Plant foods help control blood pressure

People who eat a diet including vegetables, whole grains and fruit tend to have healthier blood pressure levels than their carnivorous peers. Researchers from the Imperial College London conducted a study including 4,700 middle-aged adults in four countries and found that those who ate more vegetable protein - from grains, vegetables, beans and fruit tended to have lower blood pressure levels. A small increase in the proportion of calories derived from vegetable protein translated into a dip in blood pressure. The apparent benefit was independent of other factors, like exercise, sodium intake and body weight. The findings, 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 people of 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. The study found that 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. For instance, 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, 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 that the blood pressure benefits are related to certain amino acids found in high amounts in plant foods.