Proteins constitute no less than 20% of the human body and, together with fats and carbohydrates, it is one of the three basic macronutrients. There are many plant and animal sources from which to obtain them, such as legumes, meats, whole grains or eggs, among others, but a study has found that obtaining dietary protein from a greater diversity of food sources could help reduce the risk of developing high blood pressure.
High blood pressure is one of the greatest risk factors for cardiovascular diseases and accidents, such as strokes, myocardial infarctions that end many lives every year. Dietary changes can be an easy and effective way to cope with and prevent high blood pressure.
The research, which has been published in the journal Hypertension, has analyzed the health of 12,177 Chinese adults with an average age of 41 years and the type of diet they had during a period of six years. Eight types of protein sources were distinguished: refined grains, whole grains, processed and unprocessed red meat, fish, poultry, eggs and legumes, which were given a score.
Eating too much or too little protein increases the risk of hypertension
The results indicated that more than 35% of the study participants developed new-onset hypertension during the follow-up time. Additionally, those with a greater variety of protein sources — four or more of the above sources — had a 66% lower risk of high blood pressure, compared to those who ate protein from less than two sources.
Eating protein from more than four different sources can help reduce the risk of high blood pressure by up to 66%
On the other hand, they also focused on dividing the participants into five categories based on the total amount of protein ingested, and found that those who ate low amounts and those who ate the highest amounts had the highest risk of developing blood pressure high, so the optimum is the recommended average consumption, which is established between 0.8 and one gram of protein for each kilo of your weight.
“The heart health message is that eating a balanced diet with protein from several different sources, rather than focusing on a single source of dietary protein, can help prevent the development of hypertension,” said Xianhui Qin, lead author of the investigation. Despite this, they recall that the study is observational in nature, so they could not definitively prove that proteins of any kind were related to hypertension.
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