Treating potatoes as a healthy vegetable may increase hypertension risk, according to a US study published today.
The inclusion of potatoes as vegetables in US government healthy meals programmes prompted a team of researchers to examine their effect on hypertension in an observational study.
In the UK peeled potatoes are already excluded from guidance that advises the public to eat five portions of fruit and vegetables a day.
And British experts said the study failed to prove the claimed link between potatoes and blood pressure.
Researchers looked at the links between consumption of potato prepared in several different ways on hypertension in three large cohort studies including 187,453 participants followed for over 20 years.
This showed that, compared with eating less than one serving a month, the risk of being diagnosed with hypertension was 11% for four or more servings a week of baked, boiled, or mashed potatoes. For French fries the risk from an equivalent consumption was raised by 17%.
Reporting in the BMJ, the researchers add that, according to their calculations, replacing one serving a day of baked, boiled, or mashed potatoes with one serving a day of non-starchy vegetables may reduce the hypertension risk by about 7%.
Researcher Dr Lea Borgi, of Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Boston, USA, said: "In our observational study participants who did not have high blood pressure at baseline, and consumed four or more servings a week of potatoes (boiled, baked or mashed) later had a higher risk of developing hypertension compared to those who consumed one or less than one serving a month.
"Additionally, we found that if a participant replaced one serving of boiled, baked or mashed potato per day with a non-starchy vegetable, it was associated with a lower risk of hypertension."
They suggest the high glycaemic load in potatoes may be a key factor.
But Victoria Taylor, of the British Heart Foundation, said: "We cannot conclude that potatoes cause high blood pressure and we cannot explain the cause of the effects seen in the study among higher consumers of potatoes.
“Although a higher consumption of potatoes, such as mashed potatoes or French Fries, was associated with high blood pressure, it is still possible that other factors in the diet or lifestyle are also affecting the results, especially as both the blood pressure and food frequency were self-reported."
Borgi, L. et al. Potato intake and incidence of hypertension: results from three prospective US cohort studies. BMJ 18 May 2016 doi: 10.1136/bmj.i2351 [abstract]
Leave a Reply