Nutrition Strategies that Sink Your Risk for a Stroke

©All articles are copyright of Dr. Susan Mitchell and Practicalories, Inc. and cannot be reprinted or used without permission. To obtain permission, please contact Dr. Mitchell.

Did you know that 80% of the risk for a stroke is due to high blood pressure? A stroke is similar to a heart attack but it occurs in your brain. Studies suggest that when you lower your blood pressure, you cut the risk for stroke by about 40%.

As you get older, your blood pressure begins to go up. In the US, roughly two thirds of Americans over 65 have high blood pressure aka hypertension. I'm talking about a blood pressure reading of 140/90 or higher. Normal blood pressure is 120/80 or lower. The upper number is referred to as the systolic pressure and the lower number is called the diastolic pressure.

There are many strategies for lowering blood pressure but my focus today is on those dealing with nutrition. Let's get specific so grab your pen.

1. Push up the number of potassium-rich foods you eat every day. The mineral potassium lowers stroke risk. Where do you find potassium in food? The top sources are fruits and vegetables along with a few other foods that might surprise you. Some good sources of potassium, and by no means is this a complete list, include a baked potato with skin, pasta sauce, Edamame (soybeans), sweet potato, bananas, spinach, apricots, papayas, watermelon, and grapes. So pump up your intake of fruits and veggies to eight or more servings a day. Here are a few potassium-rich foods that might surprise you: milk, halibut and tuna (both cooked although canned tuna has potassium, it's contains less) and great northern beans.
2. Speaking of halibut and tuna, try to eat fish twice a week. Many studies find that people who eat fish regularly have a lower stroke risk. Although the exact mechanism of action is not known, one thought is that the omega-3s in fish help bring down triglyceride levels, reduce clotting and reduce inflammation, all of which are tied to strokes.
3. Slash sodium in your diet. The salt shaker is not where all the salt and sodium come from. It's from processed foods and restaurant foods. You don't necessarily taste the salt or sodium so taste isn't a good guide. Just as an FYI, salt is sodium chloride but there are many other forms of sodium in processed and restaurant foods and they ALL count and add up. Let me give you an example. French fries, which you think would be high in sodium because the salt is on the outside, may average about 300 milligrams. Think of 2500-3000 milligrams of sodium as a goal for a day. But get this, many fast food sandwiches contain 1000-2000 milligrams of sodium, almost your entire number for the day and you probably won't even taste it. Unless you check out the nutritionals for the places you eat, you will not know the exact sodium numbers but you can guess that they will be high. So factor these foods into your diet. If you're eating high sodium foods at one meal, aim to really cut it at the others. You know my motto: read labels. Check out the nutritional facts of your favorite restaurant and fast foods and buy lower sodium products when they are available. Aim for less processed foods as well.
4. Choose more low fat dairy items such as milk, yogurt, frozen yogurt, low fat cheese and low fat ice cream. A lower risk for stroke is tied to the consumption of more calcium and Vitamin D, both of which seem to be protective. Remember, it's the low fat dairy products not the whole fat dairy products that have the beneficial effect on blood pressure. The saturated fat in the whole fat dairy offsets the positive effects of the vitamins and minerals.