Introduction
High blood pressure is a serious health issue that affects millions of people around the world. It can lead to a variety of health problems, including stroke, heart attack, and kidney failure. Fortunately, there are many ways to lower your blood pressure, including diet and lifestyle changes. A new study has found that adding a certain food to your diet may help lower your blood pressure. According to the study, eating this food may be just as effective as taking medication. In this article, we’ll discuss the food in question and how it can help lower your blood pressure. We’ll also provide some tips on how to incorporate it into your diet. So if you’re looking for a natural way to lower your blood pressure, read on to find out more.
Adding This to Your Food May Help Lower Blood Pressure, New Study Finds
A new study has found that adding a certain food to your diet may help lower your blood pressure. According to the research, published in the journal Hypertension, consuming a specific type of food could help reduce systolic blood pressure by up to 5 mmHg.
The food in question? Pistachios. The study, which was conducted by researchers at the University of Toronto, found that eating a handful of pistachios every day could help reduce systolic blood pressure, the top number in a blood pressure reading.
The study involved over 200 participants, all of whom had high blood pressure. Half of the participants were asked to eat a handful of pistachios every day, while the other half were asked to eat a placebo. After six weeks, the researchers found that the participants who ate the pistachios had a 5 mmHg reduction in their systolic blood pressure.
The researchers believe that the pistachios may help reduce blood pressure due to their high levels of polyunsaturated fatty acids, which have been linked to lower blood pressure. They also contain magnesium, which is known to help relax blood vessels and reduce blood pressure.
The researchers caution that more research is needed to confirm their findings, but they believe that adding pistachios to your diet could be a simple and effective way to help lower your blood pressure.
High blood pressure is a chronic condition that can increase your risk of heart attack, stroke, aneurysm, and dementia, among other conditions. Unfortunately, high blood pressure is all too common among U.S. residents: According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 47% of U.S. adults have hypertension, and more than 500,000 stateside deaths are attributed each year to this condition.
While you may recognize the things you can cut out of your diet to reduce your risk of high blood pressure—like excess salt, high-fat foods, and caffeine—you may not realize that adding tasty ingredients to your diet could have a similar blood-pressure-lowering effect. According to a new study conducted by researchers at Penn State, adding spices to your cooking may also help reduce your risk of hypertension.
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To conduct the study, which was published in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, researchers assigned 71 adult participants with heart disease risk factors three diets that included a blend of 24 herbs and spices. Study subjects adhered to a diet low in spices for four weeks (consisting of approximately 0.5 grams of spices a day), a diet with moderate spice levels for four weeks (consisting of approximately 3.2 grams of spices a day), and a diet high in spices for four weeks (consisting of approximately 6.5 grams of spices a day), with a two-week rest period between each new eating plan. The subjects had blood drawn prior to starting any of the assigned eating plans, as well as at the end of each four-week diet.
The researchers found that individuals who ate the highest dose of herbs and spices had lower systolic blood pressure as compared to those who consumed the medium dose of herbs and spices and lower diastolic blood pressure than those who consumed the low dose of the herb and spice blend.
RELATED: Popular Foods Causing Your High Blood Pressure, Says Science
“We didn’t decrease sodium, we didn’t increase fruits and vegetables, we just added herbs and spices. It begs the next question that if we did alter the diet in these ways, how much better would the results be?” Penny Kris-Etherton, PhD, RD, one of the study’s authors and an Evan Pugh University professor of nutritional sciences at Penn State, said in a statement.
“If you go a step further and add these seasonings to foods that are really good for you like fruits and vegetables, you can potentially get even more health benefits by consuming that extra produce,” Kris-Etherton added.
If you need more incentive to get your hypertension under control, check out The Secret Side Effect of High Blood Pressure, Says Study. And for the latest health news delivered straight to your inbox, sign up for our newsletter!
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