Why do vegetarians have lower blood pressure than nonvegetarians?
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Dr. Dean Ornish answered:While dietary salt tends to raise your blood pressure (BP), dietary potassium tends to lower it. This may be one of the reasons that vegetarians have lower blood pressure than those who eat a carnivorous or omnivorous diet, since fruits and vegetables are naturally high in potassium. Studies have shown that the intake of fiber, fruits, and vegetables is inversely associated with systolic and diastolic pressures - in other words, the more fiber, fruits, and vegetables people consumed, the lower was their blood pressure.
Dr. Frank Sacks (a professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School) and I conducted a survey of a vegetarian community many years ago that we published in The Journal of the American Medical Association. We found that blood pressure levels in vegetarians were lower than in nonvegetarians of comparable age and risk factors. Subsequent studies of Seventh-Day Adventists and other vegetarian subgroups have shown similar findings.
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While dietary salt tends to raise your blood pressure (BP), dietary potassium tends to lower it. This may be one of the reasons that vegetarians have lower blood pressure than those who eat a carnivorous or omnivorous diet, since fruits and... More
