Adding fruits and veggies to your usual diet can lower blood pressure and improve heart health It achieves this by lowering levels of acid in the blood, researchers said However, taking acid-lowering sodium bicarbonate did not lower blood pressure as much as more fruits and veggies did TUESDAY, Aug. 6, 2024 (HealthDay News) -- Eating more fruits and veggies can lower and improve heart health by reducing acid levels in the body, a new clinical trial finds. People who added two to four cups of fruits and vegetables to their daily diet wound up with lower blood pressure and reduced heart disease risk, as well as improved kidney health, trial results published Aug.
6 in the showed. “This supports our recommendation that fruits and vegetables should be ‘foundational’ treatment for patients with hypertension, because we accomplish all three goals [kidney health, lower blood pressure and reduced cardiovascular disease risk] with fruits and vegetables, and we can do so with lower medication doses,” said researcher , an associate professor of population health with the University of Texas at Austin Medical School. In other words, doctors should first have people eat more fruits and veggies before starting them on blood pressure medications, the researchers said.
“Dietary interventions for chronic disease management are often not recommended and even less often executed because of the many challenges to get patients to implement them,” explained lead researcher , a professo.