What are the dietary taboos for high blood pressure?

He eats two packs of braised beef jerky for afternoon tea every afternoon, and he always likes to order spicy snail noodles as a snack on weekends. These foods may not taste very salty, but they are actually a large store of sodium. His daily sodium intake exceeds the standard by more than three times, which is equivalent to eating nearly 15 grams of salt without knowing it. Later, he stopped eating these invisible high-sodium snacks and heavy takeaways. When buying processed foods, he always checked the sodium content on the ingredient list. In less than a month, his diastolic blood pressure dropped to 88, and his headaches were relieved a lot.

Many people may be wondering, are the statements on the Internet that people with high blood pressure cannot eat egg yolks or eat fatty meats? Are these statements reliable? In fact, this type of taboo is still controversial in academic circles, and there is no unified one-size-fits-all requirement. Take egg yolks for example. If your blood lipid levels are normal, it's absolutely fine to eat 3-5 whole eggs a week, and it won't put any burden on your blood pressure at all. There is a 61-year-old aunt next to me. She heard people say that eating egg yolks raises blood pressure two years ago. She ate egg whites for two years. Later, the physical examination showed that her albumin was low and she had no energy. The nutritionist asked her to eat a whole egg every other day. She was scared. After eating it for more than three months, her blood pressure was very stable and her albumin level returned to the normal range. The same is true for fat meat. You don’t have to completely stop eating fat. If you usually eat a light diet, you can occasionally eat a piece of braised pork belly to satisfy your craving. As long as you don’t eat it all the time or show off your cravings, your blood pressure will not suddenly spike. You don’t have to force yourself to eat anything in order to control your pressure. On the contrary, it will easily lead to nutritional imbalance, which is not conducive to the stability of blood pressure.

There is another point that many people tend to overlook, which is to try not to drink high-alcohol alcohol. Don’t believe in the saying that “drinking a small amount of wine activates blood circulation and lowers blood pressure.” Whether it is white wine, red wine or beer, as long as you consume alcohol, your blood pressure will fluctuate in a short period of time. Especially high-alcohol alcohol has a higher risk. I have a distant uncle in my hometown. He usually takes antihypertensive medicine on time and his blood pressure has always been stable at around 130/80. Last year, he drank with relatives during the Chinese New Year and drank more than half a catty of 52% white wine. In addition, it is best to drink less milk tea and carbonated drinks that add a lot of sugar. Many people think that sweet things have nothing to do with blood pressure. In fact, drinking a lot of high-sugar drinks for a long time will aggravate insulin resistance and drag down blood pressure over time. A while ago, I met a 17-year-old chubby kid who had high blood pressure and could not find the reason. After careful questioning, I found out that he drank at least two cups of full-sugar milk tea every day. After quitting milk tea and losing some weight, his blood pressure returned to the normal range in less than two months.

To put it bluntly, the core of the dietary taboos for high blood pressure is the word "excess". There is no food that will cause problems if you touch it once. As long as the total sodium level is controlled, it is perfectly fine to occasionally satisfy your craving for other foods. After all, eating happily and stabilizing your mood are also good for blood pressure.