Dietary fats and the management of hypertension

The role of dietary fat in human hypertension has been of interest recently. Examples of two intervention studies are presented to demonstrate this effect. One study was conducted at Beltsville, MD, and the other at North Karelia, Finland. Healthy people served as subjects for the experiments and the foods consumed by the subjects were typical for the regions. During the intervention periods the percentage of energy from dietary fats was lowered while the polyunsaturated fatty acids were increased. Total energy intake and salt intake were kept relatively constant. Systolic and diastolic blood pressure were decreased during the lowered fat, higher polyunsaturated fatty acids intake period and this effect was reversed during the switchback period. The data give strong support to the hypothesis that dietary fat is associated with blood pressure.