium (18%). There are low-cal varieties all over the marketplace if you are watching your sugar.
- Sardines- Even though this little gem is relatively high in sodium, the benefits outweigh the risk, especially considering there are low-sodium varieties available now. You can also eliminate a good portion of the sodium with a simple soak listed below. One cup of sardines packs a walloping 135% of the RDV for magnesium, along with 57% calcium needs. The Omega-3 benefits are incredible, too.
- Rice Bran- This great grain is extremely low in nutritional sodium while also being a great source of fiber. A cupful provides the recommended daily value of 50% for potassium, 48% for zinc, and an incredible 230% for magnesium.
Use the rice bran as a way to reduce the sodium in the sardines. Coat the bottom of a baking dish with rice bran or rice bran flour. Then line the flour with rinsed sardines. Cover the whole thing with milk and soak overnight. Then, rinse the sardines again and pat them dry.
Toss them in a salad including Swiss chard and top with a creamy yogurt-based dressing to include a few items from the list of super-duty foods.
Diet changes and other lifestyle changes are always recommended when lowering blood pressure. The simplest and easiest method I however know, the method that has worked for thousands of my clients, are my easy blood pressure exercises. Try them out here…
Do you have ideas for including these foods in tasty ways into your everyday diet? What’s your favorite food to lower blood pressure? Make your comment below.
Thank You so much for this article and all the articles you write. You are very helpful to those in need of healing the natural way.
Christian,
I am on blood pressure medication. I’ve read about the sodium-potassium imbalance as a contributing factor to high BP so I thought I’d up my potassium and lower my sodium via food to help, but my medication says, “do not take potassium”. What the hell does this medication [called Atacand but you probably can't name it] do to my body?
I also think I suffer from “white-coat” syndrome. I really think my BP isn’t as high as the doctor’s machine registers: another reason I want to ditch the pills.
Thank you for empowering rightful change.
Another thing. I eat unflavoured yoghurt daily for breakfast; oysters occasionally; sardines often for lunch; and Swiss chard very frequently because we grow it in our garden and it just grows and grows.
So how is all that naturally ingested potassium affecting a medication that says, “do not take potassium”?
This is making no sense to me. Any ideas, anybody?
Thank you for your helpfull articles
This info that you’re providing is like a dream come true, I like to thank you so much for all you do. Cedric
Thanx. For valuable information
Very useful
Thanks for this, Christian. I find your articles & advice on BP very helpful. Many Thanks
Maureen
Get off the BP Medication ASAP and use all/all other means possible to lower BP.
Great article, Christian. Hypertension is very common in people who are supporting high levels of fungi in their bodies. All the foods and nutrients listed in your article are wonderful anti-fungals! Yeast-free diet and natural anti-fungals such as oregano oil and olive leaf extract work wonders to bring down blood pressure. Also many people with hypertension need to drink more water! 2 quarts a day will thin the blood enough so the heart doesn’t have to work so hard pushing around thick, heavy blood. See Recaging the Beast at Amazon.
How right you are about magnesium, and zinc. I’m elderly and have had one ITA and two heart attacks. My BP has been really horrendous since my early 40s, but ever since I started taking a magnesium taurate capsule twice daily, plus one zinc capsule, every day with food, my BP has become a regular 130/80, and I am happy with that. It never came down like that with medication, but I still take a 4mg ACE at night for the heart. You are doing a power of good by advising others like this. Good on you. Regards, Dilys
To keep the BP stable just use lots of fresh garlic if you like it and enjoy it or make your own parsley tea and drink it all day instead of water. To make the tea just buy a bunch of parsley and rinse it thoroughly; Boil it in water for a few minutes, let it stand to cool off, strain it and place it in the fridge. Drink it every time you’re thirsty. The water becomes light green but it has a fresh taste you get used to.
I’m seventy, no medications at all, but I do not consume almost any processed food, no wheat, no corn, no tomatoes, no pork, no cans, nothing in a box, no sodas, no juices. I do resistance exercise three times a week and keep my mind busy with positive things. No credit cards, no worries, no fears and a great faith in my creator that lives inside of myself.
Yes I am sick of medication telling me I can’t eat this or that and the other!!!!!! I am trying very hard to get off meds and eat to heal as well as follow the excellent BP program including deep meditative breathing,what is more this approach is working for me.
You all should check this book out:lose weight have more energy be happier in ten days. its amazing its buy peter glickman..
Stopped regular coffee – BP went down quickly – also follow all the advice – you can get off BP medication. And – my headaches have diminished.
Thanks for the info. Off to Trader Joe’s for some yogurt and sardines.
I am very thankful for giving us this kind of information.
This article really helps me a lot.
I love reading it!
i have experienced this next little tidbit of health knowledge. Especially to those who think they may have “white-coat” syndrome. Fresh fruit salad, an hour before taking your B/P will historically reduce your overall B/P about 10-15 points on both sides of the numbers. Must be fresh and eaten as a salad. while individual fruits are extremely benificial, eaten as a salad they are digested and release the B/P reducing elements as a unified dose. Try it…worked for a great number of people in my age group…50-65.
What exactly is in this fresh fruit salad. I am very interested because I have white coat hypertension for sure.
Thanks for your great article on BP lowering foods. I don’t like oysters, but never tried them baked, so will give it a try; never used rice bran but will give it a try also. I also have the “white-coat” syndrome, so thanks to Bob Walsh and his tidbit on fresh fruit salad. On the other hand, although we all try and try to find the answers for good health, a lot of our problems are created by us as survival tactics. I believe our good health begins with looking within and healing our souls first, whatever that means for each individual. We each have the power to heal ourselves. I would recommend reading “Dianetics” by L. Ron Hubbard if one is interested in discovering their real power.
please tell me what the fresh fruit salad is? I always have high blood pressure when I go to the doctor, and on my home moitor it is always good. What can I do before I go to see him.
I really like this article; am going to work on this solution; it sounds very plausible, plus, very interesting reader comments too. Will work on some of these also. Taylor Carman
For those of us who have white-coat syndrome, I’d like to offer some thoughts. First, your doctor is not in charge, you are. Your doctor is your expert consultant, but always the decisions are yours in the final analysis. Second, many – maybe most – doctors have become cynical about their patients’ willingness and/or ability to “make lifestyle changes” to the extent necessary to bring blood pressure back to healthy levels, so they – in my opinion – abdicate their responsibility and take the easier path of just prescribing a blood pressure pill. Third, you are not defenseless against the conclusion your doctor will draw when white-coat syndrome happens. You can buy an automatic BP monitor at any drugstore and use it yourself at home and even at work, so that the next time you visit your doctor your can go armed with a journal of your BP readings that demonstrate clearly that the readings your doctor gets should not be the basis upon which treatment should be based. Fourth, my story – my doc is one of the “Best Doctors in America” and wanted to put me on BP meds. I did what I’ve described above and told him no, that if I started on BP meds he and I both knew I would likely be on them for the rest of my life, with all of the known side effects, and that I would make whatever changes in lifestyle and nutrition were necessary to get my BP to healthy levels, and that I wanted him to work with me to do that. He should have – even before that conversation (which had to be repeated more than once) – been giving me the info and guidance that Christian Goodman is giving us, but frankly failed miserably at that. Fifth, I’m following many of Christian’s recommendations (and there are many others in other posts and in his BP program), and my BP is at normal levels. And, by the way, once I made that decision to say no to my doctor (and basically assumed the attitude of “f___ that”, I know I’m right on this one and if he doesn’t like it, ultimately it’s my choice to fire him), the white-coat syndrome pretty much went away. Sorry to be so wordy, but I thought folks might find this helpful.
BRAVO to Pete RE white coat syndrome and the fact that you can hire and fire MD’s. even though they were told the 2nd day of med school that they were God, they are Not and if they can’t give you a pill today they don’t know what to do with you so then they tell you it is all in your head. You have to take responsibility for your own well being hence the using them as a consultant; however, if you are lucky you will get one that LISTENS to you (that is half the battle) and then gives you alternative trmts but YOU have to take responsibility, you can’t just tell them to fix you.
Thanks so much for the generous information.I am a beneficially and i never miss to read. Please write something on epilepsy. I have faith in your articles.
Martha
Thanks for articles, am a beneficially. Pls give me an article on Epilepy.
Martha.
Try a sardine shake!!One can of sardines in water one cup of greek yogurt hot sauce and some steamed swiss chard and six oysters raw. Its a great way to start your day. Not for the week at heart!!!!!!!!!!!!
Nice! Been looking for this information , thanks for posting, low potassium diet.
Sardine, it has long been heard is very high in sodium, and yet nothing
has been done about it on this healthy food ?
I am in the process of writing my true story about “white coat hypertension” the title of the book is ‘What the doctors did to me’. It is slow on getting it written because when I get to the suicidal part I get depressed and have to stop. Last week I was able to get over that hump,but had to go back on sleep medication to get some sleep. I hope to continue the writing. in a nutshell I didn’t have HBP until I went to the doctor in 2008. What happened in the doctors office is a horrow story and should never had happened. I have done a lot of research and read dozens of medical books and subscribed to several Health newsletters over the past 5 years. I have also met many people who was also falsely been put on HBP drugs because of WCH. In my research i have learned that 25% of patients are prescribed HBP drugs even though they never had HBP.If you have a story to tell about falsely being put on HBP in 350 words or less I would like to hear your story and consider it for my book. You can e-mail me at procare60@aol.com with “white Coat” in the subject line. thanks jerry cooke
i think your testimoney on food usage gradually to see if it works blood pressure is great! im going on this so as you say it works, so im trying it,thanks
I too fired my doctor when he tryed so hard to put me on BP meds with my blood pressure at 140/90 average.But my main concern was with regard to the secretive and unhealthy (for patients)alliance between the drug companies and doctors.It is well known that 140/90 was considered pre-hypertensive but then after a major talkfest they lowered that to 120/80.You can imagine how many more prescriptions that sold,with very little actual evidence of the benefits.Go natural and healthy and take charge of your own body I say and also become well informed, which is much easier today.