One Week Meal Plan for High Blood Pressure

Here is a one-week meal plan for controlling high blood pressure. Although the meal plan given here is for a week, one can follow the same plan on a regular basis substituting similar foods for better flavors and taste.

Apart from the pharmacologic interventions that are used to treat high blood pressure, the lifestyle of a hypertensive patient and the proper diet are very crucial to living a healthy and stress-free life.

One-week meal plan for high blood pressure is given at the bottom, which is precisely one of the best to cope with hypertension. A downloadable file in PDF format is also available at the end.

Why do you need to control your Blood Pressure (Hypertension)?

Hypertension is a state in which your high blood pressure is above normal levels. The majority of people do not feel high blood pressure.

This is why it is important to keep it under control. Uncontrolled high blood pressure can lead to complications such as kidney disease, heart disease, and stroke. About 47% of the united states population is a patient with hypertension. [Ref] 

Gestational hypertension is a form of HTN that is found in pregnant women.

Long-term high blood pressure causes blood vessels in the body to thicken, narrow, and harden. Blood vessels in the heart, brain, and kidneys become narrow and complex as well. This causes the heart to beat faster and pump more forcefully.

This could result in a heart attack, stroke, or kidney failure.

Factors causing high blood pressure:

More than 90% of people with high blood pressure have “essential hypertension”. This is a type of hypertension that does not have a single cause.

It is influenced by many factors including genetics, obesity, a sedentary lifestyle, metabolic syndrome, and stress.

Food plays an important role as well. Salty foods, foods with lots of calories and fats, obesity, lack of physical activity, and alcohol intake are avoidable factors in the management of hypertension.

So the better the meal plan the better the blood pressure levels.

Blood pressure ranges

Blood pressure readings are based on two measurements: systolic and diastolic.

• Normal blood pressure ranges from 90/60mmHg to 120/80mmHg.
• High blood pressure is defined as 140/90mmHg or higher.
• Low blood pressure is defined as 90/60mmHg or less.

How Can You Lower Your Blood Pressure with the help of a meal plan?

You can normalize your blood pressure by using medications too, but healthy ways of lowering your blood pressure include:

• Low sodium intake
• Dietary changes
• Weight loss

Popularly DASH diet is also used.

Low Sodium Intake to control high blood pressure:

The recommended sodium intake is 1500mg; no matter what age group you are in, you must not consume more than 2300 mg of salt daily.

Because our daily salt intakes often cross this limit and that’s why hypertension is becoming more prevalent even in the young population.

So here are some easy ways to decrease your salt intake:

• Avoid extra salt:

Avoid adding extra salt for good taste and flavor and use herbs and spices instead because herbs are useful in many ways.

Do not use salt on the table, because it can shoot the blood pressure instantly.

• Use salt in small quantities:

Use minimum quantities of salt in cooking, especially with sodium-rich foods such as tomatoes, and red meat.

• Avoid processed foods:

Avoid processed foods because they often have more than 1500 mg of salt in single servings. Follow one rule to monitor the sodium content of salt in foods and that is “The more processed a food is, the higher sodium content gets”

• Avoid all types of salts:

All types of salts like pink salt, sea salt, pickling salt, and kosher salt are the same and all of these have equal effects in raising blood pressure, so they are not good for hypertensive patients.

• Salt alternatives:

Use salt alternatives like No Salt™ or Half Salt™.

• Read food labels:

Read food labels to track your sodium in packaged foods.

What Is the Optimal Dietary Regime (meal plan) For Hypertension?

The DASH diet is the most widely used diet pattern for hypertension. But apart from that, diets that offer the following can be used to lower blood pressure.

• Low in total fat and cholesterol.
• Provides less than 2300 mg of sodium per day.
• Contains increased servings of fruits, vegetables, whole grain products, legumes, beans, lentils, and nuts.
• Low in red and processed meats.
• High in fiber so good for GIT motility.
• High in magnesium, calcium, and potassium.

Weight loss is beneficial for controlling high blood pressure.

Being overweight and obese is one of the major risk factors for hypertension and losing even 5% of the total weight has great effects on blood pressure control. So weight loss is beneficial and can be achieved by:

• Calorie restriction (daily intake of 1500 calories or less).
• Regular physical activity (at least 90 minutes).

1-Week Meal Plan for High blood pressure:

People have different schedules. It is best to split your meals rather than take one big meal a day.

Here is a one-week breakfast plan for high blood pressure:

Here is a one-week lunch meal plan for people with high blood pressure:

Here is a one-week dinner meal plan for high blood pressure:

Here is the summary of one weekly meal plan for high blood pressure including snacks:

A summary of a one-week meal plan for high blood pressure in PDF format can be downloaded here (meal plan for high blood pressure in PDF format)