Are There Certain Foods to Help Control Blood Pressure?

I've heard that some foods, like bananas, help lower elevated blood pressure? What can you tell me about this and other foods?  Anna  L.

Dear Anna,

There is actually an entire diet plan to help lower blood pressure and you can view the entire 64 page booklet printed by the National Institute of Health here: http://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/public/heart/hbp/dash/new_dash.pdf .  It's called the DASH diet and stands for Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension.

The focus is to reduce sodium (salt) intake and to eat more foods that provide potassium (like bananas and many other fruits and vegetables) and calcium.  This mineral ratio has been proven over decades to help lower high blood pressure.