A heart-healthy diet can lower your blood pressure. Lowering your intake of salt and alcohol can lower your blood pressure, too. A heart-healthy diet can help you lower your top blood pressure number (systolic) by about 11 mm Hg. This can take 6 or more months. Maintaining these healthy eating habits should be a lifelong goal.

Heart-healthy diets are rich in:

  • Fruits
  • Vegetables
  • Whole grains
  • Low-fat dairy
  • Protein from fish, poultry, beans, and nuts

Heart-healthy diets limit:

  • Saturated and total fats, including fatty meats, full-fat dairy products, and tropical oils such as coconut
  • Salt
  • Sweets and sugar-sweetened drinks
  • Alcohol

An example of a heart-healthy diet is the DASH (Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension) diet. These websites have details about the DASH diet.

Healthy eating can help lower your blood pressure. But these changes don’t happen overnight. It can take 6 months or more to see results. Your doctor can help you make a plan and stick to it.

Healthy eating keeps your heart healthy and beating!