Want more from your first meal of the day than a way to keep your stomach from growling through your 8 a.m. meeting? Adding certain foods to your plate, bowl or baggie can lower your blood pressure (and jump-start your metabolism and get you out the door so quickly that it looks like you got up on time). Here's how:

Sprinkle flaxseed on your cereal. Your whole-grain cereal (only 100 percent whole grains should be on the label -- sorry, Cap'n Crunch) lowers blood pressure, and ground flaxseeds give pressure an extra kick. They contain alpha-linolenic acid (ALA), a nutrient that relaxes blood vessels.

Stir chopped walnuts into oatmeal. These are loaded with ALA, and their protein and healthy fat profile pushes blood sugar, blood pressure and lousy (LDL) cholesterol down. Plus, the fiber in this combo stops raid-the-vending-machine hunger later in the day.

Whip berries into your smoothie. One study recorded a seven-point dip in systolic (the top number) pressure from a daily dose of berries. And no study needs to be done to prove they make smoothies taste great.

Toss a tomato onto your egg-white omelet. The lycopene in cooked tomatoes has a talent for tamping down blood pressure. No time to cook? Watermelon and pink grapefruit are richer in this nutrient than Bill Gates is in dollars (maybe not quite; just making sure you were still reading).

Grab a yogurt. Making nonfat, no-sugar-added dairy products such as yogurt (look for ones containing probiotics) a regular part of your diet can reduce hypertension risk by 30 percent.

========

The YOU Docs -- Mike Roizen and Mehmet Oz -- are authors of "YOU: Being Beautiful -- The Owner's Manual to Inner and Outer Beauty." To submit questions and find ways to grow younger and healthier, go to www.RealAge.com, the docs' online home. (c) 2009 Michael Roizen, M.D. and Mehmet Oz, M.D. Distributed by King Features Syndicate, Inc.