You know that oatmeal, bran and brown rice do your body good for many reasons. Now it turns out that the fibre in these whole grains helps protect against hypertension too, says Dr. Lu Wang of Harvard University. She studied more than 28,000 women and found that eating two to three servings of whole grains daily, over a 10-year period, dropped participants’ high blood pressure risk by up to 11 percent.

Look twice
Search for the words “whole grain” on the ingredient lists for breads and pastas. “Whole wheat” does not provide the same fibre-rich benefit.