Chocolate is One of the
Best Antioxidant Foods!?

Yes indeed. Dark Chocolate is near the top of the list of antioxidant foods! If you are a chocoholic, that is good news. But, there's more than chocolate.

My aunt Marion loved her chocolate. And, we thought she just had a sweet tooth!

Now the thing is, to get the benefits of chocolate you should eat the dark kind with little or no sugar. Sorry Auntie.

If you thought we started off with something decadent, latch onto this one - One of the benefits of red wine is that it can lower blood pressure naturally. Drink red wine, eat dark chocolate, what's next?

Before we branch off from red wine into other antioxidant foods (you can substitute grape juice if you don't drink alcohol), and in case you thought I was joking, let me tell you that red wine is a part of the famous Mediterranean Diet.

Now let's get ridiculous - Hot sauce lovers, you're on the right track, too. Hot sauce is another one of the fun foods that lower blood pressure.

Well, this isn't too bad, right? Eat some chocolate for snacks, drink some red wine at dinner, sprinkle on the hot sauce to pep up otherwise bland foods.

These aren't your main foods, though, so just take a little of each.

Mainline Foods for Your High Blood Pressure Diet

Here are some of the antioxidant foods that lower blood pressure or that will help you maintain a normal blood pressure if yours is okay for now:

Berries, broccoli, tomatoes, red grapes, garlic, spinach, tea, carrots, soy and whole grains. Pick and choose from these three to five servings a day. I'm not big on carrots, so I wouldn't blame you if you passed them by.

A different researcher has arrived at another list. These are her/his top 20 from best on down: red beans, wild blueberries, red kidney beans, pinto beans, domestic blueberries, cranberries, artichokes, blackberries, prunes, raspberries, strawberries, red delicious apples, granny smith apples, pecans, sweet cherries, black plums, russet potatoes, black beans, red plums, and gala apples.

Don't be bummed out that meat isn't on these lists. Check out the meat page to see how meat enhances a high blood pressure diet.

As you may have noticed, these lists also leave out lots of green leafy stuff and some fruit. So, take a look at some other vegetables and fruits.

If you'd like more information about antioxidants and how they work, check out this great antioxidant site.

We saw that red wine and hot sauce are two liquids with a bonanza of antioxidants.

Green tea is an excellent source as well. Several cups a day (decaffeinated is fine) will help maintain normal blood pressure.

In the last several years fruit juice extracts have become popular antioxidant foods. These have high ORAC values (ORAC is a measure of total antioxidant content). They are so concentrated you only need a couple of ounces a day.

I take pomegranate and mangosteen.

Other excellent ones are blueberry, acai berry and tart cherry.

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