The book begins with a very simple scientific overview of how blood pressure can become elevated. This includes lifestyle choices and food habits that are proven to increase blood pressure, especially the increase of sodium intake in our diets. She defines both numbers of the blood pressure reading and what normal blood pressure should be. There are many sidebars with more in depth information on the subjects related to the chapter. These are very interesting and informative. The book then explains how blood pressure can damage the body, such as the eyes, kidneys and heart. This section is not heavy with scientific jargon or any other difficult to understand concepts, and it also includes pictures to help the reader understand the concepts discussed.
Next, the book goes through the 10 steps of the plan. They are: lose weight, eat potassium, magnesium and calcium, eat soy protein, eat dark chocolate, drink red wine, get physical activity and take four supplements. Each section has recommended intake, a food list and scientific evidence backing up her recommendations. There is also a chapter on decreasing sodium intake and how it can decrease your blood pressure. These chapters are very straightforward and seem easy to implement.
There were a few questionable parts to these recommendations. The first is eating soy. She states soy is safe if you are not allergic but most of the chapter is about substituting red meat for vegetable protein. You could easily swap out a red meat laden meal with a vegetarian meal made with beans or quinoa. Soy can be quite harsh on some people who are not allergic and does not need to be the basis of a blood pressure plan especially if the entire reason for eating it is to avoid red meat. There are many no soy vegetarian dishes that can make the need for soy unnecessary. Luckily she states in the book that if something is not working for you or you are allergic don't include it in your blood pressure plan.
The last part of the book is low sodium recipes. They use a salt substitute and herbs/spices to give them flavor. The recipes are all whole foods without any weird ingredients. There are breakfast, lunch and dinner recipes along with some snack ideas. This is a good ending to a highly recommended book.
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