Four servings or more of roasted, cooked, fried or mashed potatoes can increase the risk of developing hypertension, according to a study published in the medical journal BMJ . In turn, according to research, substituting potatoes for another type of vegetable that does not contain starch can reduce the risk of high blood pressure. The authors pointed out that, compared to other vegetables, the potato contains a high glycemic index that carries a risk of increasing blood sugar levels. The potato is among the most consumed foods in the world and has recently been included among the healthy vegetables by the American government due to its high potassium content. But until now its relationship with hypertension had not been studied.
In this case, researchers from the Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School set out to analyze whether the long-term intake of cooked, roasted, mashed, fried or chips (bagged) potatoes could be related to the hypertension. To do this, they monitored the diet of 187,000 men and women for twenty years , with special attention to the frequency of their consumption of potatoes. After considering other risk factors associated with hypertension, they found that four or more weekly servings of boiled, roasted or mashed potatoes resulted in increased blood pressure in women, but not in men . A high consumption of potato chips posed a risk of raising blood pressure in both men and women. In contrast, eating a lot of potato chips (chips) does not appear to be associated with increased risk.
