Before visiting your doctor and grabbing at medication, it is important to ensure that your diet is not contributing to your elevated blood pressure.

But what if there were actually foods you could eat to directly lower your blood pressure?

It turns out that there are several such food types that are easy to work into your diet, so before anyone encourages you to pay for medication or supplements, make sure that you are consuming sufficient quantities of the seven listen below.

Instead of just avoiding foods that increase blood pressure, you can learn to be proactive by actually eating foods that lower it.

This will help you in several ways. You will avoid taking expensive blood pressure drugs with side effects, you will avoid expensive supplements, and you will have a tasty diet with many ingredients that are heart healthy.

None of these on its own will make a large contribution if you simultaneously stuff yourself with trans-fats and salt, of course. But if you limit your intake of these unhealthy foods while eating the heart healthy foods, you are off to the very best start.

The nutrients that lower blood pressure are potassium, magnesium, nitric oxide, omega-3 fatty acids, allicin, pterostilbene, and even fiber and vitamin C.

1. Potassium. Potassium works by increasing the amount of aldosterone in your body which, in turn, forces your kidneys to excrete more salt and water. In other words, where salt increases body fluid and thereby blood pressure, potassium lowers salt, body fluid, and blood pressure. Potassium-rich foods include banana, avocado, potato, sun-dried tomato, soybeans, kidney beans, spinach, collard greens, kale, and most dried fruit.

2. Magnesium. Magnesium serves as a natural calcium channel blocker. It widens your arteries so that blood can flow comfortably through them. Calcium channel blocking is precisely the effect that some blood pressure drugs try to accomplish. Magnesium rich foods include collard greens, spinach, kale, almonds, sunflower seeds, dark chocolate, soybeans, and kidney beans.

3. Potassium with Magnesium. Research suggests that you can achieve the maximum effect by combining potassium and magnesium. They seem to support and strengthen each other, probably because they tackle two physical mechanisms behind high blood pressure. The top food that combines the two is kale, which you can pan-fry as chips, bake in vegetable bakes, and stir-fry with other vegetables- yum!

4. Nitric Oxide. Nitric Oxide also widens your arteries so that blood can flow easily without putting pressure on your heart to pump harder. The best form is found in cold or half-raw foods like beetroot and celery. In fact, a recent review of 16 studies with a total of 254 participants demonstrates that beetroot juice intake reduces blood pressure by 4-10 mmHg (millimeters of mercury) for several hours after consumption.

5. Omega-3 fatty acids. Several mechanisms have been proposed behind the blood pressure lowering effects of omega-3, but at this stage little agreement exists beyond the fact that it works. A recent scientific review of 17 studies with a total of 1,524 volunteers shows that most studies consider it to be effective. The best sources of omega-3 are fish, olive oil, walnuts, and flaxseeds.

6. Allicin. This is the active ingredient in garlic. It is produced when garlic is crushed or chewed. Add garlic to all your food. It tackles the oxidative damage and inflammation that contributes to high blood pressure. Your friends may avoid you because of your smelly breath, but just eat plenty of parsley to counter the smell.

7. Pterostilbene. The mechanism via which it lowers blood pressure is unknown, but there is evidence that it is effective. You can find it in almonds, cranberries, blueberries, and bilberries. Berries on your morning cereal or in your smoothies are fantastic.

But the most effective way to lower blood pressure comes from 9 minutes per day doing a set of 3 easy blood pressure exercises. Learn more and try them out for yourself here…