Diet taboo list for high blood pressure

①Keep daily sodium intake within 2g (equivalent to about 5g of ordinary table salt, about the amount of a beer cap)； ②The daily intake of added sugar should not exceed 25g, and the energy supply ratio of saturated fat and trans fat should be less than 10% and 1% respectively. ； ③There is no such thing as "a little drinking is good" when it comes to abstaining from alcohol altogether. The remaining so-called "taboos" are all flexible rules that can be adjusted according to your own situation. There is no need to make life miserable haha.

Oh, by the way, don’t think that everything will be fine if you add less salt. The pitfall that many people step into is not in the salt shaker in the kitchen at all. Last month, I met Uncle Zhang at a community free clinic. He strictly added 3g of salt when cooking every day and didn’t even dare to drop more soy sauce. As a result, his blood pressure fluctuated around 150/90mmHg for two weeks in a row. When I asked him, I found out that he ate porridge with half a piece of pickled cucumber every morning and always chewed two mouthfuls of salted peanuts as snacks in the afternoon. The total of these invisible sodium levels had already exceeded the standard. Let me also talk about the low-sodium salt issue that is still controversial in the industry: patients with normal kidney function can use low-sodium salt instead of ordinary salt, which can reduce their sodium intake by about 30%. The blood pressure control effect is indeed obvious, but if the glomerular filtration rate is lower than 30, really don’t eat it blindly. The risk of hyperkalemia is no joke. Be sure to ask your attending doctor first.

At this point, someone may want to ask, I usually have a very light mouth and rarely eat processed food, so why can’t I control my blood pressure? Two years ago, I met a 28-year-old programmer. He was 180cm tall and weighed less than 140cm. He had no genetic history of high blood pressure in his family. His systolic blood pressure was found to be 145. I checked for a long time but couldn’t find the reason. Finally, I casually asked him if he usually drinks sweets, and I found out that he had at least two cups of iced milk tea a day, and sometimes added a bottle of Coke when he worked overtime. Don't think that sweet things have nothing to do with blood pressure. Excessive intake of free sugar will increase blood uric acid and accelerate endothelial sclerosis. After the young man quit milk tea, his systolic blood pressure dropped to about 130 without taking medicine for half a month. Some people also say that honey and brown sugar are "healthy sugars". In fact, to put it bluntly, as long as they are free sugars, they are included in the 25g limit regardless of the source. Unless it is a hypoglycemic emergency, there is really no need to eat them specially.

There is also a misunderstanding that has been circulating for a long time, saying that people with high blood pressure cannot eat meat and must be vegetarian to be healthy. I actually met an aunt like this two years ago. She took a vegetarian diet for half a year to control her blood pressure. Her blood pressure did not drop much, but her low-density lipoprotein increased. On the contrary, I found out after careful questioning that she put a lot of oil in the vegetarian dishes every day for fear of being tasteless. She also always ate fried dough sticks and vegetarian meatballs for breakfast in the morning. It’s not that you are not allowed to eat meat. You can eat lean pork, beef, mutton, skinless chicken, duck, fish and shrimp. Eating deep-sea fish twice a week is good for blood vessels. What you need to avoid is actually processed meat products such as fatty meat, animal skins, bacon, and ham, as well as bread, cakes, and instant coffee made with shortening and non-dairy fat. Oh, by the way, there is also the deep-sea fish oil that everyone has asked about a lot. The current research conclusion is that only patients diagnosed with excessive triglycerides can supplement medical-grade Omega3 to have an auxiliary effect. Fish oil with a pitifully low content in ordinary health products is really just an IQ tax, so don’t spend money randomly.

As for "whether drinking alcohol can soften blood vessels" that everyone has been arguing about for many years, the conclusion has actually been reached now. The 2023 version of "China's Guidelines for the Prevention and Treatment of Hypertension" has clearly stated that even a small amount of drinking can increase blood pressure. There is no so-called safe drinking amount. Early studies that said drinking red wine was beneficial were later confirmed to have sample bias and low credibility. Especially for patients who are taking antihypertensive drugs, drinking alcohol will not only increase the metabolic burden on the liver, but may also cause orthostatic hypotension. If they fall or bump, the gain will really outweigh the gain.

In fact, when I give dietary guidance to patients, I never make a "fasting list". Instead, I tell them that as long as you know how to measure, you can take two bites of anything. For example, if you are craving for a piece of fermented bean curd with porridge today, then just add 2g less salt to the stir-fry that day. That’s totally fine. ； If you want to have a hot pot meal with your family on the weekend, don’t dip it in heavy seasonings that consume oil or sand tea sauce. Mix some minced garlic and a small amount of light soy sauce with water, and cook more vegetables and less processed meatballs. Eating it once a week will not have any impact. There is really no need to dare to eat this or touch that. I am so anxious every day. Emotional stress will make my blood pressure rise and fall, which is much more affected than eating a mouthful of braised food.

After all, this taboo list is never meant to restrain you, but to help you find a comfortable rhythm with your body. After all, controlling blood pressure is a lifelong matter. You can't just have a normal value and have to struggle for a long time to even take a bite of your favorite sauce beef, right? Of course, the premise is that you have to keep those three hard lines first. Occasional small indulgences are called life. If you break the precept every day, you are making fun of your body.