Scientists from Capital Medical University and elsewhere found that eating leafy greens and beets could prevent high blood pressure in healthy people.
The research was published in Food & Function and was conducted by Yingrui Zhang et al.
High blood pressure is a big problem that can lead to many health issues.
It’s when the force of your blood pushing against your artery walls is too high, and it can increase the risk of heart attacks, strokes, and kidney disease.
But did you know that what you eat can affect your blood pressure?
Some studies have suggested that inorganic nitrate, which is found in certain foods like leafy greens and beets, might have an impact on blood pressure.
Researchers wanted to know more about this, so they looked at a bunch of different studies to see if inorganic nitrate could be used to prevent or treat hypertension.
They looked at 19 different studies that had been done on this topic, and they analyzed the data to see if there were any trends.
They found that in healthy people, inorganic nitrate could slightly lower systolic blood pressure, which is the top number in a blood pressure reading.
However, it didn’t seem to have any effect on diastolic blood pressure (the bottom number) or mean arterial pressure (an average of the two).
Unfortunately, when they looked at people who already had high blood pressure, they didn’t find any evidence that inorganic nitrate could lower their blood pressure.
They looked at both systolic and diastolic blood pressure, as well as 24-hour ambulatory blood pressure (which is taken throughout the day and night), and none of those measurements showed a significant difference between the groups.
So what does this all mean? Well, it suggests that inorganic nitrate might be able to help prevent high blood pressure in healthy people, but it’s not a magic solution for people who already have hypertension.
It’s important to remember that this is just one study, and more research is needed to really understand the link between inorganic nitrate and blood pressure.
In the meantime, though, it can’t hurt to eat more leafy greens and beets – they’re good for you in lots of other ways, too!
If you care about high blood pressure, please read studies that early time-restricted eating could help improve blood pressure, and coconut sugar could help reduce blood pressure and artery stiffness.
For more information about blood pressure, please see recent studies about added sugar in your diet linked to higher blood pressure, and results showing plant-based foods could benefit people with high blood pressure.
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