High blood pressure? Go vegetarian!

From HealthDayNews:

Vegetarians tend to have lower blood pressure than the general population, but it hasn't been clear whether their diet or their lifestyle guards them against hypertension.

Now, a new review of previously published studies claims that diet provides the protection.

"It's the diet itself, and it is clearly the diet of choice for people who want to get their blood pressure under control," said Dr. Neal D. Barnard, president and founder of the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine and co-author of the report, which appears in the January issue of Nutrition Reviews.

Barnard, a nutritionist and author of the book Breaking the Food Seduction: The Hidden Reasons Behind Food Cravings and Seven Steps to End Them Naturally, concluded that a person who suffers from hypertension and has yet to switch to a vegetarian diet is "really trying to fight their condition with one arm tied behind their back."

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