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Eating a healthy diet is a good way of keeping your blood pressure down. Everybody should try and eat a balanced diet and being active.
A healthy balanced diet contains:
- Starchy foods such as bread, rice, pasta, potatoes, yams and sweet potatoes
- At least five portions of fruit and vegetables daily
- Moderate amounts of daily products, look for low fat versions where possible
- Low amounts of salt
Salt and Fats
Traditional African Caribbean dishes may be high in salt, which raises your blood pressure. For more, please read our Salt page.
To cook healthier dishes, try to use less salt and reduce the amount of fat that you use. For more, please read our Fats page.
The following is a list of some popular African Caribbean dishes that may contain too much salt and saturated fats.
| Antigua, Montserrat, Nevis | Fish soup, pepper pot soup |
| Barbados | Jug-jug black pudding |
| Belize | Conch fritters, rice and chicken, tamales, refried beans and iswa |
| Dominica | Tannia, mountain chicken |
| Grenada | Callaloo, lambi souse |
| Guyana | Mellagee |
| Jamaica | Brown george, roasted breadfruit, saltfish and ackee |
| St. Vincent and the Grenadines | Stewed shark |
| British Virgin Islands | Saltfish and rice, fish chowder, conch salad |
| Trinidad and Tobago | Kachouri, palouri, pelau, pakoras |
| Guadeloupe and Martinique | Pate en pot, mechoui |
Fruit and vegetables
Fruit and vegetables are a good natural source of potassium, which has the opposite effect to salt and will help to lower your blood pressure. For more, please read our Fruit and vegetables page.
Alcohol
There is good evidence to show that if you drink alcohol in large amounts it can cause your blood pressure to rise. For more, please read our Alcohol page.
Sugar
Eating too much sugar can lead to weight gain over time, which puts you at risk of high blood pressure. For more, please read our Sugar page.
