Spanish research shows that increasing intake of vegetable protein and cereal fiber could lower the risk of hypertension by up to 50%.

Since 1991, after a series of studies that consistently showed fruit and vegetable-rich diet resulted in lower incidences of heart disease and some cancers; the World Health Organization (WHO) has been advising the five-a-day diet.

According to the lead author of the study, Alvaro Alonso of University of Navarra in Pamplona, Spain:

Dietary fibre and protein have long been linked to improved blood pressure by cross-sectional studies, but these either did not account for differences between animal and vegetable protein or did not account for minerals in vegetables.

There has previously been no available prospective information about fiber and the risk of hypertension in populations outside the United States.

Therefore 5880 Spanish university graduates in the Seguimiento Universidad de Navarra (SUN) have been enrolled in the study that led to the above findings and was reported in the Archives of Medical Research (Vol. 37, pp. 778-786).

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