One of the biggest risk factors for heart disease is having high blood pressure–especially later in life.
Now researchers say they’ve uncovered a simple way to lower blood pressure to minimize your risk of cardiovascular disease as you age.
According to Boston University School of Medicine researchers, people who ate a high protein diet had a 40 percent lower risk of developing high blood pressure compared to those who consumed more carbohydrates in their diet. These weren’t just short-term effects either–they maintained these benefits over a 11 year period.
For researchers, the findings were shocking–but encouraging.
“For many years, some clinicians and dietitians have steered patients away from eating meat, dairy products, and eggs in the belief that these foods would increase the risk of heart disease,” says Lynn L. Moore, DS.c., M.P.H., an associate professor of medicine at the Preventive Medicine & Epidemiology Department of Medicine at Boston University’s School of Medicine. “More recent evidence, however, has called this advice into question. Consuming too little total protein may have unintended harmful consequences as we age.”
Moore, who helped lead the research on this study, originally came across these findings after recruiting 1,361 adults who were previously enrolled in the Framingham Offspring Study. Here, Moore and her team looked at their systolic and diastolic blood pressure in comparison to how much protein they ate in their daily diet. Then, for the next 11 years, they continued to follow the participants to see how it affected their blood pressure over the long term–something researchers hadn’t investigated yet.
By the end of her study, Moore found her answer: Protein kept their blood pressure low. For those who ate over 100 grams of protein per day–higher than the recommended amount for most diets–they reduced their risk of high blood pressure by 40 percent.
Those who didn’t eat enough protein ended up have both bad systolic and diastolic blood pressure readings, however.
“This report adds blood pressure of the list of benefits associated with consuming enough dietary protein,” says Moore. “Some of the findings were a bit surprising to me. Some previous publications have suggested that only plant protein would benefit blood pressure but our data suggest that both animal and plant proteins have blood pressure lowering effects.”
In conclusion, Moore says that protein may actually have serious benefits for those dealing with high blood pressure–and focusing on eating wholesome foods overall may be a person’s best line of defense against this health problem.
“If I were to focus on one dietary message, it would be that people eat far too much food every day that has little or no nutritional value,” says Moore.
What These Results Mean For You
If you’re battling high blood pressure, there’s no need to fear protein–it can actually be good for you. Instead, Moore recommends avoiding food with little to no nutritional value, such as snacks, foods with too much sugar, or fast food.
Readers: Have you ever tried a high protein diet?
Sources:
Higher Protein Intake Linked to Lower Blood Pressure in New Study – MedicalResearch.com
Diets Higher in Protein Predict Lower High Blood Pressure Risk in Adults – NIH.gov
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