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If you're on BP meds how often do you eat out. When eating out do you indulge in your favorite foods or do you opt for healthy options? Does taking your BP meds still manage to control your BP even though you are indulging in eating out often?
We don't eat out often anymore due to expense of eating at delicious restaurants and the unhealthiness of cheap restaurants.
When we do go out, we both tend to be moderate in our choices. Often have a small salad or soup before the entree. If we have desert--which is rare, we'll split one. I've a weakness for Creme Brulee.
Cooking at home is whole foods and mostly vegetable based and we exercise portion control. Zero junk food enters our door.
And who's perfect?? Last night, I ate a forbidden meal--a Swiss/mushroom burger and fries at a place known for both. Paid the price with some gut issues and a BP effect. Grease & salt--yum...lol. But I enjoyed this very rare treat...but won't repeat for a long time.
One problem with restaurant meals is that they are too often overly salty. And if you're salt-sensitive (I am), it can be a problem with BP rising.
For most people (but not all) lifestyle & adjustments to it doesn't affect control of BP all that much...When it does, I have to wonder if the diagnosis of hypertension is correct in the first place.
The most obvious problem is those knuckleheads who empty half a salt shaker on the food before they even taste it. IIRC, Dante assigned them to a special place in Hades. They all deserve a good slap four times a day.
Restaurant and prepared foods from the store usually contain excessive salt because that's the easy way to make them taste good and increase sales. You're right that by cooking at home with fresh produce allows you to control your own salt and calorie intake more appropriately for your own situation.
For most people (but not all) lifestyle & adjustments to it doesn't affect control of BP all that much...When it does, I have to wonder if the diagnosis of hypertension is correct in the first place.
The most obvious problem is those knuckleheads who empty half a salt shaker on the food before they even taste it. IIRC, Dante assigned them to a special place in Hades. They all deserve a good slap four times a day.
Restaurant and prepared foods from the store usually contain excessive salt because that's the easy way to make them taste good and increase sales. You're right that by cooking at home with fresh produce allows you to control your own salt and calorie intake more appropriately for your own situation.
Corporations could do a better job mixing potassium chloride with sodium chloride to make a more healthy mixture. I always read labels and have pure potassium chloride on hand to add to foods that are already high in sodium chloride. Sodium isn't everything though. Stress and obesity are big ones to drive up BP. Unless people avoid processed foods they will tend to gain weight because those foods tend to be calorie dense and addictive. Added MSG or "yeast extract" added to enhance the addictive nature of the item, that or sugar. People should try to not mix carbs and fats in their meals. (Most processed foods)
Imagine a piece of fried chicken, pizza, and french fries, 3 of the most popular items americans eat, high in salt, carbs, and fats, and then eating those multiple times a week. It's why we are fat with high BP.
...Corporations could do a better job mixing potassium chloride with sodium chloride to make a more healthy mixture. I always read labels and have pure potassium chloride on hand to add to foods that are already high in sodium chloride.....
CAVEAT-- Potassium supplements can be fatally POISONOUS to certain people with various cardiac, kidney, liver or endocrine conditions or to those taking certain medications.
K supplements without a doctor's supervision and periodic lab monitoring is real bad advice.
You're right about commercially prepared foods in general-- They include a lot of sugar & salt to capitalize on our evolutionarily successful tendency to seek out those nutrients. After all, two of our four taste bud types are geared to sense salt and sweet...The other two are geared to help us avoid poisons (bitter) and putrified food (acid).
It's no big deal to mix fats & sugars. It's the total calorie intake that counts. We have metabolic mechanisms to interchange them and use them as needed. Fat in the diet causes more of the leptins to be secreted that tells us we're full. We tend to eat less when fat is included in a meal...Excess sugar is turned into fat for storage. Fat is mobilized for energy when we don't get enough sugar.
We were at a restaurant we liked last night because it has 130 beers on tap. The menu was upscale but listed the caloric content of each meal. The 2-taco plate I wanted was listed at 1,100 calories! Most of the menu items were over 1,000. I noticed cheese curds were 2,000 by themselves.
Holy cow. Good thing we eat almost no processed foods at home. Only splurge on vacation but not on "junk food". Still, restaurant fare (not FF, either) is amazingly caloric!
Re lifestyle, our friends spend all weekend drinking in various pubs and one is obese. They take BP meds and have it under control though, so Guido must be right that lifestyle is not a main driver. For most.
We don`t dine out much, due to high prices, bad food and poor service in our area.....I am on low dose BP meds, I have to admit I do love salt, but also love salmon, avacado and broccoli and red wine.
We don`t dine out much, due to high prices, bad food and poor service in our area.....I am on low dose BP meds, I have to admit I do love salt, but also love salmon, avacado and broccoli and red wine.
I'm with you on the salmon and red wine, and broccoli is fine & dandy--but honestly, I'd prefer a Caesar salad...or steamed young asparagus with a lemon dressing. Maybe some wild rice?
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You can indulge yourself and eat just as unhealthily at home as you can eating "out".
