What exactly is healthy food and enough exercise?

“Eat healthy food and exercise” is a health mantra everyone keeps repeating. If you’re already healthy, it’s a great way to keep that way. Following a healthy lifestyle becomes even more important if you have a non-communicable disease linked to lifestyle, like high blood pressure (hypertension).

You can develop hypertension slowly if you eat the wrong foods (especially too much salt), smoke, are overstressed, don’t exercise enough or are overweight. Your genetics also influence your risk of developing high blood pressure.

Eat for better blood pressure

• Start slowly adding less salt to your food during cooking and at the table. Instead, flavour food with fresh and dried herbs and salt-free spices, garlic, vinegar or citrus juice and zest.
• Limit salty foods such as packet soups, stock cubes, gravy, cheese, many breakfast cereals, bread, salty snacks, processed meat and fast food.
• Shop smarter and read food labels to see how much sodium (salt) and fats the products contain. Try to buy minimally processed whole foods.
• Replace salty snacks with fresh fruit or unsalted nuts and seeds.
• Eat five portions of vegetables a day. Add a side salad, snack on raw, sliced vegetables, and add more vegetables into existing recipes (like a spinach and mushroom omelette, wraps or sandwiches with grated carrot, beetroot and cucumber, pasta sauces with pureed baby marrows and butternut).
• Swop out sugary desserts for fresh fruit.
• Add beans, chickpeas, and lentils to your favourite meals. Rinse canned legumes before using them to remove excess salt.
• Use healthy fats such as avocado or salt-free nut butters as a spread instead of mayonnaise, butter or margarine, cook with olive or canola oil and add unsalted seeds and nuts to a salad or a bowl of oats porridge, or have as a snack.
• Calcium helps to regulate blood pressure. Incorporate more unsweetened milk and plain yoghurt into your diet. Make dairy smoothies, add milk to your porridge, or have yoghurt as a snack.

Everything counts as exercise, but walk before you run

There’s no doubt that exercise is good for your heart and arteries. If you have hypertension, you also need to remember not to exercise too hard since that can damage your heart. The best way to do this is to slowly build up your activity levels to avoid injury.

Strike a balance between deskwork and exercise:

• Ask your Healthcare Professional before starting with any new exercise plan
• Start slow and then work your way up to 30 minutes of moderate-intensity exercise five times a week
• Walk, play, dance or do housework; they all count
• If you get bored with your regular exercise, switch it up and try new things
• As you get fitter, join a gym or an exercise group
• Be more active every day and make small changes like taking the stairs or walking instead of driving.