A huge international study has just confirmed what medical scientists have long speculated — and what nutritionists have long promoted to their clients: People who eat more vegetables and other plant food have a healthier blood pressure than people who eat more meat do. Published this year in the renowned medical journal Annals of Internal Medicine, the study found that a diet rich in vegetables, fruits, legumes, and whole grains could lower a person’s blood pressure, whereas eating meat will raise it.
It’s a big finding, of course, because hypertension is a significant risk factor for heart attacks, strokes, and heart disease — essentially any severe cardiovascular health problem. Thus, if a simple dietary change can help eliminate a risk factor, then it might help reduce the number of heart problems in people all over the world. What it certainly does is strengthen the recommendation that all adults should eat more plant foods for the sake of their heart.
Researchers in London compared the diet and blood pressure of about 4,700 men and women in their 40s and 50s who lived in four different countries. (The countries included the U.S., Britain, China, and Japan.) They recorded each person’s blood pressure eight separate times and studied a detailed food diary that each person kept over a period of six weeks.
The results were clear: Those who got the most protein from vegetables, grains, and beans tended to have a lower blood pressure. Overall, blood pressure levels dipped when more vegetables were eaten. Meanwhile, these important levels spiked with the increasing amount of meat protein that was consumed.
Why this is so, we don’t exactly know. Those who ate more meat were heavier, and that added weight certainly has an impact on blood pressure. But why vegetables actually lower blood pressure is a bit of a mystery — but a positive mystery at least. The researchers suggest that it could be due to the fact that vegetables are packed full of fiber, magnesium, and a few other nutrients known to influence blood pressure.
Whatever the case may be, even a tiny increase in vegetable protein in the diet equaled a drop in blood pressure. This is good news for everybody — just substitute meat with veggies and legumes a few times a week instead and you will help your heart.
This dietary link occurred regardless of any other factors, such as salt intake, body weight, and exercise levels. Research in the past has found similar results, but the difference was that scientists believed it was due to the fact that vegetarians generally weighed less than meat eaters did. This remains true, although now this study proves that regardless of one’s weight the addition of vegetable protein and subtraction of meat protein will lower blood pressure.
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Tags: blood pressure, heart disease
