Reducing salt can lower blood pressure.

[Gagafritz]

I do the cooking so I can control the salt. But, honestly don't think it's that much of an issue. Controlling one's weight, exercising, etc I think are far more important in BP control.

 

[Woodznutz]

I do the cooking so I can control the salt. But, honestly don't think it's that much of an issue. Controlling one's weight, exercising, etc I think are far more important in BP control.

Everyone's BP is elevated during any activity. It's natural. It's when BP doesn't come down to safe levels when relaxed that it can become problematic.

 

[ScorpioRising007]

I love salt but it doesn't love me. My bp was too high and I was in denial about the effect of too much salt until I made a concentrated effort to greatly reduce it. I ate virtually no salt or salty foods for three weeks during which time I monitored the salt in my urine. Even though I was not ingesting salt I was excreting huge amounts of it daily. At the end of three weeks my systolic bp went down by a full 10 points and has remained there. My diastolic bp is always low so I wasn't concerned about that.

I hope this is of interest to someone.

Yeah I have noticed the same thing with salt intake. Actually the worst seems eating too many chips in a diet, that really increases the sodium and BP.

One of the best ways to reduce BP I found was actually losing weight. I have lost 30 lbs and my BP has dropped significantly. It was as high as like 160 and now it is consistently down to 120.

 

[Woodznutz]

Yeah I have noticed the same thing with salt intake. Actually the worst seems eating too many chips in a diet, that really increases the sodium and BP.

One of the best ways to reduce BP I found was actually losing weight. I have lost 30 lbs and my BP has dropped significantly. It was as high as like 160 and now it is consistently down to 120.

I quit drinking beer at the same time, so I think that also helped. I actually have systolic readings well below 120 sometimes.

 

[katsteve2012]

I love salt but it doesn't love me. My bp was too high and I was in denial about the effect of too much salt until I made a concentrated effort to greatly reduce it. I ate virtually no salt or salty foods for three weeks during which time I monitored the salt in my urine. Even though I was not ingesting salt I was excreting huge amounts of it daily. At the end of three weeks my systolic bp went down by a full 10 points and has remained there. My diastolic bp is always low so I wasn't concerned about that.

I hope this is of interest to someone.

My mother is still going strong in good health with consistently stable BP that is always around 118/79, and she's 92.

She has excellent habits and has never drank alcohol and follows a mostly vegetable and fish diet , but many years ago in her 30's she incorporated two tablespoons a day of apple cider vinegar into her diet, and swears that it makes a big difference.

 

[Blaster]

Almost all processed foods are high in sodium.

 

[hadit]

I use salt as well, just not so much. It's the hidden salt that's hard to avoid.

That is the correct motorcycle. Salt itself is valuable and wakes up food flavors, but it's surprising how little you need to use when you start with unprocessed foods. Most of the time, processed foods would taste horrible without the large amounts of salt and sugar that are added just to make them palatable. Trying to cut it completely from our diets is not healthy.