The five foods and drinks to avoid if you’ve got high blood pressure

If you’ve got high blood pressure these are the food and drinks to steer clear of. See the list.

When it comes to general health and wellbeing, keeping your blood pressure in check is a simple way to lower your risk of serious illness and disease.

High blood pressure is one of the major disease burdens in Austalia and can lead to an increased risk of a heart attack, stroke, heart failure or kidney disease.

What is blood pressure?

It is the pressure of blood on the walls of your arteries as your heart pumps blood around your body. It is normal for it to fluctuate as you go about your day.

Blood pressure is measured by two numbers:

•The amount of pressure in your arteries when your heart muscle contracts (systolic blood pressure)

•The pressure when your heart muscle is between beats/relaxed (diastolic blood pressure)

Both are measured in units called millimetres of mercury (mmHg).

An optimal blood pressure reading is systolic blood pressure under 120 mmHg and diastolic blood pressure under 80 mmHg, expressed as 120/80.

An optimal blood pressure reading is 120/80.

But according to the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare about three quarters of Aussie adults with high blood pressure don’t even realise they have it.

The most recent survey in 2022 found that 23.3 per cent of participants had high blood pressure.

But 74.5 per cent didn’t flag that they had high blood pressure prior to taking part - meaning a lot were likely unaware of the issue.

That’s why it’s so important to have regular blood pressure checks done - because there are no signs or symptoms of hypertension.

Maintaining a healthy blood pressure can be done through a range of lifestyle changes like regular exercise, not smoking and limiting alcohol intake.

Additionally, the food you eat can affect your blood pressure.

Here’s what to avoid.

Chips and salty snacks

When doing your shopping, check the labels of packaged and processed foods for sodium. Choose ones with less than 400mg per 100g.

A diet high in salt (sodium) is associated with high blood pressure.

•Packaged and processed ‘ready meals’

•Potato crisps and salty snack foods

•Processed meats and meat products

•Certain sauces, spreads and condiments, such as Vegemite and soy sauce

A diet high in salt is associated with high blood pressure, as it encourages your body to retain fluid. This can increase the fluid volume of your blood and raise your blood pressure.

As such, reducing the amount of salt you eat can help to lower and manage it.

While removing salt from your cooking and from the table will make an impact overall, it is more important to cut back on processed and packaged foods.

Accredited Practising Dietitian (APD) Natasha Schilling said: “Salt is a compound called sodium chloride, and it’s actually the sodium part of it that doesn’t play nicely with blood pressure.”

She added: “In Australia, we actually have quite a high salt diet because it’s found in a lot of processed foods. It’s also things in jars because salts are a preservative that makes things last longer and it also makes things taste good. Then when you add in a little bit of salt at the table to the processed foods, all those little bits add up.”

Ms Schilling added that while food would taste a little different when cutting down on salt, other herbs and spices could be added to food to flavour it.

“Salt is a learned taste. If you can learn to like salt, you can actually unlearn it,” she said.

“When you start reducing your salt, you will find things taste different, but after about six weeks changes happen in your tongue and you will actually get used to it.

“The great way you can add flavour back in is by using herbs and spices – fresh or dried.

“But just be careful with some of your pre-made spices as some will have salt added into them and anything that has salt in the name, such as celery salt or chicken salt or onion salt, that’s still salt.”

Ice cream and other sweet treats

Diabetes and high blood pressure are closely related. Picture: Luka Kauzlaric

•Lollies

•Chocolate

•Soft drinks, energy and sports drinks

•Highly concentrated fruit drinks, cordials

•Sweet rolls, pastries and doughnuts

•Cakes

•Ice creams

Cutting down on the sweet stuff is also important.

High blood pressure is closely related to diabetes - but the link between them is still not fully understood.

According to the Heart Foundation, consistently high blood sugar levels damage blood vessels, which can lead to high blood pressure.

Meanwhile, high blood pressure prevents insulin from working properly, leading to higher blood sugar levels.

As such, most people with diabetes also have high blood pressure.

Good management of both diabetes and high blood pressure are important for reducing the risk of heart attack or stroke.

“Diabetes and heart issues do often go hand-in-hand,” Ms Schilling said.

“Sugar is another element we need to be a bit wary of for general health and it’s about not having too much, not over indulging too much.

“But if you’re following healthy eating patterns with lots of fruits and veggies, limiting your processed foods; look, I’m a dietitian, and I have sugar in my tea and coffee.”

Fatty foods

Reducing your intake of foods high in saturated and trans fats will help to manage your blood pressure.

•Fatty cuts of meat

•Most commercially baked products (such as biscuits and pastries)

•Most deep-fried fast foods

Although some fats are good to eat, others need to be avoided.

“Fats that we really want to be careful of are saturated fats – so they’re the fats that come from animal products and coconut – and trans fats, which are the fats that are present in a lot of processed foods. Trans fats are the ones that change and they can copy the action of saturated fat,” Ms Schilling said.

“What the saturated fats do is they line your blood vessels, making that hole narrower.

“Think of it like a tap when it’s had some calcium build up and the actual hole where the water comes out of it is smaller than what it was 12 months ago.

“That’s what fat does to your blood vessels, it makes them smaller. Your heart has to work harder to pump the blood around the body so your blood pressure increases.”

However, Ms Schilling said that eating healthy fats – monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats – can help reduce the build up.

“The great thing is the healthy fats, things like your olive oils, avocados, fish, they can actually help reverse some of that as well.

“Your healthy fats actually help with your heart health.”

Alcohol

Drinking alcohol increases blood pressure.

Similarly to the other foods, keeping alcohol consumption to a minimum is best for health.

Drinking alcohol is a major risk factor for high blood pressure.

As outlined by the ‘Alcohol. Think again’ health campaign, alcohol can cause high blood pressure through a combination of factors including:

•It increases the hormones that cause arteries to tighten and constrict. This can change the amount of force used to pump blood around the body

•It affects the nervous system (brain, spinal cord and nerves) which helps regulate blood pressure

•It impacts receptors in blood vessels near the heart that help maintain blood pressure

•It increases stress hormones like cortisol which can increase heart rate and blood pressure

•Regular use often leads to increased body weight (a major risk factor for high blood pressure)

The National Health and Medical Research Council’s (NHMRC) recommended levels of alcohol consumption for healthy men and women is no more than 10 standard drinks per week and no more than four standard drinks on any one day.

Ms Schilling said it was important to make sure they were standard drink sizes.

“If you are on a medication for your blood pressure or your heart, it helps have a chat with your pharmacist as well about whether it is safe for you to be drinking alcohol with your medication,” she added.

Caffeine

High blood pressure is a known consequence of excess caffeine consumption. Picture: Brendan Radke

•Coffee

•Guarana

•Cola drinks

•Energy drinks

Coffee is the most widely consumed stimulant in the world, with an estimated 2.25 billion cups of coffee drunk daily.

Those with high blood pressure may be more sensitive to caffeine.

The benefits and drawbacks of caffeine consumption have been debated for many years, however a 2019 study from the University of South Australia made it clear how many cups of coffee could be bad for your health.

According to the research, drinking six or more coffees a day can be detrimental to your health, increasing your risk of heart disease by up to 22 per cent.

University of South Australia’s Professor Elina Hyppönen said: “We also know that risk of cardiovascular disease increases with high blood pressure, a known consequence of excess caffeine consumption.”