Take the pressure down, Pt. 1

Farnham fans anyone,.. anyone?..

We had a great evening last night at our family's "Christmas in July".. in August! Basically an excuse to eat lots of hot food while the weather is still cool - this year all vegan for the first time for me, including a rich chocolate bundt cake from Veganomicon, with Cocoluscious vanilla choc chip ice cream. Mmm!

The subject of high blood pressure - hypertension - came up, and naturally I recalled many references about whole foods plant-based diets helping blood pressure in the books/websites/etc I have been reading of late. "To a man with a hammer, everything looks like a nail!" But, I wanted to double-check my facts before saying too much at the time.

The problem with most GPs when offering treatment options is that they don't mention what is the optimal way to treat the problem through diet:


1) add no salt to anything, never eat foods with any salt added
2) eat no animal products, ie. no meat, dairy, eggs
3) eat as much raw veges, fruit and beans/pulses as possible
4) avoid adding refined oils to any foods, or buying foods that include refined oils, even olive oil
5) exercise moderately for 30 minutes or more every day

There is ample evidence that the above will lead to dramatic reductions in blood pressure, including the scientific study that has shown the greatest reduction in blood pressure of any. Also, people in cultures that approximate the above do not show an "inevitable" increase in blood pressure with age - the elderly have the same blood pressures as they did in their youth.

These are the facts, even if they appear unpalatable to those of us used to a typical Western diet. Now, what you do with the information is another matter. Obviously it is pretty hard to completely avoid all salt, and many people will find eschewing animal products and oils difficult, but the closer one gets to the ideal, the better the results will be. The biggest danger, I believe, is that the importance of diet is not emphasised enough. The "easy" option, blood pressure lowering drugs, has a few problems, including:

1. They can have side-effects (as can any drug).
2. They can give patients the "green light" to continue with an unhealthy diet and lifestyle.

Dr Dean Ornish has a good cartoon illustration of the latter - around 45 seconds in his excellent TED Talk. Watch the whole thing if you possibly can - it is very entertaining. In fact, watch it twice; he speaks really fast, but he has a lot of good stuff to say:



More to come in Part 2...