Dietary treatment of hypertension; clinical and metabolic studies of patients on the rice-fruit diet.

Abstract

This report is based on a study of six patients who were treated for hypertension by means of the rice-fruit diet of Kempner (1). During the six months of study with the patients in continuous residence on a metabolic ward observations were made to follow the evolution of both clinical and metabolic changes. The purpose of this study was the analysis of certain aspects of the necessity and the sufficiency of the rice-fruit program as applied to selected patients in a controlled environment. To this end evidence will be presented to demonstrate that objective clinical improvement actually occurred in these patients while they were under detailed metabolic observation. Whether the high incidence of clinical improvement observed was due to the selection of relatively young and uncomplicated hypertensive subjects or due to the detailed supervision of dietary intake or even whether the sheltered environment of a metabolic ward may have contributed to the favorable effects was not investigated. These considerations, although pertinent to the general problem of dietary treatment (2), are not directly relevant to the present issue of association between clinical and metabolic change.