Food for Diabetes and High Blood Pressure: What a Nigerian Diabetic and Hypertensive Patient Can Eat

Many people in Nigeria are told on the same clinic day that they have diabetes and high blood pressure. Then comes the hard question at home: what am I supposed to cook now?

If that is you, you may be wondering: what food is good for diabetes and high blood pressure?

The short answer is vegetables, vegetable soups, beans, fish and chicken, eaten with one small ball of swallow or half a cup of rice, and cooked with much less salt, fewer seasoning cubes and less oil. The longer answer matters, because a food that is fine for your sugar can still be bad for your blood pressure.

Why Do Diabetes and High Blood Pressure Come Together?

They are very common partners. In a survey of 2,487 people with type 2 diabetes across several Nigerian hospitals, 58% also had high blood pressure. That is more than half.

The two harm the same parts of the body: the heart, the kidneys, the eyes and the small blood vessels. When you have both, each one makes the damage from the other worse. That is why your doctor watches your blood pressure as closely as your sugar.

The good news is that one way of eating helps both at the same time.

Is the Food for Diabetes Different From the Food for High Blood Pressure?

Partly, yes, and this is the part most people miss.

For your sugar, the question is how fast a food turns into sugar in your blood. Swallows, white rice, white bread, sweet drinks and pastries do this fast.

For your blood pressure, the main question is salt. Fried food, a lot of palm oil and fatty red meat matter too.

So a food can be good for one and bad for the other:

• Suya does not push your sugar up, but it is red meat cooked with a lot of salt and spice mix.
• Pepper soup is light on starch, but it is often made with many seasoning cubes and a lot of salt.
• Stockfish, dry fish and crayfish are body-building foods that do nothing to your sugar, but they are very salty.

When you have both conditions, you need a food that passes both tests.

How Much Salt Is Safe With Diabetes and High Blood Pressure?

The World Health Organization says adults should eat less than 5g of salt a day. That is about one level teaspoon. It also says too much salt is a well known cause of high blood pressure and heart disease.

Here is the hard part. That one teaspoon is for all your food for the whole day, not for one pot.

In a Nigerian kitchen, most of the salt does not come from the salt bag. It hides in other things:

• Seasoning cubes. One cube can carry about half of a whole day's salt.
• Stockfish, dry fish and crayfish
• Iru (dawadawa, locust bean)
• Canned sardines and baked beans
• Noodles like indomie, and the seasoning sachet that comes with them
• Sausage, sausage rolls and meat pie

How to Cook Nigerian Soup With Less Salt

You do not need to stop eating soup. Efo riro, okra, ewedu, ugu and afang are some of the best foods on your plate for your sugar. The problem is what goes into the pot.

Try these:

• Use one seasoning cube for the whole pot, not three or four.
• Taste the soup before you add any salt. The stockfish, crayfish and cube have already salted it.
• Soak dry fish and stockfish well, and throw the water away before cooking.
• Use pepper, onion, garlic, ginger, scent leaf or uziza for taste instead of more cubes.
• Do not add salt to food on your plate.

Your taste for salt changes when you use less of it. Food that tastes flat at first will taste normal again after some weeks.

Is Palm Oil Good for Diabetes and High Blood Pressure?

Palm oil does not raise your sugar. But it is full of a type of fat that can raise cholesterol, and high cholesterol on top of diabetes and high blood pressure is hard on your heart.

Egusi, banga, ogbono, ofe akwu and native rice are all cooked with a lot of palm oil. You do not have to give them up. Use less oil in the pot, and when you dish the soup, leave the layer of oil on top behind.

The meat in the soup matters too. Beef and goat meat are red meat. Pomo, shaki, liver and kidney are organ meat. They are fine for your sugar, but if you have high blood pressure, pick fish or chicken with the skin taken off most days instead.

Fried food is the same story. Dodo, akara, puff puff, fried yam and fried chicken soak up oil. Boiled, grilled or roasted is better.

What Foods Can a Diabetic With High Blood Pressure Eat?

Better choice:

• Leafy vegetables and vegetable soups: efo riro, ugu, ewedu, okra, afang, edikang ikong, cooked with less salt and less oil
• Garden egg and cucumber, as much as you like
• Beans, moi moi and beans porridge, cooked with little oil
• Fish, about one piece as wide as your palm (100g)
• Chicken with the skin taken off, about one chicken lap (90g)
• Two boiled eggs
• A swallow that raises sugar more slowly, like oat swallow or plantain amala, one ball the size of your fist (100g)
• Water as your main drink

Less suitable choice:

• Indomie and other noodles with the seasoning sachet
• More than one seasoning cube in a pot
• Suya, kilishi, sausage rolls and meat pie
• Canned sardines and baked beans
• Soups swimming in palm oil, with pomo and shaki
• Fried snacks like puff puff, chin chin and akara every day
• Sweet drinks, malt and soaked garri with sugar

This is close to the DASH eating plan, which doctors in many countries use to bring blood pressure down. It puts vegetables, fruits, beans, fish and chicken first, and cuts back on salt, fatty meat and sweet food. A good Nigerian plate already looks a lot like it.

If you are not sure how much of a food is right for you, you can check GluFloat for personalised food guidance. If you tell it you have high blood pressure, it keeps red meat, organ meat and salty fish off the meals it suggests for you.

What Snacks Can a Diabetic and Hypertensive Patient Eat?

Most Nigerian snacks are either fried, sweet, salty, or all three. These are better:

• Three garden eggs, or one whole cucumber
• About 20 groundnuts (30g), roasted with no salt
• One small apple, or one small guava, about 3 times a week
• Two boiled eggs

Plantain chips, chin chin, buns and biscuits push your sugar up, and many of them are salted or fried as well.

Can a Diabetic With High Blood Pressure Eat Fruit?

Yes. Fruit is part of the DASH plan, and many fruits are fine for your sugar in the right amount. Keep to one small apple, or half of one medium banana, and eat the whole fruit rather than drinking it as juice.

One warning that many people do not know: grapefruit and pomelo (shaddock). Do not eat these fruits if you take medicine for blood pressure, cholesterol or your heart. They can make some of these tablets far too strong in your body, even hours later. Ask your doctor or pharmacist before you eat them.

Oranges and tangerines do not do this.

What If I Also Have Kidney Problems?

Diabetes and high blood pressure are the two biggest causes of kidney problems. If your doctor has told you your kidneys are weak, the rules change.

Many vegetables, beans and fruits are full of potassium, a mineral that is good for blood pressure in most people. But weak kidneys, and some blood pressure tablets, can let potassium build up in the blood, which is dangerous. How much body-building food you eat may also need to be smaller.

Ask your doctor or dietitian about your own case before you change what you eat. Our post on whether okra is good for diabetes, high blood pressure and kidney problems explains more.

Should I Still Eat Swallow If I Have Diabetes and High Blood Pressure?

Yes, but keep it to one ball the size of your fist, eaten with plenty of vegetable soup. The swallow itself is not salty. The salt and oil usually come from the soup beside it.

Some swallows push your sugar up much faster than others. Fufu is the fastest, then eba and pounded yam. Our post on the best swallow for a diabetic in Nigeria shows how they all compare, and what is the best food for diabetics in Nigeria covers the rest of the plate.

The Bottom Line: Food for Diabetes and High Blood Pressure

When you have diabetes and high blood pressure, a food has to pass two tests: it must be slow on your sugar, and it must be low in salt.

The plate that does both is simple:

• Plenty of vegetable soup, cooked with one seasoning cube and less oil
• Fish, chicken with no skin, eggs or beans
• One ball of swallow the size of your fist, or half a cup of cooked rice (90g)
• Water to drink

Keep all the salt in your food under one level teaspoon (5g) for the whole day. Go easy on palm oil, red meat, organ meat and fried food. And keep taking your tablets. Food helps, but it does not replace your medicine.