Did You Know That Walnuts Lower Blood Pressure?

Is it possible to improve your health with just a simple change in diet? Well, that’s how it works in the case of walnuts. To be more specific, walnuts lower your blood pressure. We will tell you more about this in the following article.

A little about blood pressure

High blood pressure is a health problem that affects a large number of people around the world, and which continues to increase in scope. In addition, it usually does not cause obvious symptoms and can cause significant damage to certain organs and body tissues.

For those who have high blood pressure, cardiovascular disease or simply want to achieve a healthier lifestyle, it is good to know that a healthy diet, healthy habits and healthy, natural foods such as walnuts  can contribute to good cardiovascular health.

The nutritional value of walnuts

Walnuts are the fruit of the walnut tree, or Juglans Regio . This is one of the most widespread varieties in Europe, Southeast and Central Asia and China. In general, it is a food that is valued for its nutritional properties and bioactive components.

These qualities give them a number of beneficial properties for our health. Among these, we can mention, for example, their beneficial effect in reducing arterial pressure. In fact, walnuts lower blood pressure.

In addition, they are a type of nut, a food that is highly recognized for its ability to improve our well-being. In fact, eating nuts has been popular for a long time, especially as part of the Mediterranean diet. This is because the evidence suggests that they have a positive effect on the heart and brain health.

• More specifically, this type of food contains 65% fat and 15% protein.
• In addition, they contain only a few carbohydrates and many of these carbohydrates are a form of fiber. 
• At the same time, they stand out for their content of polyunsaturated fatty acids. Especially alpha-linolenic acid (ALA), an omega-3 fatty acid.
• They also offer a significant amount of vitamins E and B6 as well as minerals such as potassium, copper and phosphorus.

How do walnuts lower blood pressure?

As we have seen, one of the nutritional components of nuts is alpha-linolenic acid (ALA). A recent study from Pennsylvania State University found a relationship between walnut intake and improved cardiovascular health.

Researchers have seen that people who included walnuts in their regular diet had lower blood pressure than those who had the same diet without walnuts. In addition, they concluded that replacing saturated fat with unsaturated fat in the diet provided other benefits at a cardiovascular level.

The results thus show that walnuts lower blood pressure thanks to their interesting lipid profile with alpha-linolenic acid. However, all the benefits were not related to this component.

The role of the other nutrients, such as tocopherols, phenolic acids, melatonin and flavanoids, is also important. These have antioxidant properties that protect endothelial function and reduce oxidative damage to the arteries.

Proper diet for high blood pressure

High blood pressure is a health problem that affects many people and needs to be controlled. Preventing high blood pressure and controlling high values ​​if one suffers from this is important to reduce negative effects. It also reduces mortality and morbidity caused by cardiovascular problems.

Fortunately, the best way to deal with this is to implement small changes in your lifestyle. With this in mind  , the healthiest habits include the following: 

• Stay physically active. Try to exercise every day.
• Maintain a healthy weight.
• Try to keep stress levels under control. Physical exercise is one of the best activities to control stress. However, you can also try yoga, tai chi, meditation, massage, etc.
• Avoid harmful habits such as tobacco and alcohol.
• Eat healthy.

Limiting salt intake is another common dietary recommendation that should lower high blood pressure. This practice is very good for older people as well as those suffering from type 2 diabetes.

In addition , it is important to increase your intake of other minerals that should be a big part of your diet. This includes magnesium, potassium and calcium.

It is therefore important to also increase the intake of foods such as fruits, vegetables, whole grains, seeds, nuts (especially walnuts) and low-fat dairy products.

There has been a large proportion of research on the DASH diet (a nutritional approach to high blood pressure). Scientific evidence shows that combining this diet with low salt intake reduces systolic artery pressure.

Eating walnuts daily lowers blood pressure

Within a healthy diet, such as the Mediterranean diet or the DASH diet, consuming foods such as nuts can help prevent high blood pressure and its harmful effects. Of course, it is also important to acquire other healthy habits.