Reduce the risk of high blood pressure by cutting one food group

High blood pressure is a serious health problem that can lead to life-threatening illnesses like heart attacks and strokes. It can also increase your risk of serious conditions like kidney disease and vascular dementia. But despite how potentially devastating it is, high blood pressure actually presents very few early symptoms, and you may well have it without knowing. So it's very important to do what you can to minimise your risk of developing high blood pressure, which is also known as hypertension. There are some risk factors you can't really do anything about because they involve your age, ethnicity and family history. But there are some that are definitely within your control. High blood pressure is when the force of blood pushing against the walls of your blood vessels is too high. If blood pressure stays high for too long, it can damage the walls of blood vessels, causing tears. To fix these, the body sends special cells that stick to the site, explains the American Heart Association. Over time, substances, such as cholesterol and fats may also build up at these damaged spots. As these build up, the inside of the arteries become narrower and this blocks the flow of blood (and causes the heart to work harder), further increasing blood pressure and potentially causing heart failure, heart attack, stroke and even kidney failure, reports Surrey Live . High blood pressure does not usually cause any symptoms, so many people have it without realising it. In fact, the only way to find out for sure if you have high blood pressure is to get your blood pressure checked, usually at your doctor's surgery or at a pharmacy, when a cuff is usually wrapped around your upper arm and filled with air until it feels tight. However, high blood pressure can on rare occasions cause symptoms which might be noticeable. They include: Headaches Vision changes Chest pain Shortness of breath Dizziness or vertigo Nosebleeds Fatigue or confusion Heart palpitations Facial flushing or blood spots in eyes There are many different things that can cause high blood pressure. These are the main ones: your age — you are more likely to get high blood pressure the older you get) having close relatives with high blood pressure your ethnicity — you're at higher risk if you have a Black African, Black Caribbean or South Asian ethnic background smoking drinking alcohol being overweight feeling stressed over a long period an unhealthy diet You can be prescribed medicine for high blood pressure by a doctor. Healthy lifestyle changes can also help lower your blood pressure, says the NHS . Key things you can do are: Have a healthy, balanced diet that includes plenty of fruits, vegetables and whole grains Do not eat too much salt - avoid salty food (lots of ultra-processed food is high in salt) or adding too much salt to your meals Exercise regularly – aim to do at least 150 minutes of exercise a week Lose weight if you're overweight Don't drink too much alcohol – avoid drinking more than 14 alcohol units a week on a regular basis Don't drink too much caffeine Don't smoke One diet in particular can help prevent or alleviate high blood pressure. The DASH diet stands for Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension and was specifically designed with blood pressure in mind. It encourages an increased intake of fibre and essential minerals like calcium, potassium, and magnesium. At the same time, it aims to reduce sodium and unhealthy fats in one's diet. It has been called the world's "second healthiest diet". You will be able to find lots of lists of foods that are bad for your blood pressure. But the one type of food that most experts list first is: salty foods. Most of the salt we eat comes already in our food, says the British Heart Foundation, even in things we don't think of as salty, like breakfast cereals. Ultra-processed foods, like salty snacks and supermarket-ready pizzas, are also high in salt. Another food high in salt is processed meat, which is known to be cancer-causing. Other foods that can be bad for blood pressure are sugary and fatty foods. They do not, in fact, directly affect blood pressure but these are generally high-calorie foods - eating too much of them can lead to weight gain, which is linked to raised blood pressure. Alcohol is also bad for blood pressure and, for some people, so is excess caffeine. A moderate intake of 4-5 cups of coffee a day should not be a problem for most people, says the BHF, but some people are more sensitive to caffeine than others and drinking too much caffeine may affect blood pressure. Here's a more detailed list of foods that can be bad for your blood pressure: salty foods (like pizza, burgers, processed meats sugary foods (like pre-made processed desserts, granola bars, cereals, fizzy drinks, fruit juices and energy drinks) red meat (like beef, lamb and venison) alcohol (this includes all alchol) saturated fats (like pre-made desserts, processed meats like sausages and bacon, cooking fats like butter) ultra-processed foods The World Health Organisation says processed meat refers to "meat that has been transformed through salting, curing, fermentation, smoking, or other processes to enhance flavour or improve preservation". It says most processed meats contain pork or beef, but processed meats may also contain other red meats, poultry, offal, or meat by-products such as blood and gives the following examples of processed meat: hot dogs (frankfurters) ham sausages corned beef biltong or beef jerky canned meat meat-based preparations and sauces.