PRITIKIN ePERSPECTIVE - 10/04/00 Issue 85

Fruits/Veggies Keep Kids’ Blood Pressure In Check

Preschoolers who eat plenty of fruits and vegetables had lower blood pressure levels in their early teens than kids eating less healthy diets.

Preschoolers who eat plenty of fruits and vegetables – four or more servings daily – along with at least two servings of dairy had lower blood pressure levels in their early teens than kids eating less healthy diets, new research has found.*

Conversely, the preschoolers who ate the fewest servings of fruits and vegetables and fewer than two servings daily of dairy had the highest blood pressures in adolescence.

The study, published in the January 05 issue of Epidemiology, is the first to analyze the effect of food intake on blood pressure levels in children over several years. Never before have such studies been so important. More than 15% of school-aged children in America are now overweight or obese, and like adults, stated the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute in a recent supplement to the journal Pediatrics,** there is among children a strong correlation between obesity and rising rates of hypertension.

And like adults, concluded the new Epidemiology study, an effective way to reduce blood pressure is to follow a DASH-style (Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension) diet – one that is low in fat, includes dairy (low-fat and/or nonfat) and is rich in fruits and vegetables.

Research conducted at the Pritikin Longevity Center also noted reductions in blood pressure among children – and in as little as two weeks. In a report presented at the American Heart Association’s national conference on Cardiovascular Disease Epidemiology and Prevention in San Francisco in 2004, Dr. James Barnard of UCLA showed that among children ages 9 to 16 attending the Pritikin Family Program, systolic blood pressure dropped on average 6%, from 122 to 114; diastolic blood pressure fell 5%, from 69 to 65.

Lower blood pressure levels in childhood likely mean lower levels later in life, asserts Dr. Lynn L. Moore of Boston University, lead investigator of the Epidemiology study. “Children with lower blood pressures in adolescence are less likely to develop hypertension as adults. Parents who promote a family dietary pattern that is rich in fruits, vegetables, and dairy products may lower their own blood pressures and reduce the risk of future hypertension for their children.”

In the study, Dr. Moore and associates followed 95 children over an eight-year period, starting at ages three to six. At the end of eight years, blood pressure among those with the highest intake of both fruits and vegetables – and consuming at least two servings of dairy daily – had blood pressure levels that were, on average, seven points lower than among those who ate fewer than four servings of fruits and vegetables and fewer than two dairy servings per day.

Those early habits appear to “stick,” too. In general, the children who ate more fruits, vegetables, and dairy products at younger ages tended to continue these healthy eating habits in early adolescence.

“We acquire eating behaviors when we are young,” affirms Dr. Jay Kenney, Nutrition Research Specialist at the Pritikin Longevity Center, father himself of a six-year-old son, and educator in the Pritikin Family Program, conducted every summer at the Center. “If we teach kids to enjoy healthy foods early in life, they will do so later in life.”

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