每週營養資訊 - 哪些食物能降低血壓?

哪些食物能降低血壓?身邊不少人會問我這條問題 -「什麼食物才能降血壓」? 大部分人都希望有些食物能奇妙地治療不同的疾病。可是，世界上並沒有單一食物能奇妙地替人降血壓、降膽固醇、血糖或是減肥!

舉例說，你聽說黑巧克力可以幫助降低血壓，你就開始每天進食。但是，你卻仍然常常進食香腸、臘肉等加工食物，結果是你所加入的巧克力並不能發揮降低血壓的作用，反而可能因為攝取過多的熱量而令到你的肚子變得更肥大。所以，我們是用一套的方法來降低血壓，並不是單一的食物。
雖然如此，有研究發現一些食物如果吃得恰當，確實是有助心血管健康，例如：

• 橘子 - 橘子裡的水溶性纖維，能阻止膽固醇的吸收，而橘子的鉀質能平衡鹽（鈉），有助於控制血壓。
• 黑巧克力 - 可可含有豐富的抗氧化劑，稱「黃烷醇」，能增加血管的彈性。研究發現，飲用大量經過微加工的可可能有助降低血壓。可是，我們不能確定每塊巧克力中含有多少「黃烷醇」，因為黃烷醇會在生產巧克存過程會被破壞。每100克含510千卡。最好選含70%可可粉的。
• 扁豆 - 乾豆類含有高纖維，高葉酸，高鎂質和高鉀質，都是有益心臟健康的營養素。一個國際研究發現，扁豆能減低82%心臟疾病死亡的風險。因此，多利用扁豆來代替肉類。

想學習如何制訂適合的營養減肥計劃嗎?請致電626-283-5128與吳希素註冊營養師預約免費體重分析及訂立減重目標，或電郵至hazel@smarteater.net

This is one of the most popular question that I get asked a lot. People like to look for miracle foods that can help to treat diseases. Unfortunately, there's no one food alone that can help to deal with a situation. For example, you heard that chocolate can help with lowering blood pressure, so you add chocolate to your diet. However, you did not remove the sausage, bacon and other processed meat from your meals. As a result, just by adding the chocolate, you will not see a lower blood pressure, but you might see a bigger belly if you're overeating the chocolate. What I want to say is, lowering blood pressure (like lowering cholesterol or blood sugar) comes with a package, not with a single food.

However, there are foods that will help with improving blood pressure and heart health, if you're using them with a sensible meal plan:

• Oranges - Soluble fiber in the pulps help to block cholesterol absorption and the potassium in oranges helps counter balance salt (sodium) which help keeping blood pressure under control.
• Dark chocolate - cocoa is rich in antioxidants called flavanols, which improve blood vessel flexibility. This is based on a study about the Kuna Indians who drink large quantities of miniumally processed cocoa have lower blood pressure. However, there's no guarantee on how much of flavanols that we can get from chocolates since different processing methods can destroy them. Get the 70%Cocoa dark chocolate. Each 100g dark chocolate has 510 kcal.
• Lentils - dried beans are high in fiber, folate, magnesium and potassium which are all the heart-healthy nutrients. There's one international study shows that lentils were associated with an 82% reduction in the risk of death from heart disease. So, use Lentils as a lean protein sources to replace meats a couple times a week.