Lowering Blood Pressure: The Rule of Five

Don't eat foods that list any of these ingredients among the first five on the label:

1. and 2. Simple sugars and syrups. Among these are brown sugar, dextrose, corn sweetener, fructose (as in high-fructose corn syrup), glucose, corn syrup, honey, invert sugar, maltose, lactose, malt syrup, molasses, raw sugar and sucrose. Keep a little honey, maple sugar and table sugar and table sugar in your pantry for recipes.

3. Saturated fats. They include most four-legged animal fats (including butter, lard and milk fat) and tropical oils (palm and coconut, for instance). These fats inflame arteries and increase "bad" LDL cholesterol, expand waistlines, raise blood pressure and increase the awful consequences of hypertensinon.

4. Trans fats. These are listed on product labels and are most likely to occur in partially hydrogenated fats, vegetable oil blends that are hydrogenated, and many margarines. (If you must have a buttery spread, use cholesterol-fighting producrs such as Promise and Benecol.)

5. Flours other than "100 percent whole grain" or "100 percent whole wheat." Avoid anything labeled with "enriched" white flour, semolina, durum and other wheat flours that aren't 100 percent whole wheat. Why? your body absorbs processed/enriched flour quickly, rushing too much sugar into the blood, and the excess is stored as fat. This causes fluctuating blood-sugar levels, putting you at risk of diabetes and obesity.