Honey Malesa is 35 years old, she is from Limpopo, Seshego, in South Africa. She is famous for her blood pressure friendly food, with over 26 thousand followers on Facebook only. Cooking heart healthy meals is her hobby, she has graduated the Studied Human Resources Management at Tshwane University of Technology and works an HR Officer. Bloodpressure.me Editor talked to Ms Malesa about the blood pressure friendly meals, and got very sincere and very strong answers.
You are famous for your blood pressure friendly cooking. Please tell how it all started?
It started on March 3rd after I lost my son to hypertension at 21 weeks and 6 days. It was a devastating day, and I had just recently been diagnosed with hypertension and honestly I didn’t know much about it except that my mom and grandmother have it and I didn’t think I would get it.
I’m not a person who gets sick a lot so it was a shock at first then I accepted my reality. So losing my son was enough to put me on this journey, a journey where I couldn’t even cry because crying raises your blood pressure so I couldn’t properly grieve my son. Any stress, heartache, overthinking was just not good for my hypertension. So I promised myself and my son that I would look after my health because I sort of blamed myself for my lifestyle and unhealthy eating during pregnancy that I didn’t give my son a chance to be in this world.
So I started small, decided I’m going to cook all my meals no more eating out, takeouts and food that I don’t know how much salt was used, what kind of oil was used etc. I did research on high blood pressure friendly food on YouTube and also going through the DASH Diet. I came across eating leafy green vegetables, cutting carbohydrates and starchy foods, cutting sugars, fizzy drinks, energy drinks, reducing salt intake, cutting seed oils and vegetable oils, drinking low fat milk, oats for fibre, fruits and drinking water.
That’s where my journey began and I did that from March to April and some time in May I decided let me have McDonald and it was an instant regret, I kept asking myself how I even tolerated junk food for so long. It was horrible, tasted bad and that was enough for me to never look back. Now I’m happy with healthy eating I feel satiated after eating, no cravings.
What are, in your opinion, the main principles of a heart healthy meal?
Cook your food, because you will know what’s in it. Eating whole foods is key, a sweet potato is sweet potato but a burger is processed food because there’s a lot of ingredients that go into it. Make sure it comes from Mother Earth. It’s meant to be a lifestyle not a goal that you set and once you reach it you fall off the bandwagon and that’s that.
So it’s key to make eating healthy meals interesting and fun and play around with food, I never used to enjoy raw vegetables I didn’t like the crunch, but now I really enjoy them. Adding sweet corn to my salad and some avo makes you forget about how crunchy the lettuce and cucumber are. And if you really really crave that burger or pizza why not make your own? Get some healthier buns or make buns from scratch with gluten free flour and use lean ground beef for your patties put some lettuce, tomato.
You get to explore different recipes that are much friendlier to your blood pressure. It is also key to listen to the way food makes you feel, do you get a heart palpitations when you drink that coffee? Does that white rice give you a headache? Switch to brown rice, it is very important to document the food you eat so you know which food makes you unwell. Even fruits are packed with a lot of sugar so it is ideal to consume them in moderation. Like me I love bananas that’s the one fruit I love with all my being but I can only eat it when it’s still greenish and yellow it’s less sugary. Once it’s too ripe and it’s yellow and black then I can’t eat it because the sugar in it raises my insulin. Hence it is important to document and monitor what you eat and how the food makes you feel.
What meal has lowered your blood pressure most?
Whole foods, vegetables in particular when I pair them with meats that I eat (lamb, ribeye steak, chicken breast, fish, tuna) my BP remains low or is lowered to 118/74 to 120/80.
I’ve noticed that carbs (brown rice, samp, brown pasta) they do raise my BP it’s not a high number maybe like 125/86 – 128/88 that’s what I have picked up. Vegetables and meat alone definitely keeps my BP low. When I was still consuming alcohol and fizzy drinks it would sit on 131/90 – 137/94.
So since I stopped taking those, my BP is stable I can call it that. With healthy eating I sit on no more than 128/88 I could say that’s the highest I could go especially eating carbs. I am on medication as well my medication was reduced from 10mg to 5mg and I believe it is with the help of my healthy eating.
How often do you recommend to eat? Shall we have heavy breakfasts or dinners?
I eat twice a day, I skip breakfast. So I do what we call intermittent fasting. Intermittent fasting has helped me a lot especially with discipline, it has been key in rewiring my brain and remove sugar cravings, alcohol cravings, carbohydrate cravings. They say it takes 21 days to make or break a habit.
I started fasting and in the first 7 days I was experiencing withdrawal from sugar, and all the unhealthy habits I had. I’d feel down, lack of energy, cravings to consume sugar, irritability, can’t focus, forgetfulness, insomnia. But after 21 days it was like my body was new, it reprogrammed itself back to factory setting. Now I have more energy to take walks, I can walk for 3 hours making it 10k steps daily, I can focus, my cognitive function is sharp, I can even read a book and finish it now. That’s how amazing intermittent fasting is for me.
I do the 16:8 so I skip breakfast and eat at 12pm and have my dinner before 20:00 in the evening. It also helped me to lose weight back in 2019-2020 and then during Covid I regained the weight back so I’m on the journey to also fast for weight loss. I believe my weight contributed to my hypertension.
I do not recommend people to fast, especially without the supervision of a doctor, but I recommend for them to eat three times a day. Breakfast, lunch and dinner no snacking. Eat when you feel hungry, always yourself “am I really hungry or am I dehydrated?” We often mistake dehydration for hunger so I recommend drinking water first and if the hunger persists then maybe you are hungry.
Eat slow so you can tell when your body is full, that way you don’t overeat and then feel bloated. The trick? Eat quietly and by this I mean switch off the TV the phone for distractions and focus on what you’re eating and that’s how you will notice that the hormones that tells the brain that you are full, will be easily noticeable. Your lunch can be heavy but heavy with nutrients and then keep dinner light. All meals must have all your macronutrients.
Bloodpressure.me and our Facebook group Blood Pressure Help has many African readers and members. What are your recommendations to them?
Get a blood pressure monitor, nothing will give you comfort like knowing and understanding what those BP numbers mean, when are they high when are they low and when are they normal. Monitoring your own BP at home has given me the relief of knowing when it’s the right time to go see a doctor and what is working to bring it down and keep it down. Taking care of your health and yourself, BP is a silent killer.
I’m yet to learn the signs and symptoms of stroke or heart attack. Go for check ups, speak to your doctor and ask questions, one thing I have realized about us Africans we go to the doctor and he gives us medication and we leave. We don’t ask questions, knowledge is power you need to know what you’re putting into your body how it will affect you.
Take your medication as prescribed. Take walks, even 30min makes a huge difference. If you can’t afford gym do home exercises like planks, squats. I normally watch YouTube videos of workouts and I do that if I’m lazy to go to the gym.
Hypertension can be managed and it is not the end. It needs discipline, dedication and consistency. Please don’t take any supplements or herbals without speaking to your doctor a lot of people will want to sell you some herbal mixture or supplements that will end up affecting the medication you’re taking and that will either bring your BP too low or raise it. So be vigilant.
Last but not least manage stress, I watch a funny movie or listen to music they distract me from life’s challenges and any stresses I’m facing. So find something to distract you when you feeling stressed.
