Could the simple potato have the power to lower blood pressure?

Potatoes have developed an unfair reputation of being high-starch and full of empty calories, but that is not the case. In reality an average sized potato (approximately 5.3 oz) including its skin only has 110 calories, no fat and contains 45% of the recommend vitamin C needed daily, as well as 620 mg of potassium comparable to bananas, trace amounts of thiamin, riboflavin, folate, magnesium, phosphorous, iron and zinc. They also have high levels of antioxidants. And new research has indicated that making potatoes, particularly purple, a regular part of your diet may help with lowering blood pressure.

Eighteen hypertensive patients, most of whom were on antihypertension medications, were tracked in the study. Participants either ate 6 to 8 small potatoes twice a day or no potatoes at all for four weeks. At the end of the study the participants who ate potatoes dropped their blood pressure by 3.5% systolic and 4.3% diastolic, which is nearly the same as oatmeal.

More research is needed and the study has not yet been peer reviewed, but the results are intriguing.

For more information see:

“Purple Potatoes Lower Blood Pressure: Minus the Fatty Fixings, Antioxidants in Potatoes May Lower Blood Pressure”. By Jennifer Warner for WebMD Health News. Published online August 31, 2011. Retrieved online 10/9/2011 at

http://www.webmd.com/hypertension-high-blood-pressure/news/20110830/purple-potatoes-lower-blood-pressure.

“Washington Potatoes Are Nutritious” Washington State Potato Commission. Retrieved online 10/12/2011 from

http://www.potatoes.com/nutrition.cfm.