Despite the fact he is young (27), in a healthy weight range, and is not sedentary, his blood pressure has skyrocked. His family as a big history of high blood pressure; nearly everybody on both sides has to be medicated for it at some point in their lives. He knew this, but had never really thought about it, as his other risk factors were low. Who knew that his genes would flip the on switch before he turned 30?
While he is willing to go on medication if he must, he did ask our doctor if he could try alternative methods
first. She has given him a month to try to sort it out with diet and exercise. If she is not impressed with his numbers by that time, he will have to try medication. She sent him away with an armload of pamphlets and advice.Since I do the majority of the cooking and meal planning in the house, a lot of the paying attention to what is in our food will fall to me. When he first went over what was in the pamphlets, I thought that there was not much we were going to be able to change when it came to what we cook at home. But as I delved deeper, I realized that there are many smaller changes that we can make, and those changes may not be cheap.
Of course, his health is more important than saving money, but we *are* still on a budget. I'm eager to see how this changes ourgrocery bill
. Since avoiding salt is paramount for controlling blood pressure, we will be backing off of our biggest vice of eating out. I'm also going to have to pay a lot more attention to labels- much like sugar, salt is hidden in a lot of foods. Will the money we save by eating at home more balance out the salmon, flax seeds, and fresh produce I will be buying instead? Time will tell! I'll update as we continue this journey.Inquiring minds want to know- Have you ever had to change how you eat for health reasons? How did this affect your budget? Did you have to spend as much as you expected? Did it offset other costs? (ie: not eating out as much, not having to take medication, etc?) Pop me an e-mail at Frugal.Homemaker.Plus (at) gmail (dot) com or leave a comment!
14 comments:
Hi there!
So sorry to hear about your husband's blood pressure troubles. Esp. since he is so young!
My husband struggles with this too, although he is older. We found a few natural food things that have helped keep it lower.
When we first got married, I did a google search of natural remedies and found that bananas and celery help. (Can't recall all the reasons why, but I think the bananas work because the high level of potassium works to balance any salt he eats.
Anyway, several times a week he eats a few stalks of fresh celery. I also serve him several bananas each week. (We also don't use many prepared items due to salt content and we don't add salt to our food). My husband's blood pressure is lower and he does feel better since he's been eating better.
Take Care,
Trixie
I'm very sorry to hear about your husband's diagnosis.
My husband has kidney disease, which in turn causes some degree of high blood pressure. Steven is on medication for it, but that's mostly because high blood pressure (even though it's not very high at all) slams the kidneys pretty hard.
His nephrologist hasn't had him change his diet, but I do cook a lot more vegetarian these days. I don't cook beef very often, as beef is the hardest of the animal proteins for the kidneys to process. Also, Steven has taken to peppering his food rather than salting it.
Then, of course, there are my migraine triggers in food form...
After my child was born 2 years ago I suffered from congestive heart failure. This led to a huge change in how I cook. We now use unsalted butter (same price as salted) and low sodium everything. I still stick to the budget by doing a few of the following things.
I don't buy canned beans anymore unless they are low sodium. Check out the "mexican" section of your local grocery store for GOYA beans. They taste the best and have next to no sodium. Also-they run less than $1/can. OR you could just use bagged beans, soak them, and then cook them.
If I do eat something that is pre-packaged such as flavored rice then I pair with something such as a salad or baked chicken to offset the sodium.
There are now more reduced sodium foods than when I started 2 years ago. Low sodium soup, canned tomoatoes, veggies, crackers, etc. Also...frozen veggies will be your friend.
It hasn't been that hard to change my diet and has been extremely satisfying. I assume that he will be allowed between 1500 and 3000 mg of sodium per day. This will lead you to eat less convenience food and actually make most of your own food.
I have a good friend who's barely 25 and healthy in most other ways but has struggled with high blood pressure. She found that upper cervical chiropractic care made a HUGE difference for her and she's completely off meds (which weren't working very well anyway). They did a piece on is on Good Morning America a while back (it's probably on their website)about a study that shows upper cervical care to be as effective as taking two blood pressure meds. You can just google Upper Cervical Care, too. I'm a huge believer for other reasons as well. Hope you can find what works for you and your budget.
I highly recommend the website westonaprice.org. They are all about nutritionally-dense foods prepared in natural, traditional ways (i.e. fermenting, soaking, spouting, etc.) A close friend's daughter has some severe allergies (not the same as blood pressure, I know) which they are able to keep under control by eating this way. It *can* be a frugal way of life, but it's also easy to get carried away and shop at Whole Foods too much. I'm sure you can find your own balance. Some good articles on blood pressure at their site include: http://www.westonaprice.org/moderndiseases/bpdrugs.html
and: http://www.westonaprice.org/askdoctor/high-bloodpressure.html
Yes, I understand completely were you are coming fromon changing the diet for health issues. I feel for you and your husband and navigating this change in your life. My husband is diabetic, with High Bllod Pressure, Heart Disease. I was diagnosed with Celiac Disease 2 years ago. We try not to eat out, except for business. I buy whole foods, some bulk foods, no processed foods, no sodas or junk food. At first our budget did go up to accomdate our needs, but the more I got used to what we could eat, I was able to get it fairly close to our previous budget. We gave up some things that we thought were important to us such as -weekly movie night out, with dinner -whole family, and came up with better solutions - a DVD and dinner at home. Less stress, more time together, healther meal, less money. A Win-Win instead of depriving ourselves. Good Luck on your journey!
Look for info online of the DASH Diet (Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension). This is well-researched way of eating to lower blood pressure.
Other hints: Frozen veggies are cheap and low in sodium. Start adding them to everything!
I just Googled DASH Diet. Unfortunately, you get a lot of less reputable hits before you get to the "real" information. I'd suggest starting here: http://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/public/heart/hbp/dash/new_dash.pdf
Hypertension can be controlled with diet. However, most of docs don't receive any specialized training in nutrition. If your husband is serious about controlling his BP through diet, ask the MD for a referral to a registered dietitian (RD) for outpatient counseling. Good luck and good eating!
I have had to change my diet recently. I have PCOS, which while it manifests as infertility and miscarriages, is actually a sort of pre-pre-diabetes. 60 percent of people with PCOS end up diabetic by age 50, plus hypertension, stroke and other concerns are related. It happens because your body doesn't deal with glucose/insulin normally.
We've switched to a lower-carb diet - we figure it will likely help my husband, who has a history of elevated triglycerides too. The most expensive thing has been buying pricier convenience food for crazy times like this last week (Atkins bars instead of granola bars). We have also reduced our eating out, which is a help. I'm having to re-think our usual menus, but maybe that's not a bad thing. It has been fun trying new recipes, and we can definitely feel the difference - especially me.
Good luck!
Jennifer
My DH has had high blood pressure since his mid twenties, we have had doctors who said diet would not matter because of his genetics, others who said watch salt and a variety of different treatments. The thing that seemed to actually help him the most was a daily bowl of oatmeal. He does not always find it easy to stick with though.
I recommend looking into the Zone Diet by Dr. Barry Sears. It is a balance of 40 30 30 diet of protein, carbs and fats - all the good stuff. Avoid all processed foods (except for special occasions) and eat lean protein, good fats such as olive oil, almonds, guacamole, etc. and only good carbs - fruits, veggies, legumes and brown rice. You can find his books at the library and perhaps even a cookbook or two. Good luck and God bless you.
Pamela
Hi Catherine,
Sorry you're facing this, but it looks like you're a fighter, so you're ready to go! My husband didn't know any of this, so spent his 44th birthday in hospital recovering from a triple coronary bipass. We were already pretty healthy eaters, but my blog, www.xanga.com/iloveobento and a business www.ILoveObento.com were both born from this! Worth mentioning, it is very difficult to transition kids over to healthier eating, no matter how fabulous you are in the kitchen, so I resorted to bento creations. Works somewhat on hubby too.
All the best to you,
Sheri
My mom was told her blood pressure was too high and they did suggest daily oatmeal, the kind you have to cook not the instant. I think Cream of Wheat might also be good for high blood pressure, but I'm not sure on that. If he gets bored with the oatmeal he can always add fruit or cinnamon, or maybe even a little real maple syrup.
We are currently working on cutting out the high fructose corn syrup in our diets, since it isn't good for you. Also been trying to cut out foods that contain dyes.
Lisette
http://couponqueenofcorning.blogspot.com/
budget eating and cheap eating are totally different. why would you feed anyone you love utter processed crap?
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