Vegetarian diet can reduce high blood pressure:


Washington, Jan 12 : A new study titled 'The Silent Killer' and published in 'Nutrition Reviews' has revealed that high blood pressure can be reduced with diet changes, especially a vegetarian diet.

The study has analyzed the results of published studies and reached the conclusion that vegetarian populations have lower rates of hypertension.

The researchers said that vegetarians tend to be slimmer, on average, and that is one reason their blood pressure is often in the healthy range. Other mechanisms include vegetarians' higher intake of potassium as well as the tendency of plant-based foods to modulate blood viscosity. As blood pressure is lowered, vegetarian populations experience a reduced risk of stroke, heart attack, and kidney failure.

"Many people fear the side effects of blood pressure-lowering drugs, along with the expense. Our analysis of 80 scientific studies suggests that a vegetarian diet may be a simple, drug- free treatment for "the 'silent killer," said Dr. Susan E. Berkow, an eminent nutritionist and lead author of the study.

"My advice to people at risk for hypertension is to substitute a veggie burger for a hamburger tonight and have pasta marinara without the meatballs tomorrow. After about six weeks of such simple changes you might see your blood pressure, and your body weight, begin to drop," she added. (ANI)

http://news.newkerala.com/health-ne...llnews&id=59235

ah, the PCRM are at it again, sigh.....

it's astounding to me that any mainstream journalist pays any attention to anything they say....


http://www.nytimes.com/2005/01/11/health/11regi.html

Regimens: Cause, Effect and Vegetables
By JOHN O'NEIL

Published: January 11, 2005

Many large-scale epidemiological studies have found that vegetarians are less likely than meat eaters to have high blood pressure. But moving from that observation to proof of cause and effect can be difficult, because the findings may reflect an unknown third factor - for example, a tendency of vegetarians to do other healthy things as well.

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An article in the January issue of the journal Nutrition Reviews examined a number of studies that found ways around that difficulty, in some cases by comparing two groups who led similar lives except for diet. One set of researchers, for instance, turned to monks. Trappists are strict vegetarians, and Benedictines are not, and blood pressure, they found, was lower in Trappist monasteries.

Other researchers compared Seventh-day Adventists, who avoid alcohol, nicotine, caffeine and meat, with Mormons, who shun those substances except meat. The researchers found that fewer Adventists had hypertension and that the gap widened with age.

Other researchers have tried to settle the question experimentally, by assigning meat-eating subjects to vegetarian or omnivorous diets, according to the new article, whose lead author was Dr. Susan E. Berkow of the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine.

One such study, of people with normal blood pressure, found that six weeks without meat led to an average drop of 5 points in systolic pressure, the upper number, and a 2-or-3-point drop in diastolic pressure.

In a yearlong study of mild hypertension, the blood pressure of people on a vegetarian diet dropped compared with those still eating meat, even though three-quarters of the vegetarian group stopped taking medication for high blood pressure.

My mother who has been vegetarian for years has high blood pressure. When I was vegan so did I.....But no longer whilst lcing......

Luke

You had high blood pressure as a vegatarian and not as an lcer? That is significant to me. I have always had respect for a vegetarian diet. And thought that in general it was mostly healthy. After being on Atkins for 6 months I think it is not the best lifestyle.

And of course you have the militant veggies that value mesquitoes over humans.

This kind of reporting reminds me what a media bias there is toward lc. One little veggie study with slight improvement gets headlines. A big lc result is not mentioned too much and of course given the disclaimer "one study dosent prove anything"

Yes, I faithfully followed the "Mcdougal program for a healthy heart" (essentially the same as ornish)...my blood pressure which had been normal before then went up, and so did my cholesterol.


I don't think vegetarian diets are always a bad thing, its just when it becomes a fat free, high carb, low protien thing that it needs to be given a boot imo.
Presently I am not a vegetarian, but 3/4 of my days I do eat vegetarian...however that includes eggs, tofu, and varied full fat dairy, simply because i don't particulary enjoy the taste of meat all to often.

I wonder why no one mentioned body weight/blood pressure connection. You can be overweight and even obese following vegeterian and even vegan diet if you consume lots of carbs in the form of starches. I believe blood pressure and cholesterol will drop on any diet resulted in weight loss, low carb or low fat.

This vegetarian thing is more fashion than anything else.

Today, I think the majority of people (and frankly, the average person doesn't think about nutrition all that much) somehow perceive a vegetarian diet as the most 'healthful'. The media and knowitalls have been bashing red meat and fat for so long, everybody THINKS eating vegetarian is somehow the ideal.

"Oh, she eats SO healthful, she's a vegetarian. I could never eat that way myself, but she is so righteous, she can do it."

Of course, that's just fashion. A hundred years ago, people looked at vegetarians as cult-like weirdos. "Everybody KNOWS you need meat for strength and health. I eat mostly potatoes because I'm dirt-poor, but boy, I'd eat as much meat as I could get my hands on."

And, I could be mistaken, but anthropologists acknowledge there has never been a fully vegan society, ever. Except for a few religious sects or fringe groups, no free-living society, whether hunter-gatherer, agriculturalist, northerner, tropical, or whatever has EVER been purely vegetarian. (At least not voluntarily.) Unless you are growing fat starchy crops, it is dang hard to subsist on wild plants. More than 75% of them are poisonous, and the rest don't provide enough calories to live on.

Funny, my blood pressure dropped from 140/90 to 120/70 within a few months of switching to a LC diet, and has stayed there.

When I ate high carb, I was facing the prospect of beginning to take blood pressure medications for the rest of my life, as my father did. Now, it's not an issue.

And I'm supposed to give up my chicken cesar salad for a veggie buger and pasta marinara? Bleh!

The average vegetarian burger has 400mg sodium per 2½ oz patty. Add a bun, there's 250mg sodium ... a ¾ oz slice of soy cheese, 250mg ... ketchup, 200mg ... pickle slices, 300mg. Total: 1,400mg sodium and 16g protein.

A Big Mac: 1,070mg sodium and 26g protein.




Doreen

Really good point. My in-laws were 7th Day Adventists, strict vegetarians, and shopped in church-run stores eating meat substitutes. My mother-in-law had high blood pressure and coronary disease. She also ate a lot of chips and other salty snack as many vegetarians do. Young people, especially, eat really unhealthy vegetarian meals, but pride themselves on not eating meat. There is no substitute for knowledge and good sense.