Diet Plan for Patients with Hypertension

Diet Plan for Patients with Hypertension: Diet is very important in the management of high blood pressure and the patient’s health state. Very few diseases are there where diet is as important as high blood pressure. Some of the diseases where diet plays a major role in management (treatment) are diabetes, gout, cardiovascular diseases, etc. But the role of diet in these diseases is not as important as that of hypertension except for diabetes, where diet plays a major role in its management.

A proper diet with low sodium content is essential in the management of high blood pressure. Most of the cases of high blood pressure the cause of the high blood pressure is not known, and it is called essential hypertension. There is a very less percentage of hypertension patients where the cause can be defined.

Patients with essential hypertension require a proper diet plan as part of the treatment of hypertension. In fact, many mild to moderate high blood pressure cases can be managed with proper planning of diet alone, without the need for medication.

The major aim and objective of a diet plan for hypertension are to provide adequate nutrition for an optimal health state and also to keep high blood pressure under control (within normal limit) and not allow blood pressure to go up further.

A proper diet plan for patients with high blood pressure is like this:

Early morning:

The early morning should be only tea, preferably black tea without sugar. If sugar is added to tea it should be minimal for taste.

Breakfast:

The breakfast should consist of tea/coffee (black tea or coffee), milk, porridge, etc. A liberal amount of fresh fruits (as well as fruit juice) like apples, pears, watermelon, papaya, etc. can be taken.

Lunch:

The lunch should be taken according to the customs, traditions, and likings of the individual. But it should be remembered that lunch should not be very heavy and preferably it should have a good amount of vegetables and whole cereals.

Evening tea:

It should be with tea or coffee with non-salted biscuits.

Dinner:

It should be started with soup (tomato or other vegetable soup). Not much salt should be added (as the salt content is generally high in soups). One serving of whole cereals (like rice, bread made of whole grain, etc.), salad, and fresh vegetable preparation. Fruit custard can be taken at dinner time.