Transcription
Can food really lower your blood pressure? Well, yes, absolutely it can. And if you eat these eight foods regularly alongside a healthy diet and regular exercise, then the effect on your blood pressure could be more powerful than any medication I could ever prescribe you.
Now, when most people think about blood pressure, they understandably think about two things, which are salt and medication. And yes, those things matter. But there's something else that doesn't get talked about nearly enough, which is that the systems inside your body that actually control your blood pressure, like your arteries, your kidneys, your hormones, they respond really strongly to specific compounds found in food. Things like nitrates, flavonoids, peptides, potassium that physically interact with the biology of blood pressure regulation.
If your systolic blood pressure, which is the number on the top, is over 130 and your diastolic, which is the number on the bottom, is over 90, then we know from really robust evidence that bringing those numbers down reduces your risk of dying. Full stop. And your blood pressure is very much in your control. So why wouldn't you make some changes if those changes meant fewer hospital appointments in your 70s, a lower risk of a stroke, a lower risk of heart disease, and ultimately a longer and healthier life.
Now, before we get into the eight foods, let me just be really clear about something. So, I'm not saying that adding one of these foods into your diet means you can come off your blood pressure medication or that your blood pressure will simply drop overnight. That's not the point. The point is that each of these foods has a small but real effect. And when you combine several of them together, those effects compound. And when you layer that on top of the broader lifestyle measures that I talk about across this channel, things like your diet, exercise, your general activity throughout the day, your sleep, your stress management, the combined effect can be really, really powerful. The key message that I drive home in every one of these videos is that small things done consistently and together add up to something significant.
So, these eight foods to most people might be a little bit unusual. They're probably not things that most of you eat regularly, but they're not so unusual that you can't buy them from most supermarkets. Now, I eat five of these eight pretty much every single day, give or take. So, let me share them with you in this video. And if you find the video useful, then please, please, please hit the like button, hit the subscribe button, because that really does mean so much when you do that.
So, the first one on the list today is something called hibiscus. Don't know if you can see that there. So, hibiscus is this deep red flour that most people drink as a herbal tea. I drink this pretty much every day. It's got a beautiful color, slightly tart taste, but what's in it is really, really interesting from a pharmacological standpoint. So hibiscus contains compounds called anthocyanins and hibiscus acid and these act in a really specific way inside your body. So as a lot of you probably know your body has this hormonal pathway that regulates blood pressure called the rein angotensin system and part of that involves an enzyme called ACE ACE angotensin converting enzyme which produces a hormone called angotensin 2 whose job is to constrict your arteries squeezing them tighter and tighter and pushing your blood pressure up. One of the most common classes of blood pressure medication literally called ACE inhibitors. So ACE blockers works by blocking that enzyme. So lower ACE activity means less angotensin 2 means arteries relax more means your blood pressure falls. Now I get that that's a bit complicated but just go back and just listen to that again if you're really interested. But just trust me when I say that this has real effects in your body. Hibiscus does something very similar to that entire process, but a bit more naturally. The compounds in it act as mild natural ACE inhibitors. And there have been several proper clinical trials showing reductions of around 7 to 10 millm of mercury in systolic blood pressure in people who drink this stuff regularly. And that is more powerful than certain medications we can give you. Now, the easiest way to get this into your daily routine is just to simply drink it as a tea. You can get tea bags with hibiscus really, really easily. Now, on its own, hibiscus can be a bit tart, a bit strong, but you do get used to it after a while, and I actually quite enjoy it on its own, to be honest. But what I've seen other people do is mix another herbal tea with it just to sort of take the taste down a bit.
Number two on the list is something that honestly I eat every single day, which is beetroot. I absolutely love this stuff. Now, this is obviously the raw version, but you can get cooked or balsamic beetroots, which is great in omelets. It's great on the side of pretty much any dish that you make, or even just eaten straight out of the packet just as a snack throughout the day. Now, beetroot is incredibly rich in dietary nitrates. And when you eat those nitrates, your body converts them first into something called nitrides and then into nitric oxide, which is one of the most important molecules in cardiovascular health. If you've watched a couple of my videos, you've probably heard me mention this before. What nitric oxide does is tell the smooth muscle inside your blood vessel walls to relax. And when those muscles relax, the vessel gets wider, which means less resistance to blood flow, which means your heart doesn't have to push as hard. And what happens is your blood pressure naturally just drops. There's also something called endothelial function. So the endothelium is the inner lining of your blood vessels, essentially one cell thick, and it's responsible for controlling dilation. And when it doesn't work well, which is one of the early drivers of hypertension, your vessels can't relax properly. And beetroot derived nitric oxide directly improves that. There are lots of studies out there that have shown pretty significant reductions in your blood pressure through regular beetroot consumption, making it essentially a natural nitric oxide booster for your arteries. Now, most of the research out there has actually used beetroot juice, probably because it's easier to measure and quantify and use in this research setting. But cooked beetroot, like this one here that I eat every day, is just a better food for you. It has the same compounds, but you've not blitzed all the fiber out of it. Now, you can buy cooked beetroot in pretty much every supermarket in the UK. I'm assuming it's the same in the US and Canada and Australia as well. It doesn't need any preparation and it works really really well in salads alongside fish or chicken in omelets or like I said earlier just eaten raw straight out of the packet. So if you're looking for a really easy entry point into all of this then this is probably it.
Third on the list today is celery. Now most of you will have eaten this at some point in your lives but I'm not talking about celery the vegetable. I'm actually talking about celery seeds. Now, these are used as a spice, and they've actually been used in traditional medicine for centuries, which should maybe tell us something. Now, the key compounds here do two very distinct things. The first one is that they seem to relax the smooth muscle in your blood vessel walls in a way that's similar to a class of medication called calcium channel blockers. And amloopene is one of those medications. and it works by reducing calcium entry into muscle cells to prevent those cells from contracting as hard. The second mechanism is through your kidneys where these compounds in the celery seeds essentially tell the kidneys to get rid of more sodium in your urine. And that matters enormously because when your body is holding on to excess sodium, it also holds on to water which increases the volume of fluid in your vessels which pushes your blood pressure up. So flushing more sodium out brings that pressure back down. So celery seeds are doing two things at the same time. Relaxing the blood vessel walls and helping the kidneys clear out excess salt. And that combination is actually pretty impressive for something that most people have never thought to put in their food. In terms of getting these tiny seeds into your diet, they're a spice that you can add to almost anything to be honest, like soups or stews or salad dressings, eggs, homemade bread. Just try sprinkling them on anything you eat over the next day and just see how they taste. About half a teaspoon a day is enough to make a difference here. The flavor isn't that spicy. It's quite mild, to be honest. almost like a more concentrated version of celery with a slightly bitter edge. It's not a spicy spice like most people would think of. They're cheap. They're easy to find in most supermarkets. So, give it a go and let me know what you think.
Number four is something called cafir, which I've mentioned a few times on this channel. So, cafir is a fermented milk drink. It's a bit tangy. It's a bit sour and it tastes almost fizzy sometimes because of the fermentation sort of process that it goes through. Now, I drink this every single morning with my breakfast. And it's been consumed in Eastern Europe and Central Asia for hundreds and hundreds of years. Now, the blood pressure mechanism here comes down to the fermentation process itself. When bacteria ferment the milk proteins, they break them down into smaller fragments called bioactive peptides. And some of these peptides act as natural ACE inhibitors, which is the same mechanism as hibiscus earlier. Less angotensin 2 then arteries relax, blood pressure falls. It's literally doing the same thing as some of the medications that I prescribe every single day. Now, there's also a secondary angle here. So keir is honestly one of the most potent natural sources of probiotic bacteria and there's emerging evidence that gut microbiome diversity influences vascular inflammation which is a driver of arterial stiffness and hypertension. Now around 2 to 300 mil a day which is basically a small glass is enough to get this benefit and most people just drink it straight out of the bottle. That's what I do anyway. The other way that I use this is as a dessert sometimes. So poured over some strawberries or raspberries or blackberries just cut up with some ground flax seed sprinkled on top and maybe a very small drizzle of honey. It tastes really really good when used like this.
Number five on the list today is actually water crest. So water crest is one of those vegetables that apparently was everywhere a couple of hundred years ago, but it's sort of been forgotten about these days. But nutritionally, it's really really good for you. Just like beetroot, it's extremely rich in dietary nitrates. Gram for gram is actually one of the highest nitrate vegetables you can eat. So you can get the same conversion into nitric oxide, the same relaxing of your blood vessel walls, and the same reduction in your blood pressure. But water crest actually does something extra on top of that. It contains compounds called polyphenols that specifically protect the inner lining of your blood vessels from damage. Think of that lining like the surface of a pipe. When it gets damaged and inflamed, the pipe becomes stiffer and less able to widen when it needs to. Water crest is essentially doing two jobs at the same time, producing nitric oxide that tells your vessels to relax and protecting the vessel walls so they're actually capable of doing that. Now, in terms of eating it, I think this tastes really, really nice. It's really easy to eat and get in pretty much every single day. It has a slightly peppery bite to it, a bit like rocket or arugula if you're in America, but it's a bit more intense in my opinion, and it works really well as a salad base instead of just regular lettuce. It pairs really nicely as well with anything creamy. So, walnuts, avocado, smoked salmon. You can blend it into smoothies where the flavor gets sort of masked a bit if you're not really a fan of the taste or you can wilt it into pasta like you would with spinach or even blend it into soups at the last minute as well. A large handful a day just like this, that's probably two handfuls to be honest, but sort of a portion like this really is all you need and that will go down really really well with most things.
Number six is dark chocolate and it has to be 70% or above. So we've got 85% here and 100% here which tastes extremely bitter. I have a square of this one pretty much every single day after dinner. This is one that people always seem to get excited about and honestly the excitement is justified. This can be really good for you in moderation but there are some important caveats. So, cocoa contains compounds called flavonoids. And these flavonoids interact with the cells lining your blood vessels and trigger the production of, yep, you guessed it, nitric oxide, the same molecule that we've talked about with beetroot and water crest, which relaxes the vessel walls and brings your blood pressure down. Studies have actually shown reductions in blood pressure of between two to five points, which yes, is modest. It's not a huge amount, but it's real and it's reproducible in different studies. The catch, however, is that not all chocolate is created equal. And this is where we've got to be really specific. What we're talking about here is proper high percentage dark chocolate. 70% cocoa and above. Ideally, 85 or even 100% if you can handle it. That is completely different from a Cadbury's bar or Galaxy or Hershey's which are mostly just sugar oils and emulsifiers with a tiny amount of cocoa that has been heavily processed stripping out most of the beneficial compounds during that process. If it's sweet and creamy and melts like a dessert and you crave it, then it's probably not doing much for your blood pressure. It's probably causing more harm than good. The real stuff is darker, slightly bitter, and you genuinely don't want much of it. Around 20 grams a day, which is basically two small squares, is what was used in the research, and that is plenty, to be honest. You wouldn't really want to be eating much more than that. A couple of squares after dinner or alongside some nuts during the day as a snack is a really easy way to build this into your routine.
The seventh food on the list today is pomegranate. So, pomegranate has a slightly exotic reputation, but the science behind this food is actually pretty solid. So, we've talked a lot about nitric oxide in this video, the molecule that tells your blood vessels to relax and widen. But here's something else worth knowing about it. Nitric oxide is fragile. It can be broken down and destroyed by damage happening inside the bloodstream before it even gets a chance to do its job. Pomegranate contains some of the most potent antioxidants found in any food. And what those antioxidants essentially do is act as a protective shield for your nitric oxide, neutralizing the damaging molecules that would otherwise make it break down. So more of it survives and stays active inside your blood vessels. On top of that, there's also evidence that pomegranate has ACE inhibitory effects. Remember that pathway from hibiscus and kefir where blocking that enzyme means that your arteries stay more relaxed. So pomegranate is actually quietly working on several different mechanisms at once. Now in terms of getting this food into your diet, around 200 mil a day of pomegranate juice is what a lot of the research studies actually used. Now, if you're going to drink it, then just make sure you're getting the unsweetened version because a lot of the commercial stuff has lots of added sugar, which sort of defeats the point. Now, I wouldn't recommend drinking it. Just get these pomegranate rubies instead, which you can get from most supermarkets. And these are great scattered over salads or through porridge if that's what you eat for breakfast or just even as a snack as you go through the day or stirred through keir, which obviously we mentioned earlier.
And finally, number eight on the list is seaweed. Now, this is probably the most unusual one on the list, and I'm under no illusion that you'll be eating this every single day, but the mechanism actually is really interesting. So, I thought, why not? Let's just include this right at the end. So, the main reason why seaweed is so good for your blood pressure comes down to something called potassium. Most of you have probably heard of potassium. So, let me just explain why this matters. Because most people focus entirely on sodium and miss potassium completely. So your kidneys are constantly trying to maintain a balance between sodium and potassium in your body. These two go hand in hand. And when potassium intake is higher, the kidneys respond by flushing out more sodium in your urine. And we already know what happens when you get rid of excess sodium. It means less fluid retention, lower blood volume, and therefore lower blood pressure. So, potassium is essentially working through the back door to do the same thing as cutting salt. And seaweed varieties like dulf and kelp are extraordinarily rich in it. The problem with the typical western diet is that it's heavily skewed the wrong way. very high in sodium, very low in potassium and that imbalance is a significant driver of high blood pressure at a population level. Now seaweed also contains magnesium which has its own separate effect on relaxing the blood vessel walls. Now, in terms of actually eating this stuff, nori sheets, which is what these are, the dried seaweed used in sushi, are probably the easiest starting point, and you can eat them straight from the packet as a snack. It tastes really, really good. You can also get dried doulse flakes, which have a slightly smoky flavor and work really well sprinkled over salads or in soups as well. Now the only thing to mention here is that if you have chronic kidney disease or if you're elderly or if you have any risk of having any sort of kidney damage then just speak with your doctor first and have your kidney function checked specifically your potassium level because eating too much potassium in those settings sometimes can cause more harm than good. We know that high potassium levels can affect the heart but for the vast majority of you watching this this will be good for you.
So, when you step back and look at all eight of these foods together, something should become fairly clear. They're not just a random selection of unusual foods. Every single one of them is targeting one of the biological systems that controls your blood pressure. Some of them boost your nitric oxide production, which relaxes your blood vessel walls. So, that's beetroot, water crest, dark chocolate, and pomegranate. Some of them work on that hormonal pathway we talked about earlier which is the rein and angotensin system reducing the hormone that constricts your arteries which is hibiscus keir and pomegranate. M some of them work through the kidneys helping your body to flush out excess sodium and that's celery seeds and seaweed and almost all of them in some way protect the inner lining of your blood vessels keeping them flexible and responsive over time. The reason this matters is that blood pressure isn't controlled by one single system. It's the result of several systems all working at the same time. So when you eat a variety of these foods regularly, you're nudging multiple systems in the right direction simultaneously. And those small nudges compound over time. And this is a really common theme running through most of my videos. Small changes compound over time. There's genuinely good evidence that lifestyle changes can be as effective as medication for stage 1 hypertension. meaning a systolic blood pressure in that 130 to 150 range. And diet is one of the most powerful levers within that. None of these foods is a magic bullet on its own. Like I said earlier, none of these is going to dramatically change your blood pressure overnight. But if you eat them consistently as part of a broader pattern of good whole foods and healthy habits, then they'll add up to something really meaningful. And that is much much better than any supplements that other doctors are trying to sell.