KoolEaze said:

i have very high blood pressure so besides the pills, my doctor advised me to go for light sweet snacks that are very low in calories to balance it out.

I could snack on some of those, but for breakfast I like Thai soups, 3 fried eggs on toast, or my usual, which is 3 or 4 Weetabix, with a sprinkling of raisins, various seeds and goji berries, drowning in soy milk.

Fauxie said:

I have yet to try Weetabix. They look well...not very appetizing to me.

Now give me some mini wheats and I am happy.
These are the bomb, not sure if you can get them where you are:


I cannot get them here.


Soy milk

shanti0608 said:

I haven't seen those. Might have them at Villa though. They have lots of imported cereals. I've made a note of them.

Weetabix is good. It's all about the milk though, since by itself it's healthy but dull. Throw in some seeds and some fruit and the whole combo just works for me. Can't take too long eating it or it turns to mush though. I have them with milk from the dairy back in the UK, and I started eating them with milk from the supermarket here a couple of weeks ago, but suddenly got really spotty. It was the only thing I'd changed about my diet so I replaced it with soy milk and my skin got better. I'm also taking wheatgrass tablets though, which may also have something to do with my skin improving so quickly, but I feel sure the milk was screwing me up.

Fauxie said:

I switched to soy milk because regular cows milk makes my skin break out worse and it makes me bloated.

I add flax seed and wheat germ to my Special K with soy milk.... YUM!

ZombieKitten said:

You have pastrami in Australia ? I have to go to gourmet markets to find that here as well as pay a gazillion dollars out of my toukas for 3 or 4 slices!

I'm mad now ....


and craving pastrami

Ottensen said:

in any supermarket

PricelessHo said:

That´s a serious medical condition. Have you ever tried beetroot juice, arginin supplements and eating watermelon skins ? Give it a try and tell me if it helped you.Grapefruit juice is also supposed to work miracles. The medicine you´re taking has very extreme side effects,right ?

KoolEaze said:

wow thanks a lot for that, will surly put those down on my grocery list.

as for the side effects, the worst would be the irregular heartbeats, they really freak me out, especially that it was mainly a heart condition that led me to discover i've hypertension.

there's also the chest pain, which i've noticed it oftens occurs when i stay focused on something for a long time. so that one can be sort of under control for me.

PricelessHo said:

You´re welcome. Just google "beetroot juice and high blood pressure" or "arginine / high blood pressure " and for the watermelon part, google "citrullin ( or l-citrullin ) and high blood pressure " . In some parts of Turkey, there´s an aphrodisiac which is made of pickled water melon skins ( the white part ) or water melon jam made of those white parts of the water melon. That stuff is proven to be good for your blood pressure because it relaxes your blood vessels. The thing is that not that many people really like water melon skins or beet root to begin with, and I´m talking about the greenish white part of watermelons, not the sweet and juicy flesh inside..you have to eat the white parts of it to benefit from it. And make sure you keep the beet root juice in your mouth for a while before you swallow it down.

I´m not making this up, you can research most of it. Of course garlic helps, too . But that is a bit smelly and not really recommended for everyday use because you ´d have to eat it raw.
[Edited 3/18/09 7:55am]

Of course there are also skeptics and you should listen to what your doctor says, I am not a doctor and can only tell you a little bit about natural remedies.
For instance, here´s what an expert says:


Can L-arginine supplements lower blood pressure?
- Scott / Illinois
Mayo Clinic hypertension specialist Sheldon Sheps, M.D., and colleagues answer select questions from readers.
Answer

In theory, taking L-arginine supplements for high blood pressure would seem to make sense. Here's why. A major cause of high blood pressure is stiffening of the arteries. Nitric oxide helps counteract this stiffening, and L-arginine is a source of nitric oxide. So theoretically, taking L-arginine should reduce blood pressure. Unfortunately, there's no evidence that this is true.

Talk to your doctor about high blood pressure treatment options. There are many proven treatments for high blood pressure, such as achieving and maintaining a healthy weight, increasing physical activity and reducing salt intake. If such lifestyle changes aren't enough, your doctor may prescribe medication.

If you have high blood pressure, talk to your doctor before starting any new herbal or nutritional supplements.





Then again, arginin CAN help you if you combine it with OPC and grapefruit juice or if you eat it in its l-citrullin form. The absorption takes much longer and it stays in your body for a period of up to 20 hours.
NO boosters are the latest fad in fitness and bodybuilding circles.NO stands for nitric oxide.

And here´s what a supporter of the arginine theory thinks about it:

http://www.metacafe.com/w..._benefits/

KoolEaze said:

another reason why i like this place. seriously cheers for all these great great inputs my friend

PricelessHo said:

Hey, you´re welcome. Here´s some more info :






Bringing blood pressure down naturally with watermelon

Hypertension or high blood pressure, as it is more commonly known, is regarded as a silent killer. It is a disease of the modern age. The fast pace of life and the mental and physical pressures caused by the increasingly industrialised and metropolitan environments have a role to play in the rise in blood pressure. The good news is that these risk factors can be reversed, in many cases, through physical activity and a healthy diet. Recent studies have revealed an important link between dietary calcium and potassium and hypertension. Researchers have found that people who take potassium and calcium rich diets have a low incidence of hypertension even if they do not control their salt-intake. The two essential nutrients help the body to get rid of excess sodium and are involved in important functions, which control the working of the vascular system. Potassium is found in abundance in fruits and vegetables and calcium in dairy products.

According to the Journal of the American Medical Association, reducing sodium intake has a limited effect on hypertensive people under the age of 45 and a minimal effect on people with normal blood pressure. Meanwhile, a recent clinical trial in the US found that a moderate sodium intake combined with a higher intake of potassium, calcium and magnesium (by eating more fruit, vegetables and low-fat dairy products), offers more significant benefits for blood pressure than sodium restriction alone. Potassium works in conjunction with sodium to regulate blood pressure. Good sources of potassium include many fruits, such as cantaloupe, bananas, kiwi-fruit, oranges, watermelon and dried apricots. Choose vegetables like potatoes, spinach, and zucchini. Magnesium, the anti-stress mineral, also works closely with sodium and potassium. Good sources of magnesium include: figs, lemons, grapefruit, yellow corn, whole grains, almonds, nuts, seeds, dark green vegetables and apples. Calcium and magnesium work together for good cardiovascular health. Good sources of calcium include: low-fat dairy products, soybeans, sardines, salmon, peanuts, walnuts, sunflower seeds, dried beans, and dark leafy green vegetables.

Other foods that may reduce blood pressure include omega-3 fats (found in oily fish, flaxseeds), garlic, and soluble fiber (found in apples, oat bran, dried beans and vegetables). Watermelon juice has also been named a novel source of the essential amino acid, arginine that is known to help to lower blood pressure as well, according to a new research. Arginine is a precursor for nitric oxide, which has been shown to lower blood pressure, reduce blood clotting and protect against myocardial infarction and strokes. Researchers from the ARS, Texas A&M University, the University of Nevada, and Oklahoma State University, have reported that blood arginine levels increased by 22 per cent after three weeks of drinking watermelon juice with every meal. The lead author of the study, Julie Collins in the journal Nutrition, said the amino acid from watermelon could be useful for people with elevated ammonia levels, arginine transport problems, or enhanced intestinal arginine breakdown, as is found in people with stress and infection.

The researchers recruited healthy volunteers (between 12 and 23 per intervention group) and assigned them to receive 0, 780, or 1560 grams of watermelon juice per day,providing a daily L-citrulline dose of 0, 1 or 2 grams. The interventions lasted three weeks and subjects were later crossed over after washout periods of two to four weeks. After the three weeks of intervention, Collins and co-workers report that fasting blood levels of arginine had increased by 11 and 22 per cent for the low- and high-dose juice interventions, respectively. Levels of ornithine, a product of arginine catabolism, also increased in the high-dose watermelon juice group by 18 per cent after three weeks. “Because the watermelon juice intervention was not continued longer than three weeks, it is not known if arginine levels plateau at three weeks or if there would have been further increases with prolonged administration,” stated the researchers. Previous studies with animals have reported that citrulline administration may be detrimental to levels of other amino acids, but no such results were observed in this human study, they said.

“In our study, we found plasma concentrations of all other amino acids were not affected by the low or high levels of watermelon juice consumption,” the researchers wrote. “These results indicate that the doses of citrulline intake from watermelon juice have no deleterious effects on whole-body amino acid balance in humans.” Based on there result, they concluded that since “citrulline from watermelon was effectively converted into arginine and offers a potential role for exploring the dietary effects of watermelon in regulating whole-body metabolism of energy substrates”, it can improve cardiovascular and immunologic functions, and prevent the ageing-associated increase in tissue oxidative stress. Watermelon, naturopathy for long had said is a valuable safeguard against high blood pressure. A substance extracted from watermelon seeds is said to have a definite action in dilating the blood vessels, which results in lowering the blood pressure. The seeds, dried and roasted, should be taken in liberal quantities.

Its powerful antioxidant content at the end of the day would have effectively prevented some forms of cancer and cardiovascular disease. According to research conducted at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, men who consumed a lycopene-rich diet were half as likely to suffer a heart attack as those who had little or no lycopene in their diets.

Source: tribune.com.ng

ok well i'm poor....so i do chocolate chip cookies with peanut butter....

shanti0608 said:

Weetabix are the bomb

MarySharon said:

Hmm I have not tried them yet. They look heavy and too filling for the morning. The Autumn Wheats are light and heavenly organic goodness.

I don't eat breakfast so I've started having muesli for lunch

ZombieKitten said:

No honestly, pastrami is a newly discovered specialty here served in gourmet markets. They place it at the deli counter next to all the foo-foo cured hams and other meats, garnished with doilies and all sorts of non-essential accoutrements . It's billed as "authentic New York Pastrami" although it tastes nothing of the sort, and it costs about 4 euro for 100 grams

ocean said:

I could eat muesli anytime