by Pamela Kay

Created on: June 01, 2009   Last Updated: May 18, 2010

Foods that naturally reduce high blood pressure aren't expensive specialty foods, but common everyday foods found in all grocery stores. Keep your blood pressure at a healthy level and escape the silent killer that affects one in three people and claims more lives than any other disease, except cancer, by including these foods in your diet, which have other benefits as well.

*Oats Cereal

Oats cereal and breads are inexpensive foods packed with fiber, calcium, potassium, magnesium, B complex and inositol, which are important for maintaining blood cholesterol levels. All of these work to keep the digestive system healthy, prevent colon cancer, lower blood pressure and cholesterol. Oats also reduce anxiety and stress levels, which raise blood pressure.

*Celery

Because celery, used for centuries in Oriental folk medicine, is high in sodium, it is often overlooked when it comes to heart health. It is again in the picture for lowering high blood pressure because it contains an oil called 3-n-butyl phthalide, which causes the muscles that regulate blood pressure to relax and there by improve blood flow. Celery is also a natural diuretic and has no harmful side effects.

*Spinach

Spinach is rich in both potassium, which helps keep sodium levels down and folate, which helps prevent high blood pressure from ever developing. Spinach and broccoli are the only two vegetables that contain Co-enzyme Q10, which is responsible for muscle strength and the heart is one big muscle that pumps blood.

*Sunflower Seeds

Sunflower seeds naturally contain phytosterols, which reduces the absorption of dietary cholesterol and thereby lowers the LDL or low-density lipoprotein in the bloodstream, which in turn prevents plaque from forming on artery walls and reducing blood flow.

*Potatoes

Potatoes are a great source of fiber and potassium, which is used to regulate the water your body retains from foods and beverages. If the body holds too much water, it causes the blood pressure to rise. Eating too much sodium can cause this but potassium acts as a diuretic and rids the body of the sodium.

*Bananas

Bananas are rich in potassium and fiber, both of which help to lower blood pressure. Recent studies suggest that eating one banana a day should keep your blood pressure at a healthy level.

*Garlic/Onions

Eating garlic and onions on a daily basis can lower blood pressure from two to seven percent and that can mean the difference in having a stroke or not. The reason garlic and onions

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