A new study has linked meals eaten away from home and high blood pressure, finding that dining out just once a week raises the odds of pre-hypertension by 6 percent.
Hypertension, the medical term for high blood pressure, affects approximately one in three adults in the United States, but often goes undetected because it’s difficult to tell when one has it.
Hypertension is associated with eating a lot of salt and having too much excess body fat, while eating a healthy diet can prevent or manage hypertension in many people.
The new study by the Duke-NUS Graduate Medical School Singapore tracked 501 adults aged 18 to 40 years in Singapore, collecting data on blood pressure, body mass index (BMI), and lifestyle, including meals eaten away from home.
The team of researchers found that people who had pre-hypertension or hypertension were more likely to eat meals away from home, have a higher BMI, exercise less, and smoke.
The highlighted finding in the study was the finding that eating just one extra meal out per week raised the odds of pre-hypertension by 6 percent.
“While there have been studies conducted in the United States and Japan to find behaviors associated with hypertension, very few have surveyed a Southeast Asian population,” said Dr. Tazeen Jafar, a professor in the Health Services and Systems Programme at Duke–NUS, in a statement.
“Our research plugs that gap and highlights lifestyle factors associated with pre-hypertension and hypertension that are potentially modifiable, and would be applicable to young adults globally, especially those of Asian descent.”
