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Attention Drivers: High Blood Pressure- foods to avoid for better health

In most cases, the causes underlying high blood pressure remain unknown, but we know that it affects roughly 50% of the American population’s health, and amongst those are truck drivers. High blood pressure is a concerning truck driver health issue, and this blog is specially curated to help you combat the risks of high blood pressure in your truck driver’s health.

There is a relation between the nutrition you intake and your blood pressure. Weight gain can result in high blood pressure, whereas weight loss can reduce blood pressure. Similarly, some foods increase blood pressure, and some decrease blood pressure. Without further ado, let’s look into foods to avoid for better health!

Four types of food to avoid for better health with high blood pressure

Sodium

Sodium is a mineral that occurs naturally in most foods. Salt is the primary source of sodium intake in our bodies. While sodium has its benefits, it is harmful as it quickly raises blood pressure. When you have plenty of sodium in your bloodstream, your body starts holding in water to neutralize the ratio, and this causes stress on your heart and blood vessels, thus increasing your blood pressure.

To put it simply, avoid food with high salt concentrations if you want the best truck driver health. Check-in with your practitioner for sodium substitutes, always read nutrition and content tables, and buy products that are “sodium-free, “low sodium,” or “unsalted.” Similarly, purchase sodium-free herbs and seasoning mixes.

Here are some foods rich in sodium: condiments, snack foods (pretzels, popcorn, peanuts, chips), pickled or marinated food in brine. Ensure to stay far away from them!

Canned, frozen, and processed food

These foods are top offenders when it comes to high blood pressure. While manufacturing this type of food, an array of preservatives and sodium products are added, which can immediately cause truck driver health issues. So in case, you find yourself craving soup, try to make it yourself instead of opting for the canned ones. Or look for bone broth travel packets, add a few veggies to the base, or pour it into a cup and drink it like a hot beverage. So delicious and so healthy for you.

Some canned, processed, and frozen food items include meat, sausage, ham, canned soups, dried soup mixes, and boxed mixes. Always essential to read the sodium content and the ingredients. Canned items often pack in sodium, which can leave you with the blood pressure to prove it.

One of my favorite soup travel mixes is the dehydrated soup. Great for a truck driver or traveler, add hot water at your next stop, and you have instant soup and an instant healthy meal!

Alcohol

Having small amounts of alcohol can reduce blood pressure, but if that volume is turned up a few dials, you will cause a spike in your blood pressure. Habitual drinking can cause worse problems and take you to a doctor’s office if not cared for immediately. Drinking can also be a sign of deeper issues often linked to emotional challenges. Before you reach for a drink, call a friend or go out for a walk and then notice how you feel.

Fast food

If you’ve been paying attention to health news, you know fast food is a terrible idea. Not only is it generally discouraged from consuming fast food other than the occasional here and there, but it will also be harmful to any truck driver’s health if they deal with high blood pressure.

Fast food causes high cholesterol, which also increases your blood pressure, so beware, the temptation is not worth the price you will pay.

Looking for healthy alternatives and not sure where to start, check out https://www.truckersnews.com/gear/product/15065710/roadpro-here-are-8-travelfriendly-snacks-to-keep-you-fueled-as-you-drive

Don’t forget:

YOu can do this! The net components of these cause rather harmful effects on your overall health, and if you want to remove high blood pressure from your list of truck driver health issues, then follow the guidelines we have provided in this blog and avoid these foods for better health. On that note, safe eating, and good truck driver health!

Remember it’s about the small simple changes that lead to the big results in your life, so that you can feel good again!

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August 22, 2022/0 Comments/by pbeue

March – Nutrition Awareness Month: 5 Fantastic Foods to Fight Premature Aging

Healthy Eating for Truckers

March – Nutrition awareness month: 5 fantastic foods to fight premature aging

Pre-mature aging is a biological condition when aging occurs before the set standard. This happens mainly because your biological age is more than your chronological age. Fighting premature aging is not easy, especially if you are a truck driver. Because during work, many other free radicals affect your skin. Hence, this nutrition month, we’ve brought you the 5 fantastic foods to fight premature aging and maintain optimal truck driver health.

Free radicals can build up in cells and cause damage to other molecules, such as DNA, lipids, and proteins. Free radicals are highly reactive and unstable molecules that are produced in the body naturally as a byproduct of normal metabolism, or by exposure to toxins in the environment such as tobacco smoke and ultraviolet light.

And as a truck driver, you want to pay attention to this process and fight back!

5 fantastic foods to fight premature aging

Avocado:

Avocado is one of the healthiest food for our overall good body health, and along with that, it also has premature anti-aging benefits. This fruit has many nutritional elements to fight premature aging. The nutrients found in avocado include folate, magnesium, potassium, Riboflavin, vitamin E, and vitamin C.

All of these nutrients help to keep your skin plumper, provide skin nourishment, fight skin radicals, etc. Moreover, avocado is also rich in a certain type of antioxidant known for reducing fine lines and wrinkles. It is called glutathione, which is also found in many cosmetic medicines and treatments to combat aging.

Papaya:

Papaya is another pick for the nutrition month blog. Why? Well, papaya is amongst the foods rich in antioxidants that help skin stay younger and wrinkle-free. Other than this, papaya is also rich in Vitamins like Vitamin A, Vitamin K, Vitamin C, and Vitamin E.

Along with this, papaya also contains essential minerals like calcium, potassium, and magnesium. All of these nutritional qualities of this food enable to limit or prevent premature aging. Because these nutrients help make your skin more elastic and fight aging signs like fine lines and wrinkles.

Berries:

Berries include all kinds of berries, from blueberries to strawberries. All of them have strong anti-aging nutrients that help fight premature aging. In addition to this, berries are also a good source of fiber and essential vitamins such as Vitamin C.

Vitamin C is one of the most beneficial and essential nutrients for your skin to say healthy and nourished. Apart from this, berries are a good source of flavonoids as well. In conclusion, berries will help you fight wrinkles and fine lines that result because of premature aging.

And the best part is for a truck driver who may not have access to fresh berries on a regular basis, traveling with freeze-dried berries is a wonderful way to get those nutrients without having to wonder where you will be able to stop to shop!

Healthy trucker food to fight premature aging can be easy to find if you know what to look for.

Sweet Potatoes:

Potatoes are indeed a fantastic food to stop premature aging. I mean, who doesn’t love potatoes, especially sweet potatoes! Apart from being delicious and tasty, sweet potatoes have the benefits to combat premature aging.

It has important nutrients such as Vitamin A, B, C, D, zinc, thiamine, etc. But more importantly, it has an antioxidant known as beta carotene: which converts Vitamin A that consequently aid in restoring skin elasticity.

Spinach as a healthy trucker food to fight premature aging :

The last food in the list of 5 fantastic foods to fight premature aging to have good truck driver health is spinach. Popeye obsessed over spinach for nothing. Spinach is one of the best sources of heme iron, lutein, magnesium, and Vitamin A, C, E, K.

Spinach helps stimulate collagen production in your body: which in return makes your skin tight and smooth. Plus, vitamin K also helps reduce inflammation inside your body and on your skin too. Spinach is a wonderful healthy trucker food to fight premature aging look for those salads at the truck stop mixed with baby greens and spinach rather than iceberg lettuce, your body will thank you.

Try A New Food This Month:

That’s all folks for our nutrition month blog. I hope you’ll start including these foods in your diet to see the results of limited or reduced premature aging. Hence, if you are a truck driver facing issues of premature aging, do at least try out eating these foods, and you’ll know how good they are for a truck driver’s health. You might not have access to every one of these foods on a regular basis, but when you do, grab em, even if it’s just one meal, that’s one meal worth eating! Plus they sure are yummy.

Ready for that next step?

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March 1, 2022/0 Comments/by pbeue

The Power of Zinc: The Trace Mineral You Might Be Missing

Healthy Eating for Truckers

Zinc

Zinc is a trace element and micronutrient essential for our overall health. Without zinc in our body, we would not be experiencing optional health, and this temple we call a body will begin to show it. Zinc is a mineral we all need for our body to function optimally. Second, to Iron, Zinc is the most abundant trace element, involved in various catalytic activities in the body.

Zinc is found in some foods naturally and is used in the form of dietary supplements. If are eating a poor diet lacking real foods like fruits and veggies and some lean meats, your diet is most likely lacking zinc.

Zinc deficiency in humans includes manifestations like diarrhea, alopecia, weight loss, intercurrent infections, neuro-sensory disorders, emotional disorders, and problems with wound healing. As someone who is in recovery from a wide variety of eating disorders, I know first hand the toll your body takes when you are lacking proper nutrition. Minerals like zinc are the foundation for our body to build on. We cannot absorb vitamins without minerals and zinc is on that list. If you are feeling stress make sure you read Mother Trucker Yoga’s 10 Quick Ways to Reduce Stress Blog to help.

It can be confusing when you start to pay better attention to your health, how much of what do you need and where to get it all. So in the charts below, you can easily see how much zinc you need depending on your age and what some sources of zinc could be in your diet today.

Required Daily Amount

Age	Men	Women
0-6 months	2 mg	2 mg
7-12 months	3 mg	3 mg
1-3 years	3 mg	3 mg
4-8 years	5 mg	5 mg
9-13 years	8 mg	8 mg
14< years	11 mg	8 mg
Pregnancy		11 mg
Lactation		12 mg

Zinc Nutrition Mother Trucker Yoga BLog

Sources of Zinc

Vegetarian

Food Items	Milligrams per serving	Percent DV
Peas (cooked ½ cup)	0.5	5
Yogurt (8 ounces)	1.7	15
Oatmeal (1 packet)	1.1	10
Almonds (1 ounce)	0.9	8
Cashews (1 ounce)	1.6	15
Pumpkin seeds (1 ounce)	2.2	20
Baked beans (1/2 cup)	2.9	26
Chickpeas (1/2 cup)	1.3	12
Cheese (1 ounce)	1.2	11
Kidney beans (cooked ½ cup)	0.9	8

Non – vegetarian

Food Items	Milligrams Per serving	Percent DV
Pork (3 ounces)	2.9	26
Chicken breast (1/2 breast)	o.9	8
Oysters (3 ounces)	74.0	673
Beef chuck (3 ounces)	7.0	64
Crab (3 ounces)	6.5	59
Lobster (3 ounces)	3.4	31
Chicken (dark meat) (3 ounces)	2.4	22

Trying to get your daily dose of zinc from natural food sources as much as possible is essential in building up a foundation of health within you. However, if you are severely deficient you may want to consider supplementing with zinc as you build up your reserves. As a recovering addict, one that struggled with a wide range of eating disorders my zinc levels were non-existent, and for several years I had to take zinc. Happily now in my thirties, I no longer have some of the lingering issues I once had.

Always seek further medical consultation to rule out other issues, but the good news is zinc is readily available in many foods.

Role of zinc in immunity

Many studies have proven the role of zinc effects of adequate zinc consumption on the immunity of our body. It boosts the cell-mediated immunity and balances the functions of humoral immunity.

Zinc is a crucial element for the development and function of neutrophils, natural killer cells, and innate immunity.

A study shows that macrophages (perform the function of killing the pathogen by phagocytosis), cytokine production, and intracellular killing are also affected by the deficiency of zinc in the body along with showing adverse effects in the growth and function of T and B cells.

Solomons NW. Mild human zinc deficiency produces an imbalance between cell-mediated and humoral immunity. Nutr Rev 1998;56:27-8

Benefits of Zinc

Zinc is a mineral that packs a powerful punch and one we often take for granted. When you are getting your daily dose of zinc your body gets to reap the benefits of several health perks!

Anti-Inflammatory

Its functions as an anti-oxidant and stabilization of membranes, strongly suggest that it has a hand in preventing the damage caused by the free radicals during the inflammatory process. What are free radicals, those are the guys who seal electrons from your body and start to sabotage your health one electron at a time. Eating foods that are high in antioxidants can help you combat free radicals and also boost zinc levels your body needs to remain healthy and inflammatory-free.

Heart-healthy

Studies have found that zinc supplements help in decreasing the levels of LDL (Bad Cholesterol) and triglycerides in the blood, preventing heart diseases at a major level.

(Ranasinghe, Priyanga et al. “Effects of Zinc supplementation on serum lipids: a systematic review and meta-analysis.” Nutrition & metabolism vol. 12 26. 4 Aug. 2015, doi:10.1186/s12986-015-0023-4)

Another study shows that adequate zinc consumption helps in lowering systolic blood pressure in about 40 young women.

(Kim, Jihye. “Dietary zinc intake is inversely associated with systolic blood pressure in young obese women.” Nutrition research and practice vol. 7,5 (2013): 380-4. doi:10.4162/nrp.2013.7.5.380)

Enhances memory and learning

Research conducted at The University of Toronto suggests the role of zinc in neural communication with one another which eventually affect our memory and learning ability.

Wound Healing

Zinc is often used in skin creams to treat wounds or any rashes on the skin as it is assumed to play an important role in maintaining the integrity and the structure of the skin.

Other Possible zinc Benefits

Fights Acne
Used in patients with Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).
Prevention and treatment of pneumonia
Age-related Macular Degeneration
Osteoporosis

Your health is your responsibility and there are many things you can do to help boost your health even while living over the road as a truck driver. Focus on what you can do, what you have access to, what steps you can take to make that next right decision. What you can do to make that next healthy choice, it may not seem like it will amount to anything when you just look at that one choice, but all those little choices add up to some really great health perks! Perks you get to benefit from every single day!