Lower Your Blood Pressure

subtitled: A 21 Day DASH Diet Meal Plan to Decrease Blood Pressure Naturally 

by Jennifer Koslo, PhD, RD, CSSD

Scott County Library paperback 160 pages

Published: 2017

Genre: Non-fiction, cookbook, health

I feel kind of bad that I've had this from the library for a few months . . . and really only spent time in the first 31 pages. When it came right down to it, I wasn't really interested in trying the recipes and making new foods. Now if someone else were shopping, cooking, and cleaning up, I'd be all over this! (Except maybe the Tofu Scramble . . . )

The introductory info was really good. I tagged the part on medications used to treat hypertension. It bugs me that I don't really understand the medicines I'm on very well. ACE Inhibitors (like lisinopril) "help the body produce less angiotensin, which helps the blood vessels relax and open up, which in turn lowers blood pressure." Possible side effects include "skin rash, loss of taste, and dry hacking cough." 

Combined alpha- and beta- blockers (like carvedilol) "may be prescribed for outpatient high-blood-pressure use if the patient is at risk for heart failure." "Possible side effects include a drop in blood pressure upon standing." These are the two I take now. I don't want to take medicine, but I also don't want to have any more strokes.

Here are some of the DASH diet tips:

• Make sure you have plenty of color on your plate (50% of each meal's plate should be vegetables and fruit)
• Go for whole grain
• Dine on dairy (low fat yogurt, string cheese, low fat milk)
  
• Eat more plant-based meals (Consider having a meatless meal each week.)
• Cook without salt and don't add salt to your foods at the table. (Start using the herbs and spices hiding in the back of your pantry.)
• Buy fewer prepared and processed foods.

Page 17 "Set Realistic Goals" - "TO keep motivation high, be certain to set realistic goals for yourself as you transition to the DASH diet. Reward, don't punish, and focus on each positive change you make rather than on the occasional slip-up. There are bound to be challenges along the way, so focus on the big picture and not the minutia - slow and steady wins the race. It takes time to learn new eating habits that will last the rest of your life."

The Heart Healthy Cookbook for Two

by Jennifer Koslo
Scott County Library
(Subtitled: 125 Perfectly Portioned Low Sodium, Low Fat Recipes)

I won't say much about this, but want to be able to "find" it again so include it on my reading blog.

I got this because I want to curb my high blood pressure without medicine. It is definitely different to cook for just two people (who are aging and eat less) than it was to plan and cook meals for a family of five (three of whom were teen boys!). Even though it's been just the two of us for a while, we're still changing our household habits.

I loved the intro material and her writing style. I looked through some of the recipes, but haven't tried any yet (and have already renewed the book twice). I looked for stir fry with rice. This is something I love to eat and it can be healthy if you don't add too much salt. That recipe was fine, but I didn't have all the ingredients. Then I saw that many of the recipes in this book have added salt! Only a little bit of salt, but still! I know that one of the huge health benefits of preparing your own food is limiting the salt. Avoid processed foods, add other seasonings instead of salt, etc. Time for this to go back to the library.