eating potatoes, and drinking OJ.
Stop eating potatoes and drinking the orange juice.. They're bad for you.
If you want orange juice, eat the entire orange.
If you want to improve your cardiovascular system through diet, cut out the sugars! Specifically, a sugar called "Fructose"...
This can get complicated but I spent about a month of my life studying it so I know what I'm talking about.. I'm going to dumb it down and shorten it up. I recommend you take my advice and do your own research from it.
Sugars come in many forms.. But the main culprit for health problems is related to a specific sugar molecule called "Fructose". It is found as added sugar in most manufactured foods, its found in table sugar (Sucrose is 50/50 glucose + fructose), and it is found in Fruits. Yes, fruits.. I'll explain below.
Our bodies require Glucose for life.. every cell in your body, and I believe every living thing on earth, burns and metabolizes glucose for energy. Of all the glucose you ingest, only about 1% to (5%?) gets converted by your liver into LDL Cholesterol.. (the bad stuff). That's not so bad.
Fructose however, can only be metabolized by one single organ in your body, and that organ can only do one thing with it.
Your liver is the only organ that can metabolize fructose and it turns almost 100% of it into the artery clogging LDL Cholesterol. So for every molecule of Fructose you ingest, you add to your LDL levels and that raises your blood pressure.. Some say its worse than salt and in my own experience, they are correct.
But Fructose is found naturally in Fruits! You say...
Yup.. but its kind of peculiar because in all common fruits, the fructose comes packaged with a natural antidote too.. All fruits are high in fiber and the fiber binds to the fructose and carries it through your digestive system in such a way that your body is never able to absorb it. The fiber encapsulates the Fructose sugar like throwing wet sticky gum into a pile of sawdust.
When you drink fruit juices like orange juice, you're getting all the sugars, but none of the fibers. This is why fruit juice is so bad.. If you want fruit, eat the whole thing!! Don't strip out the fiber.
When you research back to the 1700's and graph the average yearly intake of sugar in our society, the graph trajectory matches the cardiovascular disease trajectory almost perfectly. The more sugar we eat, the more health problems we have. And this stuff is everywhere! Manufacturers are shoving added sugar into everything.
Cut out the sugars and your blood pressure will drop on its own.. and so will your cholesterol. I cut sugar out of my diet and my cholesterol dropped by 30% within just 4 months.. and I never lost a pound of weight.. just a diet change.