Anita: 0:00

Hey, sunshine. Now if you've known us for any period of time, you probably know how crazy I am for an incredible drink in my cup. I've always got one of my favorite cups. I'm carrying it with me. Well, what does that have to do with today's episode? Stick around to find out. Hey there, Sunshine. Welcome to the Power On Plants Podcast, where your host, Jarrod and Anita Roussel and we're absolutely head over heels for whole plant foods, and helping you navigate this incredible plant based journey. That's because our lives have been completely changed by plant based goodness, we used to struggle everyday with excess pounds and low energy, vascular disease, joint pain and lack of sleep, just to name a few. And even though we're medical professionals, we still weren't getting practical answers that actually worked. So we dug into the research, we started living what we learned, and now we both have our lives back. And that's what we want for you to the truth is you can do this, and it's not hard, you just need a way that will bring real and lasting change. And that path, it has to be simple and enjoyable. And it's got to be delicious, too. So are you ready to live your life to the fullest, then you're in the right place. Because living without limits, that's what Power On Plants is all about. So pull up your chair, grab a matcha latte, and let's get started. If you or someone you love is struggling with hypertension, or high blood pressure, we're going to talk today about something very simple, very natural and super delicious that you or they can do to start reducing your blood pressure naturally. This is what we're all about. You know, we don't want y'all to learn just these little tips and tweaks and hacks. But if you start to learn these principles of how the life giving nutrients that you need are in the food, and that to get to the root of disease, which at the cellular level, the rate of disease is your they're not getting your cells are not getting the nutrients that they need to function properly. So that you can feel great, okay, that's what we're going for here. And so we look at how do you get to the root of high blood pressure? We're not going to say, Oh, how do we get the symptoms to go away? What medicine do I need, okay, if you're taking medication, make sure you keep monitoring your blood pressure, because doing things like this, and additive things like it, then you're adding whole plant foods on top of that your blood pressure can start to come down to normal levels and can bottom out too low. If you're on medications, does that mean you should stop your medications when you start doing this? No, you should always be listening to your medical provider and taking their advice as you decrease your dosages. Now, if they're not willing to work with you to decrease your dosages, because it's coming down, you would definitely need to look at a different provider. Because when your blood pressure is coming down eating this way, and it is what happens naturally, we've talked about this before. But studies have shown time and again, that it is not natural for blood pressure to go up as you get older, what is natural as for your blood pressure to actually come down as you get older. And in societies where they eat healthy plant based, what happens is there are no heart attacks, there is not heart disease, there is not high blood pressure,

Jarrod: 3:20

it doesn't exist and the stroke and all those things it does your blood vessel stay healthy.

Anita: 3:25

Exactly. And so we want to get to the root of our problem that we're having here. Because when your blood pressure is creeps up and up and up, what does that mean? It means your vessels are tightening up, they're getting more rigid, they cannot flex and expand like they need to when your heart is pushing the fluid through them. And when that happens, and they're more rigid and stiff, the pressure in those vessels goes at, it causes damage to the vessel lining,

Jarrod: 3:49

and your heart has to work harder. And so it causes the heart to start to enlarge and have damaged and have heart disease and get

Anita: 3:56

tired. It wears out the muscle because it wasn't made to push the fluid through hard stiff vessels. And so if you can do the things like we're talking about today, that will start to loosen up those vessels again, help them start to relax inflammation. Yes, that's huge, absolutely huge and stop damaging the vessel lining because that happens when we eat animal products and things like that damage starts happening to the lining of your vessels so that blood clots can start to form and things like that. Because the vessels do not have smooth walls. Now they have jagged walls where things can collect and start to kind of cements like it starts to try to heal itself too. And that can cause problems where you get blockages in those vessels. So when a doctor has to go in and start cleaning out your vessels, because that happens later on down the road. It's really hard because they're just cleaning out one part but what you've got to understand is, if your legs are needing that or your neck needs that your whole body is that's happening around your whole body. Your vessels. So how do you take care of that you get to the root cause you start doing these things that we're teaching you on a regular basis. And the more whole plant foods you can get, the more of this drink we're going to talk about today, that's absolutely amazing. The more you can get that into your life on a regular basis, you're going to start seeing these numbers get better and better. And what's amazing is when you do that, a lot of times, they work a lot better than even the best medication. I mean, we seen it time. And again, I can't tell you look at testimonials, reverse my hypertension, or reverse my high blood pressure on whole plant foods or on a whole food plant based diet. I don't love using the word diet, because this is not about the lifestyle. Yeah, we don't count calories, portion control, there's no by hangry around here, like you've got to have good food. And you got to have an amount of it that you need without worrying to not eat too much. Oh, that's my problem. No, you know, you'll know how to do it. Just keep sticking around and start implementing what you're learning.

Jarrod: 6:03

Now you mentioned a medication, there was actually a study, the secret thing we're going to tell you about in just a moment, actually worked as well as Captopril, which is a common ace inhibitor used for high blood pressure. And

Anita: 6:15

so you think you get this great drink in your cup every day, you get to look forward to it. It's absolutely beautiful. It tastes amazing. And you've got it in your favorite cup that brings you joy. Yeah, something you can look forward to every single day. And know that you're getting something to the cellular level, that's going to start addressing the inflammation start helping your vessels to relax. This has been shown in multiple studies to relax blood vessels, okay, whole plant foods do this as well. And this is a whole plant food. I mean, it really is, you're making tea. Okay, so we're talking about high viscous tea. Now, I want you to think fruit punch here, because that's what it's like it's a little bit tart. But it's a lot like fruit punch, it makes this beautiful color. Absolutely. So do the color. It's beautiful, and it tastes fantastic. And then after you steep it, you can absolutely take it, put it in your cup. And if you're using whole leaves, or the whole petals, which will tell you about where to get that as well. And you can also get an M premade bags. So you take this steeped tea, you put it in your cup, and then you can drink it plain or how ever you like it. If you want to add a little lemon juice and lemon zest, you can do that. Maybe like your tea a little bit sweeter, maybe use a pure maple syrup, that could be really good sweetener. Or you could use a little bit of date syrup, that's a great sweetener, it's just basically boiled down dates. And then that's wonderful. We love that you can if you eat honey, eat a little honey, if you're vegan, you're not going to eat honey. So try one of the other sweeteners we've mentioned, but get high biscuits, tea. That's the message here every day, how much at least a cup a day, preferably two cups a day. So maybe one in the morning and one in the evening. Or maybe you drink two cups at once she breathed that before you go off to work or before you start your day, and you put it in one of your favorite containers, and you sip on it all through the morning. I mean, it's wonderful. It's beautiful. I love drinking hibiscus tea and one of my favorite glass caps that I use because I can see the color of it through it because it's just so beautiful.

Jarrod: 8:30

And like I said before, it has this very dark burgundy color. If it were in just a big clear wine bottle, you would almost think it was something like a burgundy wine. It's just got that deep of a rich color to it.

Anita: 8:41

Absolutely. So no more than five bags. So you want to try to get five bags. Really that's kind of

Jarrod: 8:48

the bag variety. Yes, you can do five bags and the two cups. Yes,

Anita: 8:52

so five bags into caps. And that's what you want to get for your daily amount. Now, we suggest that you don't go over a quart a day because it can put you high and some of the other

Jarrod: 9:03

some of the mineral mineral it's actually a very good source of manganese, which is something that we do need. But since it is a rich source, you don't want to really go more than about a quart. Now, if you're to go just a smidge more, don't worry, your body is well equipped to handle balancing these minerals but just as a general rule, you don't want to go drinking a gallon or two a day that would be too much right? If you go to two cups a day you're good court. Still good after that you may be a bit much and the other thing I would think too is that if you're drinking that much hibiscus tea you're denying yourself all those other fantastic drinks that are out there

Anita: 9:41

such a great point. I mean, I don't know how variety that Ms. May the Mr. Matcha and my what what else do we drink that we love the chai milkshakes, Chai lattes, that chocolate drinks I mean we do a lot of different things like mocha frappuccino for the chocolate that we make good I'm Lately, we've been doing a little bit of egg lists eggnog. Oh, guys, that is one of those. So yeah, if you have all the strings that are healthy, that are great for you that make you feel good, yeah, you don't want to just load up on one thing, get your two cups a day, start lowering that blood pressure. And this is just develop a habit like we've talked about before, make a sticky note, write it in your planner, somewhere, you're gonna see it, it's on your goals for today, two cups, hibiscus tea, same tomorrow, same the next day. And if you're helping your parents lower their blood pressure, this is what you're going to do for them as well, wherever they can see it, remind them get the supplies, make sure it's there. What if you want to just get the better quality tea? Well, you can buy petals, you know, tea bags don't contain the highest quality of tea, they usually use the dregs of the plant.

Jarrod: 10:47

When you're just getting it off the shelf at your grocery store, they're not going to be putting the highest quality stuff there. So

Anita: 10:53

it tastes as good and usually it's not quite as healthy. And so what you might want to do is look at a brand that we love is frontier, and they have an organic hibiscus flower that you can get. And you can make your own you follow the directions on the package, get your two cups in and you make it strain it off. So all you do is just put the flowers in just like you would the tea bags, pour the hot water over it. Once the steep time's up according to the package directions, you're going to just go ahead and strain it into your favorite cup. And there you have it. That is tea. Yeah, absolutely great. Oh, my goodness, I'm wanting hibiscus tea. Now, I just love it so much. I hope you all will try this. Look, you have nothing to lose, you have nutritional science to back this up. It has been shown in multiple studies to help with this not only that people got lower cholesterol as well, it's not going to be this a massive amount, but it can start helping your cholesterol come down as well. Well, and

Jarrod: 11:48

that was really exciting. When we were looking at this, about half the people that drink hibiscus tea will have some lowering of their cholesterol as much as 12%. By doing that, just that one thing, right? I mean, it's just amazing. And then the blood pressure too. And you may be thinking, well, it lowers blood pressure, you might be thinking it lowers blood pressure, but how much? Well, they showed, on average, it was nine points. So if you're skirting around 130, that would take that top number down to almost 120. That's a huge difference.

Anita: 12:19

Huge, and it's not something that blood pressure medications are going to do a lot more you think you're going to take it and the blood pressure meds gonna bring you back down to normal. But what usually happens is you take one, then you take two, then you take three things, most many, many people I won't say most, but many people do end up on as many as five blood pressure medications, with all the side effects with none of the nutritional benefits. And it's still not addressing the root cause of the problem is still not addressing the lack of nutrients that your body needs. It's just trying to control the symptoms. That's what we're doing with medicines, we're not addressing what caused it. And when you have something creep up like hypertension, what we want you to always ask is what is causing this because I promise you if your body is doing something like having high blood pressure, it's a warning signal, it's telling you, it's time to change something, I need something you're not giving me. And many times, it's also I'm getting too much of something that I need, right. So if you can, don't just think about drinking, I'm gonna drink hibiscus tea, and it's gonna make everything great, what you want to do is start adding multiple things. And when you get something that can give you that kind of amazing reduction that one of the best blood pressure medicines can't even rival then you start thinking about that I'm going to add on in more greens. Next, I'm going to start eating my purples, then I'm going to start eating berries every day, I'm going to start making sure I learned the ways to get more and more of these things. And as you build these habits, your life is not going to look the same because you're not just going to be making one change. Although that one change is hugely clinically significant for you, you're going to be adding one change, then one knee change, and then another new habit. And before long, everything is going to start to look different. And not only will it look different on paper, your quality of life is not going to be anything like it was before. You're going to be able to do all those things that you keep wishing you could do, but you just keep having to say I just don't feel like it. That's not going to be your story anymore. And we are so happy about that. Try hibiscus tea. Let us know what you think about it. Snap a picture and tag us on Instagram. Hey, Jarrod Hamdeen I'm having my cup of hibiscus, working on my blood pressure, whatever. We would love to see more and hear more about your journey and the results that you're getting the awesome results on this amazing healthy plant based lifestyle. We cannot wait to share more ideas with you and hang out with you again next time and we'll see you right here on power planes podcast.