Your doctor may have advised you to focus on your diet if you have high blood pressure. Many common variables that promote high blood pressure, such as ingesting too much sodium and fatty meals, are rooted in nutrition, in addition to family history and lifestyle factors like how often you exercise.

“High blood pressure, also known as ‘hypertension,’ occurs when the force of your blood pushing against the walls of your blood vessels is greater than it should be (normal is 120/80, which is a’systolic’ and ‘diastolic’ reading), elevated is 120-129/80, and high is 130+/80+, and there are several stages of ‘high,'” says Ginger Hultin, a registered dietitian nutritionist in Seattle