The Heart-Healthy Late-Night Snack That Won't Raise Your Blood Pressure

If you're into intermittent fasting, a late-night snack is probably well outside your eating window. For others, that hard workout after work fired up your metabolism so much that your healthy dinner left you hungry just as you settled into your bed. While a little snack before bed is fine for most people, many processed snacks like chips and pretzels tend to be high in sodium. People with high blood pressure should ideally limit their daily sodium to 1,500 milligrams, according to the American Heart Association.

One late-night snack option to consider is kefir milk. Kefir is similar to yogurt in that it's fermented milk, but kefir uses kefir grains to ferment the milk. Kefir tastes similar to drinkable yogurt, yet it has many more strains of probiotics to improve the health of your gut. Like milk and yogurt, kefir milk is a good source of calcium, providing almost 300 milligrams in a cup. Potassium and magnesium are two minerals in kefir that make it a great drink to help reduce your blood pressure. Kefir is also low in sodium, but its antioxidants and other compounds can improve your overall cardiovascular health.

Health researchers are exploring the strong connection between gut health and chronic diseases. A 2018 review in Cellular Physiology and Biochemistry explained how kefir milk could play a role in restoring the health of your gut to reduce your risk of cardiovascular and metabolic diseases. The antioxidants in kefir help neutralize harmful free radicals that can damage blood vessels and lead to heart problems. It also supports natural blood pressure regulation and blocks certain enzymes that can raise blood pressure.

(Find out what happens to your body when you eat fermented foods like kefir every day.)

Kefir may also help prevent atherosclerosis (narrowing of the arteries) and manage cholesterol levels. Compounds in kefir reduce inflammation, protecting blood vessels from damage. The live cultures in kefir can block cholesterol absorption in the gut while helping the body eliminate excess cholesterol. A 2021 study in PharmaNutrition found that kefir lowered blood pressure, blood glucose, and LDL cholesterol while increasing HDL cholesterol in women with metabolic syndrome. Kefir also reduced the 10-year risk of a cardiovascular event.

You might want to add kefir to your diet for other health benefits. A 2021 article in Oxidative Medicine and Cellular Longevity investigated how the natural substances in kefir could improve your health. Those little probiotics produce organic acids and peptides that kill off toxin-producing fungi and harmful bacteria such as strep, salmonella, and E. coli.

While sugar is often linked to poor gut health, a natural sugar in kefir called kefiran can promote a healthy gut better than other probiotics. Kefiran helps your gut produce short-chain fatty acids like butyrate that lower cholesterol, regulate appetite, and strengthen the lining in your gut. This same substance also reduces the harmful bacteria in your gut while boosting the beneficial bacteria. Other peptides can restore the balance in your gut that can get thrown off due to menopause and other hormonal changes.

Natural compounds in kefir might also help fight cancer by disrupting the structure and energy supply in cancer cells. Lactic and acetic acids in kefir have shown promise in protecting colon cells from DNA damage. Kefir might also reduce oxidative stress and cell damage that are linked to neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson's and Alzheimer's.