Can changing your diet really lower your blood pressure? Here’s how to eat to protect your heart

Recently there was a very eye-catching scientific news: Experts from the Peking University Clinical Research Institute relied solely on a "Chinese heart-healthy diet" without taking any medication, and were able to significantly lower the blood pressure of hypertensive patients within 4 weeks !

According to the data from this research paper, the effect of changing diet really looks amazing. A total of 265 patients with hypertension participated in the study. In just one month, systolic blood pressure dropped by 10 mmHg and diastolic blood pressure dropped by 3.8 mmHg. There were no adverse reactions, and the patients who participated in the experiment also felt that the three meals were not bad, and they were almost as delicious as their own meals...

The researchers rated the food's deliciousness at 97 out of 100 for their usual diet.

A friend asked me: Is this true? Can just changing what you eat make such a big difference in blood pressure? If it is true, then high blood pressure is not that difficult to treat. Maybe half of the people can return to normal!

I said: Any research result has its premise.

High blood pressure can be caused by many reasons . If you have high blood pressure because you eat improperly, then changing your diet can really work wonders. Because it just solves the cause of the disease!

If it is caused by other reasons, it is not necessarily the case. For example, some people have high blood pressure due to tumors on the adrenal glands or cervical spondylosis, which cannot be solved by changing diet alone. For example, some people have high blood pressure due to excessive mental stress or severe insomnia, which is also difficult to completely solve by eating, but it may be slightly improved.

My friend said: I understand this. However, most people suffer from high blood pressure because of improper diet.

I said: You are absolutely right. I looked at the data of this study. How should I put it? It is not surprising that they have high blood pressure according to their original eating habits. This heart-healthy diet has such a great effect, which only basically achieves a reasonable nutritional state. It shows how poorly they ate before...

My friend said: I looked at those heart-healthy eating methods, and I don't think there is much technical content. The nutritional value of stir-fried cabbage with vermicelli is not that high, so how can it be included in the heart-healthy diet? I thought they would include some celebrity healthy ingredients such as salmon, avocado, arugula, blueberries and kiwis.

I said: You are wrong. The significance of this recipe is that it is purely Chinese, without those fancy foreign ingredients. It looks plain and the cost is not high, but the recipe content is really a big change and is good for heart health.

The first is that the amount of salt (sodium) consumed has changed.

The article clearly states that these people used to eat 6,000 mg of sodium per day on average, but after eating this healthy diet, they only ate 3,000 mg of sodium per day, which is half the amount! Apart from anything else, just reducing the amount of salt will change your blood pressure!

My friend asked: "Does it mean that I used to eat 6 grams of salt, but now I eat 3 grams? That would be so bland!"

I said: Please look carefully, 6000 mg of sodium is not 6 grams of salt!

Knowledge Point 1

Learn how to convert sodium content to salt content. 1000 mg of sodium = 2.54 g of salt. If you do the math, 6000 mg of sodium is 16.24 g of salt. 3000 mg of sodium is about 8 g of salt.

In my family's daily cooking, we use about 6-8 grams of salt (including the salt in soy sauce and paste), and the taste is not too light. Every dish has a salty taste, and sometimes we eat a small piece of fermented bean curd or half a salted duck egg in the morning.

My friend was surprised again: You actually eat fermented bean curd! I don’t even dare to eat it.

I said: As long as the total sodium content does not exceed the standard, why can't I eat it? Don't label food. What matters is the overall effect. I bought the one with the lowest sodium content among fermented bean curd products, which has one-third less salt than the products with higher sodium content. I also use low-sodium salt when cooking.

Knowledge Point 2

By using low-sodium salt and salt-reducing products, you can reduce salt intake by 1/4 to 1/3, provided you add the same amount of regular salt as before and do not add any extra.

In addition, proper cooking of food can also help reduce salt. This study involved culinary experts, who used cooking techniques to make dishes less salty and less unpalatable, and the subjects would be more accepting of healthy eating. Adding more spices, more vinegar and lemon juice, and a small amount of chili to make the dishes more flavorful will not affect the blood pressure control effect.

Knowledge Point 3

Avoid marinating food in advance, and add salt or soy sauce to season the dishes when they are ready. This can easily reduce sodium salt by 1/3 with less impact on the taste.

My friend said: "Okay, okay, this recipe is indeed very effective in reducing salt. What else is there to like?"

Secondly, it significantly increases the supply of potassium, calcium and magnesium.

Compared with the diet the subjects had eaten before, the heart-healthy diet increased potassium intake by an average of 1,753 mg per day and calcium intake by an average of 413 mg per day, almost doubling the intake. The potassium intake per day can reach or exceed the recommended value of 3,600 mg for preventing chronic diseases such as high blood pressure.

A friend said: I heard that patients with high blood pressure should eat a high potassium and low sodium diet. Aren't calcium and magnesium used to prevent osteoporosis?

Knowledge Point 4

Potassium, calcium, and magnesium can all counteract the blood pressure-raising effects of sodium. When they work together, they lower blood pressure even more.

I said: I am proud of the fact that the nutritional recipes I have posted on Weibo, including those for controlling blood sugar and blood pressure, have potassium, calcium and magnesium levels that fully meet the requirements of a heart-healthy diet, and the supply of multiple B vitamins is even higher. If you don't believe me, you can go and look at the data.

If you don't know how to eat a high potassium diet, please take a look at this article I wrote in 2015. This article has been highly praised by many doctors and has helped many hypertensive patients solve the problem of potassium supplementation.

A friend asked: How do I supplement calcium and magnesium?

I said: To supplement calcium, you should increase the intake of soy products, milk, yogurt and non-astringent green leafy vegetables. To supplement magnesium, you should increase the intake of soy products and green leafy vegetables.

Third, this heart-healthy diet also pays attention to controlling fat.

Chinese residents generally consume too much cooking oil, and the proportion of fat energy supply has almost doubled compared to 40 years ago. Compared with the subjects' regular diet, the fat energy supply ratio has decreased by 11%. This is not a small number, and it is also of great significance for weight loss. Only by using less oil in cooking and choosing low-fat varieties of meat and dairy ingredients can the fat ratio be reduced.

Reducing the fat in meat can reduce the intake of saturated fat. Reducing cooking oil can reduce the intake of omega-6 fatty acids in most cases, which is beneficial to improve the ratio of omega-3 and omega-6 fats, thereby reducing inflammatory responses.

Knowledge Point 5

Some seed oils have too high omega-6 fatty acid content, such as corn oil, sunflower oil, safflower oil, wheat germ oil, regular peanut oil, cottonseed oil, sesame oil, grapeseed oil, etc.

Olive oil, tea seed oil, low-erucic acid rapeseed oil, high-oleic acid peanut oil, almond oil, etc. are mainly composed of monounsaturated fatty acids, and the total amount of omega-6 fatty acids is relatively small.

Flaxseed oil, perilla seed oil, and peony seed oil have high proportions of omega-3 fatty acids.

A friend said: My family thought imported sunflower oil was particularly good, so we bought it specifically for cooking. It seems that I used it wrong.

I said: Actually, for most families, regardless of what oil to use, being able to reduce cooking oil, frying and stir-frying is already helpful for heart health. Repeatedly heated oil will produce polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and trans fatty acids. Acrylamide produced by high temperature heating is also a pro-inflammatory substance. Eating too much of these ingredients is not good for cardiovascular health.

Fourth, a heart-healthy diet improves the quality of staple foods.

The staple food of Chinese people for three meals a day is mostly rice, porridge, steamed bread, cakes, noodles, etc. made from refined rice and white flour, and the proportion of whole grains and beans is seriously insufficient. To improve heart health, you need to increase the "high-quality carbon water" ingredients such as whole grains and beans. In the heart-healthy diet, whole grains are added to pasta, and whole grains and beans are added to rice. This not only effectively increases dietary fiber, but also provides a richer supply of potassium, magnesium and B vitamins.

For many years, I have advocated that people eat whole grain rice, whole grain porridge, oatmeal and whole grain pancakes as staple food. This is not only good for heart health, but also helps prevent diabetes and help lose weight, killing two birds with one stone. Of course, what whole grains and beans to add and how much to add depends on digestion ability.

When my stomach is weak, I have to reduce the proportion of whole grains and beans to less than one-third, but I still rarely eat pure white rice when I cook at home, otherwise the nutritional quality of the meal will be difficult to meet the standard.

Fifth, this diet contains enough vegetables, fruits and dairy products.

I don't need to say much about the benefits of fruits and vegetables, everyone knows it, the key is that the quantity must meet the dietary guidelines. For example, for the same portion of stir-fried cabbage with vermicelli, how much cabbage and how much vermicelli should be in it? Of course, it is better to have more cabbage and less vermicelli. You can't just eat one dish in one meal, you also need to have a variety of varieties.

Milk provides protein, calcium and potassium, which are also needed for blood pressure control diet. However, in order to control saturated fat intake, skim milk is used in the recipe.

A friend asked: My father-in-law has cerebrovascular disease. Is this diet suitable for him? What about my five or six-year-old child?

I said: This way of eating is good for various cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases, including high blood pressure, high blood lipids, atherosclerosis, coronary heart disease, stroke, etc. It is also good for preventing and controlling diabetes .

Children aged five or six can already eat three meals a day and can eat heart-healthy food. Children who eat more whole grains, less cooking oil, and less sweets and drinks will grow firmer, have better physical strength, and are less likely to gain weight. However, children do not need to control their blood pressure, but they need more protein supply. They can add some yogurt, and milk does not need to be skimmed. Sometimes eating ice cream is also OK.

A friend said with emotion: Now it seems that there is a lot of knowledge involved in a heart-healthy diet.

Knowledge Point 6

The American Heart Association's 2021 dietary guidelines for heart health recommend increasing fruits, vegetables, whole grains, legumes, nuts, fish and poultry, moderate intake of low-fat dairy products, reducing red meat (especially processed meat), alcohol, salt, sugar and saturated fat, eating less highly processed foods, and not drinking sweetened drinks.

Of course, you should also pay attention to getting enough sleep, maintaining a good mood, avoiding excessive fatigue, and getting at least 150 minutes of moderate-intensity exercise per week.

As long as you stick to these healthy eating and living habits over a long period of time, your body will naturally get better and various indicators will improve.

My friend said: If I have to think about what to eat every day, and how to balance nutrition in all aspects, and make it healthy and delicious, I really don't have the energy to do it. It would be great if someone could prepare this kind of nutritious meal for me and send it to my home every day, or if there is a canteen where I can eat it.

I said: That's right. This study has joined hands with culinary experts to make a heart-healthy diet into four flavors: Shandong cuisine, Cantonese cuisine, Sichuan cuisine, and Huaiyang cuisine. Nutritionists designed the recipes and trained chefs provided the food, which is why it achieved such a good blood pressure-lowering effect.

If we just send the recipe to patients, or even just give them a sample and ask them to follow it themselves, it would probably be difficult for them to follow it properly and achieve the blood pressure lowering goal.

So...this highlights how important healthy catering services that can provide nutritious meals are!

Nowadays, when we talk about eating out, it means unbalanced nutrition, unhealthy cooking, and only satisfying the taste. Chefs rarely think about how to cook less oil and salt with reasonable nutritious meals to make healthy food delicious and easy to accept.

I think the scientific content of this study itself is not very revolutionary, and the effect is not surprising. Its greatest significance is to tell the Chinese that if healthy eating is truly implemented on the dining table, its health benefits are huge!

It doesn’t matter whether it’s Chinese or foreign, what cuisine it is, or the price of the ingredients. What matters is what diverse ingredients are included, whether the reduction in oil and salt is done properly, whether whole grains can be eaten, and whether the variety and quantity of vegetables meet the standards.

I expect that in the future, catering services can be divided into two types. One type focuses on providing delicious food, so that people can get more holiday joy and party fun. The other type focuses on providing healthy food, so that people can eat reasonable daily meals for disease prevention and weight loss at a reasonable price, and eat nutritious meals in Chinese style, rather than expensive light meals in Western style. In particular, we should strengthen nutrition guidance for various canteens, because canteens are a convenient source of daily food for people. If it can be done scientifically and reasonably, it will play a very important role in the healthy diet of the public.

I hope that, with the strong evidence provided by this study, the government will be determined to introduce nutrition-related regulations and truly implement policies to strengthen nutrition guidance in canteens and the catering industry.

On the other hand, we also need to strengthen the research on the implementation technology of Chinese healthy diet . In the past, we only studied how to make it more pleasing to the tongue, but now we also need to study how to make it healthy enough and more delicious. At the launch ceremony of Nutrition Week in the past two years, I have made reports on healthy cooking, which also shows that the nutrition community is paying more and more attention to the issue of implementing healthy meals.

A friend said: I am really looking forward to these research results!

I said: At the same time, there must be more effective evaluation criteria for healthy dining... Considering that the related research I am doing has not yet been completed, I need to work harder.

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Fan Zhihong_Original Nutrition Information

Toutiao contracted author

Post-scientist at Beijing Food Nutrition and Human Health Advanced Innovation Center

Director of Chinese Nutrition Society

Director of China Health Promotion and Health Education Association

China Association for Science and Technology appoints chief expert on nutrition science communication

PhD in Food Science, China Agricultural University