Blood pressure

[Tinker2015]

I recently went back on medication for raised blood pressure can I ask if everyone on medication for blood pressure have you given up eating bread as there is a lot of it in. On reading on Google says it’s hard to find bread with low salt best to put in between the bread low salt filling or whatever.

[gilreid1]

Best thing to do is ditch Dr Google. And seek advice from a real GP or trained dietitian

[Chappychap]

I had high blood pressure. I managed to get it back into the safe zone, and have kept it there for the past four years.

Three initiatives did the job, and each seemed to contribute equally,

1. Medication

2. Exercise and diet. I can't separate the two, but I lost about two stones and I exercise at or beyond the NHS recommendation of 150 minutes per week. If I exercise in the morning my afternoon blood pressure will generally be noticeably below my normal levels.

3. Reduced salt diet. I'm normally well below the NHS guidelines of 2,400mg of sodium and 6,000mg salt per day.

Couple of things I've discovered. You are right, bread contains quite a bit of salt. My home baked sourdough loaves have about 5,000mg of salt in them. So, delicious as they are, they're a bit of a treat say once a month or so, and it's never more than one slice per day.

You can bake bread without salt but it's a really acquired taste. For historic reasons the traditional bread of Florence has no salt, even coming from my low salt diet it still tastes like cotton wool!

I've found that it's almost impossible to achieve a low salt/sodium diet if you eat processed or packaged food. Virtually anything in a packet, even sweet items, will upset low salt plans. Eating out is another problem, from fast food to michelin starred restaurants, they're all very generous with their seasoning.

Bottom line is that it's not easy, I can appreciate just how damaging our 21st century life style really is, and why heart disease is the number one killer and we're facing an obesity crisis.

However, if you're determined and disciplined it is still possible to extract yourself from this vicious spiral. It requires a lot of effort and sacrificing things that we enjoy, but that's the choice we all face on this forum.

Good luck!

[Tinker2015 in reply to Chappychap]

Thankyou for your comment I am only going to have bread once a week rest of days unsalted rice cakes

[Hidden]

How much bread do you normally eat? I have been taking pills for blood pressure for years and enjoy eating bread daily and certainly wouldn't stop. BUT I eat bread in moderation (like other foods), use salt in cooking sparingly, rarely use the salt cellar, AND, importantly, don't eat a lot of supermarket pre-prepared food and rarely have take-aways.

[sampaloc0624]

Im taking 2 slices of whole wheat bread only per day, no filling.

[Lupaal]

My husband makes our bread in a breadmaking, he inly puts in a fraction of the salt and sugar that the recipe advises. We do eat shop bread as well sometimes but I never add salt to cooking or put it on food. After a while you become used to less salt and it tastes horrible if you eat salty food.

[Wooodsie]

Try full grain bread, it does have salt, but the grains are a good way of telling yourself it is healthy. I used to only be able to eat white sliced, but now I'm used to it, it tastes better. Aldi or Lidl do some really good high grain bread. I also only use low salt, and don't put any in my cooking. Again, this took some getting used to, but now it tastes so much better. Never eat processed foods.

[Carercmb]

Bread shouldn’t be a problem unless your eating excess amounts.It takes time for the medication and lifestyle changes to make a difference , work with your health team and you will get there, it’s a great day when you can finally stop checking your BP every five minutes.Good luck.

[Qualipop]

You could always buy a bread maker and make your own

[PecanSandie]

I make my own bread, both regular and sourdough, and salt is really necessary to help retard the rise of the dough. However you can control how much you add to the bread. I make pullman loaves for sandwiches which have about a tsp of salt per loaf. I probably get about 18 slices out of it. Using Diamond Crystal salt which is lower sodium salt, I figure that each slice has about 62mgs of salt which is not too bad.