Posts Tagged ‘Poultry’

Eat veggies to lower your blood pressure

Monday, July 20th, 2009

I am a vegetarian.

Often people are surprised and they ask me – “How do you get your proteins (i.e. without eating meat)?”

My answer – “Vegetables also contain proteins.”

451px-Arcimboldo_Vegetables.jpg
Image Source: Wikipedia

Now a new study published in Circulation compared the blood pressure between individuals who ate vegetable protein (specifically glutamic acid along with 4 other amino acids which are relatively higher in vegetable than animal protein) with people who ate non-vegetable protein (read animal meat).

They found a difference of about -2.7/-2.0 mm Hg in blood pressure in people eating more vegetables. Although that may sound small, individual results may be different (and maybe higher for you).

Reference: Glutamic Acid, the Main Dietary Amino Acid, and Blood Pressure (The INTERMAP Study)