Three glasses of low-fat milk and eight to 10 apples a day can keep the doctor away, says a study published in the New England Journal of Medicine.
Researchers don't know which individual nutrients are responsible, but a combination diet rich in low-fat dairy products, fruits and vegetables helps lower blood pressure and can eliminate the need for medication in many people with mild hypertension.It was probably the calcium - or maybe the potassium and magnesium from the milk and low-fat cheese. Perhaps the extra fiber from all those fruits and vegetables had something to do with it. The reduction in saturated fat and cholesterol couldn't have hurt.
For whatever reason, a low-fat diet (27 percent or fewer calories from fat) with eight to 10 servings of fruit and vegetables and at least three servings of low-fat dairy products such as 1 percent low-fat milk (which is about twice as much as most of us consume on average each day) significantly lowered blood pressure within two weeks and kept the pressure lower for the eight to 10 weeks people remained in the study.
The multicenter study was funded by the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute. It compared a "typical American" control diet with a "fruit and vegetable" diet and a "combination diet," which added low-fat dairy products.
The combination diet lowered blood pressure even with no changes in weight, and the pattern of blood pressure reduction was similar in men, women, minorities and nonminorities.
All three diets had a similar moderate sodium content (about 3,000 milligrams per day) and participants were all allowed up to three caffeinated and two alcoholic beverages per day.
At 27 percent, the fat content was only slightly lower than the 30 percent recommended for all Americans.
The public health ramifications are great because the diet is not too extreme for the general population and because all of the participants responded equally well.
"Food is very powerful," says Dr. Judith Stern, immediate past president of the American Society for Clinical Nutrition. "We now have important evidence based on science that a certain dietary pattern including low-fat dairy products, fruits and vegetables can effectively lower blood pressure. It's time to consider these findings in our recommendations to the public."
With nearly 50 million Americans having hypertension and considering the billions of dollars spent each year on blood pressure medications, these findings have important public health and clinical implications, agrees Dr. George Blackburn, president of the society.
- Carolyn Poirot
Fort Worth Star-Telegram