Foods That Lower Blood Pressure

The Banana

Okay, so I'm a dreamer. I have high blood pressure, so laying off the ice cream makes my heart happy. And when my heart is happy, I'm happy.

The good news is, at least the banana part of a banana split is good for me. A banana is one of those foods that lower blood pressure.

It's all about potassium. Bananas have a lot of it. It helps keep blood pressure down. In fact, there's a new study out of India that says just two bananas a day can lower your blood pressure by about 10 percent.

And they're a lot tastier--and cheaper--than those ACE inhibitor drugs your doctor has prescribed for you.

Here's the good news about the study in India: two a day is way less then the number previous studies said you had to eat to get the same impact as one of those prescription blood pressure medications. The Indian scientists report that natural compounds in bananas act in a manner similar to anti-hypertensive drugs in the Indian medical journal Current Science.

And here's another plus: bananas have no side effects--unless you drop the peel in the floor and step on it, of course.