Association Between Dietary Patterns and the Risk of Hypertension Among General Population in China and America

Abstract

Hypertension is one of the risk factors of many diseases such as cardiovascular disease and stroke, and it has become increasingly prevalent worldwide. Although elevated blood pressure is related to many different factors, some studies have found that people's dietary patterns seem to be closely related to the development of hypertension. This paper aimed to compare the dietary patterns in China and America and to explore how they affect the incidence of hypertension in both countries. Through analysis, high sodium diets, substandard vegetable intake, and high-temperature cooking methods in both countries were found to be hazard factors that might increase the prevalence of hypertension. The difference was that the high sodium intake in America mainly comes from processed food, while the sodium intake in China mainly comes from salt added during cooking. In addition, the relatively high intake of whole-grain diet in China may also be one of the reasons for the relatively low prevalence of hypertension in China. In terms of intervention on hypertension, although America has higher compliance with the DASH diet, it is still important to popularize dietary guidelines and hypertension-related knowledge in order to help the public better improve their health status. However, the current research has no definite evidence to prove the relationship between diet and hypertension, so more research and data still need to be found.