Modified Chinese Food Diet Lowers BP in Hypertensive Adults

MONDAY, July 11, 2022 (HealthDay News) -- For Chinese adults with high blood pressure, a Chinese heart-healthy diet is effective and cost-effective for reducing blood pressure, according to a study published online July 11 in Circulation.

Yanfang Wang, Ph.D., from Sichuan University in Chengdu, China, and colleagues conducted a randomized feeding trial among 265 participants with baseline systolic blood pressure (SBP) of 130 to 159 mm Hg. After a seven-day run-in period on a control diet, which matched the local diets for four major Chinese cuisines (Shangdong, Huaiyang, Cantonese, and Szechuan), participants were randomly assigned to continue the control diet or the cuisine-based Chinese heart-healthy diet for 28 days (130 and 135 participants, respectively).

The researchers found that from baseline to the end of the study, the change in SBP and diastolic BP (DBP) was −15.0 and −6.7 mm Hg and −5.0 and −2.8 mm Hg in the intervention and control groups, respectively (net difference of change, −10.0 and −3.8 mm Hg for SBP and DBP, respectively). There was no difference observed in the effect size among cuisines. The mean food preference score at baseline was 9.5 out of 10, with a 0.1 net change during the intervention. Per 1-mm Hg SBP reduction, the mean incremental cost-effectiveness ratio was U.S. $0.06 per day.

"Because traditional Chinese dietary culture and cooking methods are often used wherever Chinese people live, I believe a heart-healthy Chinese diet and the principles that we used for developing the diet would be helpful for Chinese Americans as well," a coauthor said in a statement.

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