With the rise of pre-prepared and processed foods, it’s no wonder that too many people around the world overconsume salt. This can lead to high blood pressure and an even higher risk of strokes and heart attacks, among other issues.
As a result, it’s important to consume a lot of foods that don’t raise your blood pressure and may even lower it.
For instance, a lot of people consume chicken as part of their diet. But is chicken bad or good for high blood pressure? Can eating it help lower it?
Is Chicken Good for High Blood Pressure?
As long as it’s consumed in moderation and as part of a healthy, balanced diet, chicken has great blood pressure-lowering benefits. For instance, it contains a certain type of protein and quite a good dose of potassium, which both lower your blood pressure.
With that said, eating too much chicken, especially when you prepare it with lots of seasoning, can actually raise your blood pressure. So, it’s important to keep that in mind and eat more plant-based foods than meat on a regular basis.
What type of chicken is good for high blood pressure?
When consumed in moderation, chicken can be good for your blood pressure levels. It contains certain nutrients that contribute to lowering your blood pressure and decreasing your risk of strokes and heart attacks.
Nevertheless, this only applies to chicken prepared in healthy ways, such as roasted or grilled. Fried chicken with lots of seasoning has the opposite effect and can be harmful to your overall health.
So, keep that in mind when choosing to eat chicken for high blood pressure.
Can eating chicken lower your risk of stroke?
Since including some chicken in your diet has the potential to lower your blood pressure, it can also lower your risk of strokes as well as heart attacks.
Chicken provides you with a great dose of blood pressure-lowering potassium. It also gives you a certain type of protein that, once metabolized and absorbed by your body, can lower your blood pressure, even more, reducing your risk of stroke.
How does eating chicken lower your blood pressure?
Eating chicken breast that has been prepared in a healthy way can be beneficial for high blood pressure.
For instance, chicken breast contains protein that’s broken down into peptides in your stomach, which are basically smaller proteins. These, in turn, have blood pressure-lowering abilities that are similar to those in blood pressure medication.
To get this benefit, choose chicken breasts, legs, or thighs.
In addition, chicken meat contains a good amount of potassium. For instance, one chicken breast contains 440 mg of this mineral – 12% of your daily need. In the same way, a similar serving of dark chicken meat contains about 374 mg of potassium.
Potassium is an important mineral that helps offset the negative effects of dietary sodium, thus reducing your blood pressure. So, eating foods high in this mineral is good for people suffering from hypertension.
Chicken meat, when prepared in a healthy way, is also low in sodium. But remember that this only applies to homemade chicken that’s not covered in seasoning and other high-sodium ingredients.
Because of that, none of these benefits apply to fast food and processed chicken.
Can chicken raise your blood pressure?
While eating chicken in moderation is very unlikely to raise your blood pressure, consuming it too often can bring the opposite effect.
Depending on the part of the chicken, it may contain quite a large dose of sodium. This mineral raises your blood pressure and increases your risk of heart attacks and strokes. So, it’s important to limit your intake of dietary sodium.
This mineral is primarily found in chicken skin, so it’s best to eat skinless chicken.
The same goes for commercially prepared and breaded chicken. One portion of this type of chicken meat can contain as much as 30% of your daily need for sodium, which is a lot.
So, be sure to avoid this type of chicken meat, especially if you’re prone to hypertension.
How should you eat chicken to lower your blood pressure?
The best way to eat chicken for high blood pressure is to choose the leanest cuts. These include chicken breasts and thighs. These tend to contain the highest amount of potassium and the least sodium.
These parts of the chicken are also lower in calories, so you can consume more without worrying about weight gain.
In addition, be sure to choose gentle cooking methods, such as roasting, grilling, or steaming. These don’t add any unnecessary calories or sodium, which can raise your blood pressure.
Also, try to steer clear of high-sodium seasonings, as these tend to contain much more sodium than you realize. This also means avoiding fast food and processed chicken meat as it’s very high in sodium and fat but low in potassium.
So, if you prepare your chicken this way, eating it might be very beneficial for your blood pressure levels.
Is chicken soup good for high blood pressure?
Chicken soup, or chicken broth, is a very healthy dish, but whether it can help lower your blood pressure depends on the type.
Store-bought chicken soup is highly processed and contains a lot of sodium; in fact, it can provide you with as much as 32% of your daily recommended need for this mineral. Because of that, eating this soup in large quantities can definitely raise your blood pressure.
On the other hand, making chicken soup yourself can decrease the amount of sodium. Homemade chicken broth also contains much more potassium – about 252 mg in a one-cup serving.
So, consuming homemade chicken broth in moderation can be good for high blood pressure.
Conclusion
Overall, eating chicken has lots of benefits when it comes to your health, and this includes lowering your blood pressure.
So, be sure to practice moderation when eating chicken, especially if you struggle with hypertension.
Sources: Nutrition Data, PMC, Research Gate, and National Library of Medicine