Researchers have found the best soup recipe for hypertension.
It’s starting to get very cold, there’s nothing better than a nice steaming soup to warm you up. In addition to being comforting, soup is a nourishing, healthy food that is easy to prepare and full of benefits for immunity, energy, digestion and maintaining a healthy weight. That’s not all: researchers have found the best soup recipe to quickly lower blood pressure.
To do this, they divided 18 adults (16 women and 2 men) aged 50 to 75 suffering from mild hypertension into two groups who had to consume a bowl of soup every day, noon and evening, for a month. The only difference was that the two groups did not have the same soup recipe: there was a green soup and an orange soup. After two weeks, the two groups switched their soups. At the end of the study, the researchers found that the green soup lowered the participants’ blood pressure by 2.5 points while the orange soup showed no significant effect on blood pressure. Levels of triglycerides, which are fats in the blood, also decreased with the green soup, which is a good sign for overall cardiovascular health.
What did these two soups contain? The orange soup (no effect on blood pressure) was composed of potatoes, pumpkin, carrots and sweet potatoes. As for the green soup with hypotensive effects, it was based on broccoli, kale, green cabbage and cauliflower. “Increased consumption of cruciferous vegetables (cabbage, broccoli, etc.) leads to a reduction in systolic blood pressure compared to root vegetables and squash. This benefit may be due to the presence of certain nutrients in greater quantities in cruciferous vegetables, including nitrates, vitamin K and magnesium, three nutrients that help relax and dilate blood vessels.“, specify the researchers in the journal BMC Medicine.
The effects on blood pressure were observed with a quantity of two bowls of 300 g per day. This may seem like a lot, but it is possible to adjust the quantity according to your needs or preferences, consuming the soup over several meals or integrating it into an overall balanced diet.
Some recommendations for maintaining healthy blood pressure: Salt is a major contributing factor to hypertension, so limit its consumption by favoring fresh, minimally processed foods. Exercise regularly: Physical activity helps maintain stable blood pressure. A daily walk can already have a beneficial effect on cardiovascular health.
