Working With God
To 'Keep Your Healing'

A lot of people have high blood pressure and look to the Lord for healing in this area. God can and does heal high blood pressure. But we need to "do our part" in the healing and also in maintaining the healing. High blood pressure, or hypertension, can be controlled to a large degree by diet. And diet can be important in helping prevent high blood pressure. So God expects us to do our part in the healing process by adjusting our eating habits to stop causing high blood pressure. If you pray for someone and they are healed of high blood pressure and remain in their old life style and old eating habits, it is just a matter of time until it comes back again.

It might be a good idea to pass dietary guidelines on to those you pray for. For some, it will be a matter of cooperating with God to change their eating behavior as part of the healing process. For others, there will be an instantaneous healing, but they still need to change their eating behaviors to stay healthy after God heals them.

Eating Habits to Help Lower Blood Pressure

The American Dietetic Association (ADA) has offered some guidelines for eating to reduce your risk of high blood pressure. The goal of their program is to introduce certain things into your diet and reduce or eliminate other things. Introducing low-fat dairy foods, fruits, and vegetables into your diet may help reduce the risk of high blood pressure. The ADA plan is called DASH, which stands for Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension. For the most part, the plan adds foods to your diet rather than taking them away.

The DASH eating plan was designed for those with high blood pressure, but it is also a heart-healthy plan for those who don't yet have hypertension. High blood pressure, or hypertension, is one of the leading causes of stroke, heart disease, kidney failure, and premature death in western countries. However many who suffer from high blood pressure do not realize they have it until it has killed them or caused a life threatening attack. So the AMA recommends that people have their blood pressure monitored on a somewhat regular basis.

Here is the plan. It is easy to find the ingredients at your local grocery store and it is not that difficult to introduce it into your diet gradually over a period of time:

• Eat at least 2 to 3 servings a day of low-fat dairy products every day. This provides you with Calcium, Potassium, Magnesium, and Protein.

• Eat 4 to 5 servings a day of vegetables each day. This provides you with Potassium, Magnesium, and Fiber.

• Eat 4 to 5 servings a day of fruits a day. This provides you with Potassium, Magnesium, Fiber and natural sugar for energy.

• Eat 7 to 8 servings a day of grain products a day. This provides you with carbohydrates, energy, and Fiber. Please note that whole grain breads are better than processed flour because the carbohydrates are complex instead of simple, and it takes more calories to digest them.

• Eat 1 to 2 servings a day of lean meats, poultry and fish a day. This provides you with protein and Magnesium. Please note, the red meats are much higher in calories than white meats, and fish is even lower in calories than white meat. So if you eat 6 oz of a low fat red meat, it is approximately 600 calories. If you eat 6 oz of chicken or turkey, it is approximately 300-360 calories. If you eat 6 oz of a non-fatty fish, it is approximately 150 calories.

• Eat 2 to 3 servings of fats and oils a day, such as margarine/butter and salad dressing. In general try to eat low fat foods whenever possible. Stay away from partially hydrogenated vegetable oils when you have an option.

• Eat 4 to 5 servings a week of nuts, seeds and beans. This provides you with Magnesium, Potassium, Protein, and Fiber.

• Eat 5 servings of sweets per week that are low in fat. This does not provide anything helpful nutrition wise, but if you totally deny yourself sweets, you will most likely end up binging on them. So you want to work some sweets into your diet (in moderation) so you are not tempted to binge. Please note that cookies, pastries, pies, ice cream (unless it is non-fat) and chocolates are NOT low in fat. Many groceries offer low fat and not fat dessert alternatives, including low/non-fat ice cream, puddings, etc.

Please note that the above guidelines are for a 2,000 calorie a day diet. Many people eat less than 2,000 calories. Those people will have to adjust (reduce) the portions or number of servings accordingly.

In addition to these daily intakes of food, the ADA recommends that you stop smoking, limit alcohol intake, and maintain adequate Calcium, Magnesium, and Potassium intakes for general health. They emphasize that it is very important to cut down on the amount of fat you eat. They also recommend that you lose weight if you are overweight and that you increase your daily physical activity level. Healthy exercise also helps to reduce blood pressure aerobic exercise strengthens your heart and circulatory system.

The ADA offers a few suggestions to help you get started on this diet to reduce the risk of hypertension. These are from their www site, which is http://www.eatright.org, and they include:

• Start small. Make a few changes at a time. For example, if you eat vegetables only at dinner, try cutting up carrot sticks and packing some in your lunch.

• Sneak more milk into meals to boost daily Calcium and other minerals. Add milk instead of water to your soups and hot cereals. Choose milk-based desserts such as low-fat puddings.

• Snack on fruits and vegetables. Mix nuts with raisins and other dried fruit for a tasty treat.

• Start your day with whole grain cereal, fat-free milk, and sliced bananas.

• Substitute a glass of low-fat chocolate milk instead of a chocolate candy bar.

Butter Vs Margarine In Controlling Blood Pressure

A group of dietitians, working for the Slim-Fast Corporation, has put an advisory that margarine and butter are not equivalents. It turns out that butter is worse for you than margarine in terms of raising cholesterol levels, which in turns raises your blood pressure. There are different types of fats. Trans fats is the worst for you in terms of hardening of the arteries and elevating blood pressure, but saturated fats are nearly as bad. Even though some brands of margarine contain more trans fat than butter, the total of trans + saturated fat (the LDL Cholesterol raising fats) in margarine is always less than it is in butter. This is because of all the saturated fat that butter contains. Here is a comparison between butter and margarine for fats:

Butter*

Total Fat - 10.8
Saturated Fat - 7.2
Trans Fat - 0.3
Saturated and Trans Fats - 7.5

Margarine, tub (40% Fat)**

Total Fat - 5.6
Saturated Fat - 1.1
Trans Fat - 0.6
Saturated and Trans Fats - 1.7

*Butter values from FDA Table of Trans Values, dated 1/30/95.
**values from USDA Composition Data, 1995. http://vm.cfsan.fda.gov/~dms/qatrans.html

It is usually better to choose the softer (tub) or liquid (spray) margarine that contains lower amounts of saturated and trans fats. There are a variety of them on the market at this time that do not contain any trans fats (e.g., partially hydrogenated vegetable oils), and they state this information right on the label. Also, nonstick cooking spray may be substituted for other fats when 'greasing' the pan.

If you eat margarine instead of butter, the average person will save a minimum of 1196 grams of saturated fat per year (and could save even more by selecting a reduced-fat or low-fat margarine product). Margarine has no cholesterol and anywhere from 33 to 100 percent less saturated fat than butter. It is a healthier choice for controlling your blood pressure and heart related problems.