The Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine has developed a curriculum that is targeted towards adults diagnosed with high blood pressure, or hypertension. One in four American adults has hypertension, which is a significantly high number of people. Hypertension is when someone’s blood pressure is 140/90 or higher. This nutrition curriculum can really help adults learn how to change their diet in order to lower their blood pressure and eventually get rid of their hypertension.
The curriculum goes over the dangers of hypertension, including a higher risk for heart disease and stroke. It explains that while medicine can help control it, improving your diet can also help lower a person’s blood pressure. Sodium is a huge contributor to high blood pressure. The curriculum goes over how to reduce sodium in one’s diet, by reducing the intake of processed foods and eating more fresh fruits and vegetables. Fruits and vegetables have almost no salt in them, so they are perfect for people with high blood pressure.
While frozen, canned, and prepared foods typically have the highest sodium content, dairy is also high in sodium. Meats are also very high in sodium. Vegetarians typically have low blood pressure compared to those who eat meat on a regular basis. Based on these facts, an adult with high blood pressure could cut back on the amount of meat they eat in order to reduce their blood pressure. The curriculum is very helpful in that it shows charts with examples of how much sodium is in different types of foods. For example, the chart compares green beans. For one cup of boiled green beans, there is only 4 milligrams of sodium. For a cup of canned green beans, there is 340 milligrams of sodium. That is a huge difference between fresh and canned! Canned products have lots of sodium in order to preserve them and make them taste better. Fresh is always a healthier option and can be lightly seasoned with salt for flavor.
There are also low sodium options for many items. Chicken broth is often high in sodium, but low sodium options are available. The same goes for products such as canned soup, canned tomatoes, pickles, and more. By choosing products with little to no sodium, you are doing your heart a favor! One example is Wheat Thin crackers. In 8 normal Wheat Thins, there are 120 milligrams of salt. The low salt Wheat Thins have half that, just 60 milligrams for 8 crackers!
Reading labels is the best thing you can do to know how much sodium you are consuming. It is also important to reduce the amount of table salt you put on your food. There are many types of seasoning out there that have low or no sodium. You can bring flavor to your meals without loading them with salt! This nutrition curriculum is very helpful in identifying where most of the sodium in our diet comes from. With the help of this curriculum, adults will be able to change their diets and improve their health. To read this curriculum you can click on the following link: