Your Blood Pressure And Your Health

Your blood pressure has messages for you. At most, three messages affect your overall health in this.

The message may be that your blood pressure is high. 

Your blood pressure can even be low. 

Thirdly, your blood pressure can be normal, which is the idea blood pressure for a healthy life.

Have you ever take the trouble to go and check your blood pressure with a health worker or with your doctor?

I regularly go to check for my blood pressure readings two times in the year.

You should check your blood pressure too.

195 over 100 is a high blood pressure reading. 

But what is a high blood pressure?

When your heart beats, it forces blood all over your body. This movement that forces the blood all over the body is a blood pressure.

In scientific, medical and clinical circles, blood pressure is taken in two readings or numbers. The systolic and the diasystolic.

The systolic is the higher reading, while the diasystolic is the lower reading. When a health worker takes the readings, the systolic is always over the diasystolic. 

If the upper or systolic reading of your blood pressure is 100 and the lower or diasystolic reading is 80, your blood pressure is 100 over 80 milimeter of mecury.

So, your blood pressure will be expressed as 100/80 mm Hg.

A 190/120 reading is a high blood pressure. 100/75 is normal and safe. 80/65 is low blood pressure and calls for medical attention or medication.

A blood pressure that is low is fatal as a blood pressure that is high.

It has to be raise to a normal and safe level.

Likewise, a blood pressure that is high and extremely high is a sign of ill health. 

You should go for regular check up to determine if your blood pressure is low, high or normal.

A good diet along with good medication will make it normal.

Blood Pressure Challenges: Every person has a blood pressure. All adults, youths, kids and babes have a blood pressure. Even an animal has a blood pressure. But we are here concern with human beings.

Cause Of High Blood Pressure: High blood pressure can be caused by many factor.

1.      Food And Nutrition: The food a person eat is a factor in raising the blood pressure above the acceptable normal level.

Too much carbohydrate, too much fat and too much protein will raise the blood pressure to a higher level.

Refined carbohydrate like white sugar is a primary cause. All refined carbohydrates will raise the blood pressure. White flour for making bread, biscuits and cakes are examples. But white flour is available to be mix with brown flour to strength the low gluten content in brown flour.

Whole food carbs like ripe mangoes, red oranges, and red potatoes can likewise raise your blood pressure.

This is because the food has a high Glycemic index (GI).

The rate at which they are oxidized to released energy is high in the blood stream is very fast. So, these should be eaten sparsely. 

In contrast, eating them half in raw state will not raise the blood pressure.

In other words, one should not over cooked potatoes. All refined carbs that are over cooked will raise the blood pressure.

To be on a safer side, check the GI of your favorite fruits and vegetables. You can have a fairly good idea as how to take good care of your blood pressure.

The so called white refined carbohydrates should be used as minimal as possible. These white biscuits, white breads, white rice are still necessary but plenty of fruits, vegetables, nuts had to go with them to make a much healthy meal.

2.      Lack Of Regular Exercise: Exercise will burn fat in the body. Lack of regular exercise means more fats along with certain wastes is being regularly deposited in our body. This will increase a person weight. Thus, the gain in weight will raise the blood pressure.

A short brisk walk round a football field is a good outdoor exercise. Swimming the open water or in a swimming pool if you can swim is a good physical activity that will help reduced your weigh and lower your blood pressure if it is high.

Indoor exercises like the press-ups and down, push and pull, and the jumping jack can be done just for only 10 minutes on certain fix days and those can be fit your health.

Other Ways To Lower Your Blood Pressure

·         You should half your intake of red meat, beef and all solid fats as margarine.

·         Eggs are good foods. The solid in eggs is good. Too much will raise the blood pressure. Reduced eating of eggs to two, two or three times in the week.

·         Reduced your drinking of alcoholic beverages or have it with lemon slice.

·         Increased your consumption of sardines, mullets and salmons. All fish that has the omega fatty acid -3 and -6 are good. These fatty acids are factors in reducing your blood pressure.

·         You can enjoy lean meat freely like sardines.

·         Vegetable proteins in the form of pulse should be a regular feature in our meals. Fresh corn is a good source. So, is lentils and whole wheat.

·         You can substitute vegetable oil and fats to animal fats and oils.

·         Eat a healthy diet always that is rich in natural minerals, vitamin and photochemical.

For example, here is a recipe for a potato fries that will help reduced your blood pressure.

·         4 fresh medium size mullets.

·         4 fresh sardines.

·         1 medium size fresh potato (sweet, Irish, or any potato of your choice).

·         3 big onions.

·         6 lobes of garlic bulbs.

·         3 piece green chili or green cayenne pepper.

·         ½ teaspoon ginger powder.

·         ¼ teaspoon dry chili powder.

·         ½ cup fresh peanuts.

·         ½ cup breadfruit (Parkinson).

·         ¼ teaspoon salt.

·         Fresh curry leaves.

·         1 semi ripe mango.

·         4 tablespoonful peanut oil.

Instructions:

·         Descale the mullet and sardines (use canned substitute if fresh items is not available).

·         Removed the dirty inside.

·         Wash fish well in clean water.

·         Salt the fish with two pinch of salt.

·         Light stove or cooker and turn to low heat.

·         Put on clean frying pan.

·         Put 3 tablespoonful peanut oil and warm.

·         Put the fishes into the frying pan and fry for 7 minutes. Turn the other side and fry again for 5 minutes. If using canned sardines, put fish in frying pan and warm without oil; and use the sardine oil to cook the other items.

·         While the fish is cooking, wash the potato with sponge. Use knife to scoop and remove any hard surface. Do not peel. The skin of the fresh potato has factors in bringing down your weight and controlling your blood pressure.

·         Slice potato into thin chips

·         Salted this with two pinch of salt.

·         Removed the fish and add 1 table spoon of peanut oil.

·         Peel the onions and garlic and cut into small chunks.

·         Wash the chili and cut into piece.

·         Pour the potato chips into the frying pan. Add three tablespoon peanut or olive oil with same amount of water and cook for three minutes stir all the time.

·         Add the nuts, onions, garlic, chili and curry leaves and cook for 3 minutes.

·         Add 1 table spoonful of peanut or olive oil again.

·         Cut semi ripe mango with skin into small piece and add to the cook stir well for2 minutes.

·         It is done.

·         Put into eating pan with fish.

·         Serves 2 persons.

·         You take it with a cup of black tea plus a cube of sugar and milk for breakfast or lunch.

Health Benefits Of Recipe: The health benefit to get from this recipe are

·         Lower your body weight since your calorie intake is low.

·         Your blood pressure is reduced since your weigh is reduced.

·         Regular taking of such a meal either as a breakfast, or lunch or supper will regulate the blood pressure.

·         Thus, high blood pressure is prevented.

·         The meal is full of natural goodness.

·         It will prevent diabetes mellitus.

·         It will increase and sustain your energy due to the numerous combinations of the various natural synergy items.

Alkaline Foods: food groups, fruits and vegetables, including nuts, herbs and spices that keeps the blood stream are called alkaline foods.

·         The list will include all fresh or dried fruits.

·         All green leafy or greens when half cooked in raw state.

·         Spices like green chili, fresh curry, onions, garlic and chive.

·         Peanuts, walnuts, pine nuts and cashew nuts.

·         Tubers like yams, potatoes and cocoyam in their skin.

·         Cereals such as brown rice, bean, pea, bread fruit and lenticels.

Taking some of these food items in a meal will lower your blood pressure.

Food Items: Most of the food we eat are classified into carbohydrates, fats and oils; and proteins.

1.      Carbohydrates or carbs for short, when cooked and eaten with their skin like cocoyam, yams and potatoes, gives an alkaline effect in the blood stream. Without their skin, they form a highly  acidic platform that brings in ill health like headache, diabetes mellitus, and thus, unnecessary gain in weight with flabby body tissue that shows prominently well on the waistline, belly and check.

·         Yams, potatoes, cocoyam should never be peel. Just discard the outermost brittle layer. The fresh outer skin contained the mineral matters, vitamins, some fats and proteins. Doing away with all these leaves the carb or starch in an unbalanced state that breeds disease and ill health in the human body.

·         Rice is another carb food group that is always eaten in many house hold. Brown or unpolished rice is much better. It improves good health. Partially polished rice retained most of its natural nutrients.

·         Process wheat that has been turn into white flour, pasta, macaroni, spaghetti, noodles, has all its essential nutrients removed, and additives added. Chemical additives and preservatives added. These are in the same class as white bread. Recently, some nutrition expert opinioned that due to the chemical additives in these foods, they dare not eat even a bite of these products! Not even an instant meat roll or hot dog!

·         Those who advocates that the skin of any carb, fruits, roots should be discard completely because they are hard or tough has yet to realize the place fiber or bulk plays in human digestion. It help the movement of digested foods in the bowel.

2.      Fats help maintain good body heat.

·         Animal fats: Meat or beef is my best animal fat. I enjoy it like any other person.

·         Vegetables fats: Peanuts, breadfruit, cashew nuts and pine nuts, beans, particularly brown soya bean are good sources. All nuts have fats.

·         Oils also provide body heat. Olive and peanut oils are good vegetable oils. So is sun flower oil. Peanuts, bean and rice are good food synergy make ups. Potatoes, bean, fish and eggs are another. Taken with some fresh fruits, it made a balance meal not until herbs like garlic, onions and ginger were add.

3.      Proteins: Our bodies are made up of protein so to speak. All bodily cells are protein.

·         Animal protein: All animal protein like lean meat, poultry, milk and egg white is good. An egg gives the most essential protein the body needs. Combine with vegetable protein like soya, or any bean and peanuts, makes a good food synergy. Add your favorite fruits, herbs and greens. Marine foods especially, fish are the only best source of animal protein. Sardines and mullets contain the essential omega fatty acids -3 and -6. So are salmons. These wades off heart related disease and this in turn controls your blood pressure, and keeps your heart in good condition.

·         Birds like poultry and turkey are good sources of protein. These lack the essential fatty acid found in sardines and mullets. But they fat content is solid. Limit it to two times a week in diet.

·         Vegetable proteins. Bean, peanuts, corn, lenticel and bread fruit. Bean, peanut and bread fruit when combine can give you all the protein and essential amino acid your body need for good health. But as we are use to many animal products, adding a glass of milk or fresh fish to the meal is okay.
·         Fruits: apples, mangoes, guavas, melons and cucumbers should be eaten with their skin. Oranges when peel, the small opening cut out to suck the juicy out, should be chew and swallow. It contains pectin, a sub part of the vitamin C group. While sucking an orange, I have eaten half the white skin as I suck. It made my body resistant to cold and catarrh.

 To your good health!

  Miebakagh57 (Miebakagh Fiberesima) Copy right 2014 -2015
http://greens4food.blogspot.com

Good Food For The Body

Introduction : There is nothing much better than a person to eat some good food.
When I say good food, I mean natural food items in their natural form and unprocessed state. Convenience foods packed in readily forms like spaghetti and oats thought

good, need to be supplement with adequate natural ingredients to compensate for the loss of vitamins, minerals and fibers during the milling processing. Processed foods has much of their vitamin A, B-Complex, B1, B2, B6, B12 and folate removed. Vitamin C, D, K and E are also removed and chemical forms of the same vitamin added.


Good eating is fueling the body with good natural and wholesome foods; and with all these vitamins including plant photochemical as we can note later.


The body use fuel or energy from the foods we eat to carry out some of its internal activities, as well as physical actions like walking, breathing and sleeping.


An activity like talking, singing, running and swimming required some energy.


To drive a car for over five kilo meters, you need to expend some energy too. A noted African scientist has said “good food is the greatest single factor in securing good health.”


I subscribe to this opinion. Refine foods need to be supplement with plenty of fruits and vegetables. Fruits and vegetables has many and varied vitamin, minerals and fibers that help to release the energy in processed refined foods. For example, an oat meal should go with at least seven assort fruits including a vegetable green such as pea. The many foods we eat come from various food groups.


These were scientifically classified.


Food Groups


A closer observation shows different animals, birds, insects, reptile feeds on different foods. You cannot find an animal or a bird feed on one specific food or a grain. The food items they eat varied significantly. Even as human beings, we eat assort types of foods. In this regard, our scientists classified foods into two main groups.


 1. According to chemical composition; and, 2. According to special functions in the internal metabolism.


Chemical classification of foods: Scientists divide the foodstuffs we eat into six groups. Carbohydrates or carbs for short. These are starch and sugar products. They are usually formed by green plants.


 Examples are: Brown rice, whole wheat flour, potatoes with their skins and similar root vegetables like yams and cocoyams. Stems like sugar cane and beet root.


Carbs are again sub-group into starches, sugars and celluloses.


The carbs are further divide into simple and complex starches, sugars and celluloses.


Carbohydrates, specifically glucose or simple sugars when eaten will release the energy in the foodstuff quickly into the body cells. The body needs glucose or sugar. It is one of the simple sugars that we use every day. All internal cells, systems, and organs in the body need sugar to do their work well. Your brain needs sugar. Your muscles need sugar as primary fuel before anything else. Sugar is readily oxidized to release the much need energy.


Starch has to be break down into simple sugar like glucose. Excess is stored as glycogen, in the muscles and tissues. This is where I and you gain extra weight quickly.


 Here we need to be cautious that eating much sugar has its down side. It can cause teeth decay. Ordinary household sugars (white sugar) you put in your tea or custard has no food value. It is just a sweeter. Use it sparsely. Or substitute it brown sugar which has much nutritional ingredient like vitamins and mineral salts. All the vitamin A, B, C, and mineral matter in the sugar cane has been removed during the milling and refine process.


Carbs are very important foods for our body. Some are good and some bad. I have mentioned at least six foods that are good carbohydrates above. Any carb that is unprocessed like brown flour for making brown bread is a good carbohydrate.


The bad ones are in the form of convenience food products like white sugar, white rice, white breads and biscuits made with white flours. It is these white products that has its much health beneficial matters removed.


View and download a large listings of many carbohydrate foods here with this link http://iuhealth.org/images/ril-doc/carbohydrate Counting Food LIST.pdf.
Copy and paste the link into your internet browser.


Other sources of carbs are:


Fruits: apples, mangoes, pineapples, tomatoes and peach. Boys berry, raspberry, oranges, limes and lemons.


With the exception of limes and lemons,these are sources of complex sugars. After being properly digested, they changed to simple sugars.


Nuts: almonds, walnuts, tiger and grass nuts, and peanuts are complex carbohydrates.


Legumes: all types of beans especially green bean and soya bean. These are another source of complex carbohydrate.


Spices: especially green pepper, red pepper, garlic, ginger and onions. Sage and celery.


All these are natural sources of starch and sugars.


When eaten in their natural states, they seem to be filling; and at the same time make us not to over eat. This is because of their fiber content.


A 1g of carb. will provide you with 3.6 calories. As fruits now are being measured in cups rather than grams, one cup of a fruit is the same as the size of one big banana fruit. Hence, one cup of any fruit is equal to one gram.


Fats and oils: Fats and oils have a special role to play in good eating. These are like the grease a machine used for lubricating parts of the component. But they provide more energy than carbs. A 1g fat will give out twice the energy value of a 1g of a carb diet. In other words, you get at most 7.2 calories from a gram of fat.


Fats come from meat, beef, egg yolk, all nuts, butter and margarine.
Palm oil and peanut oils are fats but are liquids at room temperature and pressure; whereas, egg yolk and margarine are solids at the same temperature and pressure.


Specifically, fats and oils are derived from two sources:
1. Animal fats: pork meat, beef, red meat and turkey. Cod liver oil and shark liver oil are good fish oils. Mullets, sandiness and salmon fish oils contain essential omega fatty acids -3 and -6 that sustain the health of the heart.
2. Plant source or vegetable fats: all nuts for example, walnuts and peanuts. Palm oil, pears and beans. Others are olive oil and coconut oil.
In colder regions, oils can be solids. Fats and oils are reserve foods stored in the body that are readily available when the body needs extra energy.
Eating fats and oils is very important for good health, fueling the body for heat, work and protecting the internal organs of the body.


Again, we need extra fats when the weather is very cold to maintain our body temperature at the optimum level.


Protein: A protein will give the same energy output as in a gram of a carb. Proteins build the body. Our body is at least 16% protein. Like fats, they come from both animal and plant source.
1. Animal protein: fish and poultry. Egg white, milk, chicken and turkey.
A protein like an egg is very much useful in a meal. So is a fish. These are builds the body. They provide all the nutrients the body need to grow, develop and replaced dead cells.
2. Vegetable protein: from seeds, nuts, roots, stem and leaves of plants.


Seeds: sun flower, black berry, tomatoes, guavas and cucumbers.


Nuts:  Peanuts, walnuts and cashews. Tiger nuts and grass nuts. Pine nut is a good nut.


Legume: green beans, soya bean, black eye bean, lima bean and all beans. Green pea is a delight.


Root crops or tubers: fresh potatoes, cocoyams and yams in their skins. Green vegetable yam that grows on flowering stalk is another.


 Leaves (foliage): all green leafy vegetables or greens: pumpkin leaves, sage, brussel sprout, broccoli and basil or scented leaves.
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Water is another but vital source of food. It is need for dissolving food that is properly chewed for absorption into the body cells. Water is to be sip sparely during meal time. Food should be eaten regularly and at regular times.


Do not skip your breakfast except that you are fasting.


Always start the day with a good breakfast of fresh leafy greens, vegetables, fruits and nuts including fats and proteins.


To your good health!


Miebakagh57 (Miebakagh Fiberesima) Copyright 2014-2015