High Blood Pressure Diet: Food Plan and Recommendations

By Craig Sorkin, DNP, APN
Medically reviewed checkmarkMedically reviewed
October 6, 2022

Like many other medical conditions, high blood pressure and diet go hand in hand. Not only does an unhealthy diet increase your risk of high blood pressure; eating the right foods (and limiting others) can decrease your chances of developing hypertension and the associated health risks. Depending on how advanced your high blood pressure is, your healthcare provider might recommend medication, lifestyle changes, or a combination of both to lower your blood pressure.

In this article, I’ll cover what high blood pressure is and how diet affects it. I’ll also go over the DASH diet, other dietary options, and when you should see a doctor for hypertension.

How Diet Affects Blood Pressure

As with many medical conditions, your diet can affect your blood pressure in a few ways. In general, being overweight or obesity increases your risk factor for hypertension. If your body has excess weight, it needs more blood to deliver oxygen to your tissues and organs.

As more blood flows through your arteries, the pressure on your artery walls increases. This can increase your risk of heart attack and stroke. 

Specific dietary practices can also lead to high blood pressure, so it’s important to pay attention to your diet if you have hypertension or you’re at risk for it.

  • Too much sodium: A high-sodium (salt) diet causes your body to retain fluid, which increases your blood pressure.
  • Not enough potassium: Potassium helps to keep sodium in your cells balanced, so if you don’t have enough of it, you could develop high blood pressure. Dehydration can also cause low potassium, and in turn, increase your blood pressure.
  • Too much cholesterol: Cholesterol, a fatty substance found in high-fat foods, can cause build up in your arteries, causing high blood pressure.
  • Heavy drinking: Excessive alcohol intake can increase your blood pressure, both when you drink and in the long-term. Alcohol increases the amount of a hormone called renin, which can cause your blood vessels to constrict. In turn, you can develop high blood pressure. Alcohol also causes fluid retention, which means more blood will flow through your arteries, leading to high blood pressure.

Manage high blood pressure online using K Health.

Get started

What is a DASH diet?

While an unhealthy diet can certainly contribute to high blood pressure, hypertension is often more manageable  in its early stages. Your healthcare provider may recommend lifestyle changes — like a more nutritious, heart-healthy diet — to improve your blood pressure and reduce your risk of medical outcomes like heart disease.

The DASH diet is one example of a diet that reduces the intake of unhealthy foods and emphasizes eating foods that boost your heart health and overall health.

How it works

DASH stands for “dietary approaches to stop hypertension.” Instead of calories, it focuses on nutrition. It’s a flexible, easy-to-follow way to decrease foods that could increase your blood pressure and increase foods that could reduce it.

The diet is low in sodium and saturated and trans fats and high in essential nutrients like potassium, calcium, magnesium, protein, and fiber. Along with encouraging a healthy diet, the DASH approach also encourages an overall heart-healthy lifestyle that includes physical exercise, a healthy weight, and healthy stress levels.

Studies show the DASH diet not only reduces high blood pressure; it can also reduce your risk of developing type 2 diabetes, obesity, heart attack, and stroke.

What to eat

Foods to focus on in the DASH diet include: 

  • Fruits
  • Vegetables
  • Whole grains
  • Low-fat dairy
  • Poultry
  • Fish 
  • Beans
  • Seeds and nuts
  • Vegetable oil

What to avoid

On the DASH diet, avoid or limit foods that could increase your blood pressure, such as:

  • Fatty meat (such as red meat)
  • Full-fat dairy 
  • Sugary foods and drinks 
  • Sodium (often found in pre-packaged and processed foods)
  • Alcohol

Foods to Eat with High Blood Pressure

To reduce your blood pressure, focus on eating foods low in saturated fat, total fat, and cholesterol. Plan your meals around eating plenty of vegetables, fruits, and lean proteins such as poultry and fish.

It is also good to incorporate whole grains, nuts, and low fat dairy products. 

Here are some guidelines for what to eat each day. 

Food groupDaily servingServing sizes 
Grains7-81 slice bread
½-1 cup cereal 
½ cup cooked rice, pasta, or cereal
Vegetables4-51 cup raw leafy vegetable
½ cooked vegetable
6 oz vegetable juice
Fruits4-51 medium fruit
¼ cup dried fruit
½ cup fresh, frozen, or canned fruit
6 oz fruit juice
Low fat or fat free dairy foods2-38 oz milk
1 cup yogurt
1 ½ oz cheese
Lean meats, poultry, and fish2 or less3 oz cooked lean meat
Nuts, seeds, and dry beans4-5 per week⅓ cup nuts
1 tablespoon seeds
½ cup cooked dry beans
Fats and oils2-31 teaspoon soft margarine
1 tablespoon low fat mayonnaise
2 tablespoons light salad dressing
1 teaspoon vegetable oil
Sweets5 per week1 tablespoon sugar
1 tablespoon jelly or jam½ oz jelly beans
8 oz lemonade

Foods to Avoid

If you’d rather not follow a specific dietary approach, paying attention to certain variables in your diet can help reduce your blood pressure (and boost your overall health). 

Avoid sodium (salt)

A diet high in sodium causes your body to retain water — and too much water retention puts pressure on your arteries, contributing to high blood pressure.

If you want to decrease your blood pressure, do your best to limit dietary salt.

Foods typically high in sodium include: 

  • Smoked or cured meats (such as bacon)
  • Frozen dinners 
  • Canned foods with added salt (including vegetables)
  • Salted nuts 
  • Processed cheese
  • Prepackaged rice, pasta, and stuffing 
  • Bottled salad dressings and other marinades

In a low-sodium diet, you should also avoid adding excessive table salt to food at home. It can help to enhance your food’s flavor with more herbs and spices that don’t contain excess salt.

Aim for 2,300 mg or less of sodium each day.

Manage high blood pressure online using K Health.

Get started

Avoid added sugar

Sugar can contribute to weight gain, which is a known risk factor for high blood pressure and other metabolic diseases.

If you’re at risk for high blood pressure or you already have it, try to cut down on: 

  • Desserts
  • Sugar-sweetened beverages
  • Cooking with sweeteners, including honey and maple syrup
  • Alcohol 

The American Heart Association recommends women limit sugar intake to six teaspoons per day, while men should stick with nine teaspoons per day or less.

Focus instead on natural sugars from fruits and vegetables which have heart-healthy properties.

Avoid trans fats

Artificial fats called trans fats can contribute to hypertension by increasing cholesterol levels.

If you have high blood pressure, it’s best to limit foods such as: 

  • Prepackaged baked goods
  • Shortening
  • Microwave popcorn 
  • Frozen pizza
  • Refrigerated biscuits and rolls 
  • Fried foods
  • Stick margarine 
  • Non-dairy coffee creamer

Keep in mind that not all fats are harmful. Your body needs unsaturated fats, found in nuts, seeds, avocados, and fish. Saturated and trans fats are more damaging, without nutritional benefits.

In general, stick with fats that aren’t processed or paired with sugar or sodium.

When to See a Medical Provider

To maintain healthy blood pressure levels, do your best to keep up with your routine primary care visits. That way, your healthcare provider can treat your blood pressure (or recommend lifestyle changes) before it gets too high.

In general, your risk of heart disease and other medical conditions is higher the longer you have severe, untreated hypertension. 

If you currently have a diagnosis of hypertension, check in with your healthcare provider if you experience high blood pressure readings that aren’t responding to treatment.

While high blood pressure isn’t an emergency on its own, untreated blood pressure can result in a hypertensive crisis, a severe increase in blood pressure that can result in organ damage. 

Because high blood pressure is also linked with an increased risk of heart attack, call a healthcare provider or go to the emergency department if you experience any of the below symptoms: 

How K Health Can Help

Did you know you can get affordable virtual primary care with K Health?

Check your symptoms, explore conditions and treatments, and if needed, text with a healthcare provider in minutes. 

K Health’s AI-powered app is based on 20 years of clinical data.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the simplest way to reduce my sodium intake?
There are many ways to reduce your sodium intake. Along with cutting back on the salt you add to the food you make, pay attention to the amount of sodium in processed food. Packaged foods like frozen pizza or canned soup often contain high sodium levels, and often, fast food or food from restaurants has extra salt.
What foods are best for high blood pressure?
Heart-healthy foods are generally low in sodium, sugar, cholesterol, and saturated fats. Aim to incorporate more vegetables and fruits in your diet, and focus on whole grains, low-fat dairy, and lean protein like fish or poultry. Too much fast food, sugary food, processed food, or alcohol can have the opposite effect, increasing your risk of high blood pressure.
Can diet be used to treat hypertension without medication?
Diet is an important part of maintaining healthy blood pressure levels, but every case of hypertension is different. If you’re at risk for hypertension, your health care provider may suggest you follow a heart-healthy diet like the DASH diet. Depending on how advanced your high blood pressure is, it may also be helpful to take medication.
K Health articles are all written and reviewed by MDs, PhDs, NPs, or PharmDs and are for informational purposes only. This information does not constitute and should not be relied on for professional medical advice. Always talk to your doctor about the risks and benefits of any treatment.

K Health has strict sourcing guidelines and relies on peer-reviewed studies, academic research institutions, and medical associations. We avoid using tertiary references.

Craig Sorkin, DNP, APN

Craig Sorkin, DNP, APN is a board certified Family Nurse Practitioner with over 15 years experience. He received his Undergraduate and Graduate degrees from William Paterson University and his doctoral degree from Drexel University. He has spent his career working in the Emergency Room and Primary Care. The last 6 years of his career have been dedicated to the field of digital medicine. He has created departments geared towards this specialized practice as well as written blogs and a book about the topic.

Close button

Manage high blood pressure with K Health. Get medications and talk to a doctor from home.

Start Now