Sugar and High Blood Pressure
The Big Connection
Recently I was working with a client who has high blood pressure issues. I have been working with him for a while and we were able to get his H.B.P. to normal and he is off his prescription meds now. This all happened using food and plant based supplements. Recently I recommended a new plant/herb supplements to help with his heart. He started taking it for a month and said he thinks it raised his blood pressure. I was confused because this plant/herb is well known for helping to bring down high blood pressure and fantastic for your heart. I however did more research on this plant/herb and found no other reports of anyone having this issue of it raising the blood pressure.
Counseling Sessions - Heal your body with Food.
I went back to my client to discuss this. I again asked if he had changed anything else (I had asked him this when he told me his blood pressure had gone up). I finally asked are you eating any more sweets of drinking any fruit juices? He confessed that yes, he was eating chocolate chip cookies. (This was not surprising to me because I figured something had changed and it had nothing to do with the plant/herb that I suggested and that he had been taking.) I asked are they healthy cookies, not made with white sugar? His response was they were bought at a grocery store, so no they were not healthy. My response was, well that is the reason your blood pressure went up from the sugar. HIs response, I did not think it would raise my blood pressure.
I am always surprised when someone does not see the connection between their health issues and sugar. It seems so obvious to me, but then again I have been studying this for over 25 years. I have to take a moment to realize that it is ingrained in our culture that sugar is not that bad and a little sugar will not hurt you. I am here to tell you, yes a little sugar will hurt you. Plus we have been lead to believe that salt is the culprit when it comes to high blood pressure, when the truth is it is sugar that is the main culprit.
Did you know that back in the 1950’s the sugar industry paid off scientist to down play the detrimental role sugar has to our health? Yup, they paid them off to cover up the truth. And that is one of the reasons most people think it is salt and fat that lead to high blood pressure instead of sugar. You can read about it here:
Consuming too much sugar will inhibit the production of nitric oxide (N.O.) in blood vessels. N.O. helps blood vessels maintain flexibility. It helps the blood vessels expand, letting blood flow, without N.O. the blood vessels will narrow creating higher blood pressure.
Sucrose (white sugar) is a disaccharide composed of two monosaccharides, glucose and fructose. High sugar intake raises the insulin levels which in turn activates the sympathetic nervous system this leads to increase in blood pressure and heart rate.
High sugar intake damages the tissues and organs throughout your body, especially the inner lining of the blood vessels. When blood vessels become narrow from damage from eating sugar, the heart must pump harder, which increases the blood pressure.
There are two minerals that are important for the heart, calcium and magnesium. Calcium contracts the heart muscle. Magnesium relaxes the heart muscle. When you consume sugar it depletes these minerals in your body.
So, in conclusion, yes eating sugar can increase your blood pressure. Even if you are eating a relatively healthy, whole foods diet, and you have gotten the high blood pressure under control, you can not introduce sugar back into your diet. There are so many ways to eat desserts without the sugar. I have been teaching dessert recipes for 25 years that have no sugar and are wonderfully sweet without wrecking your health.
For healthy alternative to sugar, I came out with my sixth cookbook this year, Simply Healthy Scrumptious Desserts. My recipe of the month is Peach Black Raspberry Crisp, a wonderfully sweet, no sugar dessert from the cookbook.
The last cooking class of 2023!
Tempeh, Kale and Sauerkraut with a Pear Sauce
Wed. Dec. 14 - 6:30 to 7:30 PM (EST)
A Fancy Holiday Dish
Tempeh, high in protein and high in possibilities. The dish is a gourmet way to serve tempeh and vegetables topped with a carnalized pear sauce. It will make an elegant presentation on your holiday dinner table.
Love of the Upper Peninsula 2023 Calendar
Two of my passions in life are cooking and my love for the U.P. (what we in Michigan call the Upper Peninsula). Available now, makes a great Christmas gift! In my calendar I share pictures I have taken throughout the year from my trips to the U.P. And each month I write a 4 line poem about each place.
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It's sad, but most people just don't have the discipline. But we do learn from our mistakes hopefully. I know during the first five years I was macrobiotic three times on the hottest day in the summer I stopped by Steve's ice cream, just a few blocks from my apartment at the time, and got ice cream . Each time it has bad consequences with my health, and in 1983 I finally didn't even enjoy the taste . It was far to sweet for me to like it. So I never got it again.
Hopefully now your client will have learned the devastating effects of eating chocolate chip cookies.. yes and the devastating effects of trying to just be normal in the USA. Hopefully he'll never again have the desire for either.