Hypertension, defined as a systolic pressure of 130 mm Hg or higher, or a diastolic pressure of 80 mm Hg or higher, is a chronic elevation of blood pressure. Having high blood pressure markedly increases a person’s risk for heart attack, stroke, or heart failure. A recent review identified the most successful dietary patterns for reducing blood pressure.
Dietary patterns play critical roles in managing blood pressure. For example, robust evidence demonstrates that reducing salt intake or adhering to a vegetarian diet reduces blood pressure. Some of the blood pressure-lowering attributes of a plant-based diet include lower sodium content, higher potassium content, increased bioavailability of nitric oxide (a potent vasodilator), and beneficial effects on the microbiome.
The authors of the review analyzed data from 50 studies conducted over a period of more than 70 years and comprising 12 distinct dietary patterns. These patterns included Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension (DASH), Mediterranean, Nordic, vegetarian, low-salt, low-carbohydrate, low-fat, high-protein, low glycemic index, portfolio, pulse, and Paleolithic diets.
The analysis revealed that the DASH diet promoted the greatest overall reductions in blood pressure, with systolic pressure dropping 3.20 to 7.62 mm Hg, and diastolic pressure dropping 2.50 to 4.22 mm Hg. Beneficial effects were noted with the Nordic, portfolio, and low-salt diets, as well. The evidence supporting the blood pressure-lowering effects of the Mediterranean, vegetarian, Paleolithic, low-carbohydrate, low glycemic index, high-protein, and low-fat diets was inconsistent. Lower salt diets effectively reduced high blood pressure among people of all ethnicities, but they also reduced blood pressure in people of Afro-Caribbean descent even if their blood pressure was normal.
These findings provide further support for dietary interventions as means to reduce blood pressure. They also underscore the need for public health messaging to promote proven dietary patterns and lower salt intake as blood pressure-lowering strategies. Many of the components in this smoothie recipe are elements of the DASH diet.
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