• E-mail
• Print
• Comment
• Font Size
• Digg
• del.icio.us
• Discuss article

Plant Foods Linked to Better Blood Pressure

Posted on: Monday, 9 January 2006, 18:10 CST

By Amy Norton

NEW YORK -- People who fill up on vegetables, whole grains and fruit tend to have healthier blood pressure levels than their more carnivorous peers, according to an international study published Monday.

The findings, say researchers, bolster recommendations that adults eat more plant-based foods for the sake of their cardiovascular health.

The study found that among nearly 4,700 middle-aged adults in four countries, those who ate more vegetable protein -- from grains, vegetables, beans and fruit -- tended to have lower blood pressure.

Even a small increase in the proportion of calories derived from vegetable protein translated into a dip in blood pressure, according to findings published in the Archives of Internal Medicine.

The apparent benefit was independent of other factors, like exercise, sodium intake and body weight, said the study's lead author, Dr. Paul Elliott of Imperial College London.

The findings, he told Reuters Health, lend more support to recommendations that people eat more plant-based foods to prevent high blood pressure and its related ills, which include heart disease and kidney failure.

The study included 4,680 adults ages 40 to 59 from the UK, US, China and Japan. Over roughly 6 weeks, participants had their blood pressure measured repeatedly, and on four separate occasions they told the researchers what they'd eaten over the past 24 hours. The subjects also completed questionnaires on other health and lifestyle factors.

Overall, the study found, average blood pressure levels dipped as vegetable protein intake increased. The opposite was true of animal protein intake, but that relationship appeared to be explained by the heavier weights of people who ate more meat and dairy.

It's difficult to pinpoint why vegetable proteins are linked to lower blood pressure, according to Elliott and his colleagues. For instance, they note, by eating a lot of vegetable protein, people tend to take in high amounts of fiber and magnesium, which may account for at least some of the blood pressure effects.

Vegetable proteins also contain specific amino acids -- the "building blocks" of protein -- that research suggests help control blood pressure.

In this study, Elliott pointed out, people whose diets favored vegetable protein over animal protein consumed a very different "amino acid mix" than those with diets rich in animal products. This raises the possibility, he said, that the blood pressure benefits are related to certain amino acids found in high amounts in plant foods.

SOURCE: Archives of Internal Medicine, January 9, 2006.

Source: REUTERS

More News in this Category