5 Foods To Help Manage Blood Pressure: Cocoa Powder, Spinach | TODAY

that 75 million Americans have high blood pressure there are certain foods you can actually eat to help you manage it today nutritionist joy Bauer is here with her top five joy good morning good to see you before we get to the food what exactly defines high blood pressure so imagine this our blood carries oxygen and nutrients throughout our body using a network of these tiny little vessels they're like small tubes now as the blood travels it exerts pressure on the vessel walls that's known as blood pressure if the pressure gets intense it's high blood pressure so I'm going to show you a quick illustration this top one is a normal healthy blood vessel see smooth sails Rafic moving well oh absolutely this vessel demonstrates high blood pressure and you can see it's clearly distressed there's plaque within the walls so it's a narrowed space and also the walls are having a hard time they're stiff they're hardened and they're they're contracting but they're exerting a lot of energy and the other thing is if this guy who owns or gal who owns this vessel takes in a lot of salt salt draws in water increases the volume which will then increase the blood pressure even further diet exercise all good things talk about some of the foods that actually help you manage your blood pressure the first one people are going to like the sound of cocoa powder so everybody seems to know the virtues of dark chocolate but the real hero is the cocoa powder that's within the dark chocolate because that's where all the flavonols are housed and that's what helps to keep our blood vessels healthy and elastic so what I'm telling people is to pick up some cocoa powder you could put it in smoothies you could put it in oatmeal you can also put a little bit of your morning coffee delicious healthy for your blood vessel one of these weird kids I love spinach from the very young age you say this is another key food it's a triple threat it has potassium magnesium and folate and what potassium does it sort of the anti sodium I just said that sodium draws in water potassium flushes it out and flushes the sodium out so instead of lettuce on a sandwich put spinach leaves also you have a simmering pot of soup on the stove or marinara sauce dump those spinach leaves in stir it around and it's extra yummy is a great idea guitar is another one does it have to be raw garlic no it could be powder it could be mince garlic roasted garlic garlic has two active ingredients one is called allicin which keeps those the lining of the cells healthy the other is believe it or not there's an active ingredient that acts like an ACE inhibitor a prescription medication but there's no side effects Matt roasting garlic is one of the most delicious things ever and it's super easy if I've heard how to say it once I've heard her say it a thousand times beans beans good for your heart that too so all beans are great for your heart because they have protein and they have fiber and they have potassium and magnesium but I am featuring white beans as the superhero here because they have the added benefit of calcium and calcium helps our blood vessels to contract and dilate what I do here this is a little trick I make a soup and instead of using cream to thicken it up I put in a can of white beans I puree it and it's delicious also make it great for veggies and finally pumpkin why so pumpkin is loaded with potassium remember pea for pumpkin pea for potassium flushes out that sodium and fluid and you can take canned pumpkin puree it's available year-round and you can make a nice pumpkin pudding or Matt what I've done here is it's a great replacement for oil in baked goods and it's a one to one ratio and this recipe is on the website little brownie bites with pumpkin and cocoa five great ingredients to help you manage your blood pressure joy as always thank you very much for these recipes and more check out our website today calm hello today fans thanks for checking out our youtube channel subscribe by clicking that button down there and click on any of the videos over here to watch the latest interviews show highlights and digital exclusives

Channel: TODAY

Views: 1,072,067

Keywords: Today Show, Today, Show, Todayshow, NBC, Matt Lauer, Savannah Guthrie, morning show, entertainment news, news, Al Roker, Natalie Morales, interview, Carson Daly, Willie Geist, Tamron Hall, Today show recipes, Today Show concert series, Kathie Lee and, Blood Pressure, High Blood Pressure, Heart Health, Heart Health Month, Lowering Blood Pressure, Managing Blood Pressure, Cocoa Powder, Spinach, Healthy Foods, High Salt Diet

Id: AlgVITZQmoI

Length: 4min 2sec (242 seconds)

Published: Thu Feb 02 2017