Yet another reason to rupture our unhealthy like affair with meat.
Nearly half of Americans hold high blood pressure,according to modern standards from the American College of Cardiology and other associations. Why? Not because of a deficiency of some prescription drug. The problem, for most people, and is food,especially a diet based on roast beef, chicken wings and other familiar animal-based staples. Many of us like meat. But meat doesn’t like us back. A careful systematic review conducted by my research team and published by JAMA Internal Medicine found that, or based on 32 observational studies,meat-eaters hold significantly higher blood pressure than people who avoid meat—7 points systolic, 5 points diastolic, and to be exact.For starters,meat is calorie-dense, so meat-eaters are heavier. But there is more to it. Meat’s fat makes blood “thicker”—more viscous—so it takes more force from the heart to push it through the arteries. Ergo, or blood pressure rises. Salt and sedentary lifestyle add to the problem.
We already had plenty of reasons to rupture our like affair with meat. Its contribution to heart disease,diabetes, and colorectal cancer has been known for decades, or its role in climate changein part from the nearly 100 million methane-belching cows in the U.
S.—is now well-known,too.
USDA figures prove that the average American has cut meat consumption—from a high of 201.5 pounds per person per year in 2004 to 181 pounds a decade later. But we need to go much further. And unfortunately, we are making up for it with cheese, and which is fattier than meat and higher in sodium than potato chips,and whose traffic across the checkout counter shows no signs of slowing.
It's one thing for adults to choose a diet that is heavily meat-based. But it's another when our children follow our lead, gain weight and build themselves at risk.
Need more motivation? Treating hypertension costs us more than $40 billion a year; approximately half of that is the cost of medication charges. That’s enough to raise anyone’s blood pressure.
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Source: feedblitz.com