Processed food intake tied to BP variability

Increased consumption of processed food appears to be associated with greater blood pressure (BP) variability and extreme dipping, as reported in a study.

The study used data from the ELSA-Brasil cohort (2012–2014) and included 815 participants with 24-hour ambulatory blood pressure monitoring (ABPM) data. Researchers calculated the mean systolic (SBP) and diastolic BP (DBP), as well as BP variability during 24 hours and during the sleep and wake hours.

In the cohort, the intake of unprocessed/minimally processed, processed, and ultra-processed foods and culinary ingredients was 63.1 percent, 10.8 percent, and 24.8 percent of daily caloric intake, respectively. Compared with the lowest intake, the higher tertiles of intake of unprocessed/minimally processed foods were negatively associated with extreme dipping (tertile 2: odds ratio [OR], 0.56, 95 percent confidence interval [CI], 0.55–0.58; tertile 3: OR, 0.55, 95 percent CI, 0.54–0.57).

Moreover, the higher vs lowest intake of ultra-processed foods was negatively associated with nondipping (tertile 2: OR, 0.68, 95 percent CI, 0.55–0.85) and extreme dipping (T2: OR, 0.63, 95 percent CI, 0.61–0.65; T3: OR, 0.95, 95 percent CI, 0.91–0.99).

Conversely, higher intakes of processed food had a positive association with extreme dipping (tertile 2: OR, 1.22, 95 percent CI, 1.18–1.27; tertile 3: OR, 1.34, 95 percent CI, 1.29–1.39) and sleep SBP variability (T3: coefficient, 0.56, 95 percent CI, 0.03–1.10).