that 75 million Americans have high
blood pressure there are certain foods
you can actually eat to help you manage
it today nutritionist joy Bauer is here
with her top five joy good morning good
to see you
before we get to the food what exactly
defines high blood pressure so imagine
this our blood carries oxygen and
nutrients throughout our body using a
network of these tiny little vessels
they're like small tubes now as the
blood travels it exerts pressure on the
vessel walls that's known as blood
pressure if the pressure gets intense
it's high blood pressure so I'm going to
show you a quick illustration this top
one is a normal healthy blood vessel see
smooth sails Rafic moving well oh
absolutely
this vessel demonstrates high blood
pressure and you can see it's clearly
distressed
there's plaque within the walls so it's
a narrowed space and also the walls are
having a hard time they're stiff they're
hardened and they're they're contracting
but they're exerting a lot of energy and
the other thing is if this guy who owns
or gal who owns this vessel takes in a
lot of salt salt draws in water
increases the volume which will then
increase the blood pressure even further
diet exercise all good things talk about
some of the foods that actually help you
manage your blood pressure the first one
people are going to like the sound of
cocoa powder so everybody seems to know
the virtues of dark chocolate but the
real hero is the cocoa powder that's
within the dark chocolate because that's
where all the flavonols are housed and
that's what helps to keep our blood
vessels healthy and elastic so what I'm
telling people is to pick up some cocoa
powder you could put it in smoothies you
could put it in oatmeal you can also put
a little bit of your morning coffee
delicious healthy for your blood vessel
one of these weird kids I love spinach
from the very young age you say this is
another key food it's a triple threat it
has potassium magnesium and folate and
what potassium does it sort of the anti
sodium I just said that sodium draws in
water
potassium flushes it out and flushes the
sodium out so instead of lettuce on a
sandwich put spinach leaves also you
have a simmering pot of soup on the
stove or marinara sauce dump those
spinach leaves in stir it around and
it's extra yummy is a great idea guitar
is another one does it have to be raw
garlic no it could be powder
it could be mince garlic roasted garlic
garlic has two active ingredients one is
called allicin which keeps those the
lining of the cells healthy the other is
believe it or not there's an active
ingredient that acts like an ACE
inhibitor a prescription medication but
there's no side effects
Matt roasting garlic is one of the most
delicious things ever and it's super
easy if I've heard how to say it once
I've heard her say it a thousand times
beans beans good for your heart that too
so all beans are great for your heart
because they have protein and they have
fiber and they have potassium and
magnesium but I am featuring white beans
as the superhero here because they have
the added benefit of calcium and calcium
helps our blood vessels to contract and
dilate what I do here this is a little
trick I make a soup and instead of using
cream to thicken it up I put in a can of
white beans I puree it and it's
delicious also make it great for veggies
and finally pumpkin why so pumpkin is
loaded with potassium remember pea for
pumpkin pea for potassium flushes out
that sodium and fluid and you can take
canned pumpkin puree it's available
year-round and you can make a nice
pumpkin pudding or Matt what I've done
here is it's a great replacement for oil
in baked goods and it's a one to one
ratio and this recipe is on the website
little brownie bites with pumpkin and
cocoa five great ingredients to help you
manage your blood pressure joy as always
thank you very much
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