Heart Experts: Eating This Kind of Protein Might Lower Your Blood Pressure

Taking a more plant-based approach to food has become more than a trend in recent years. In fact, nearly a quarter of Americans eat plant-based meat at least once a month, according to 2024 survey data compiled by the Good Food Institute nonprofit.

Beyond potential health benefits of veganism or vegetarianism, the environment is also positively impacted by these changes. According to the American Chemical Society, about 15% of global greenhouse gases come from either livestock or the livestock industry as a whole.

Now a recent study’s findings may now have you officially ready to give Meatless Mondays a try if you haven’t before (and, perhaps contrary to popular belief, buying plant-based groceries doesn’t have to ruin your budget).

Published in April’s Journal of the American Heart Association, the study aimed to see “how the quantity and diversity of proteins a person eats from plant and animal sources might affect their hypertension risk,” according to a press release from the American Heart Association (AHA).

A team of six experts—representing the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston and Baylor College of Medicine—reviewed data from 2,294 participants between the ages of 45 and 84 who took part in the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis. The participants completed a questionnaire with 120 items concerning their dietary intake and did not have a history of hypertension, also known as high blood pressure.

Though the researchers did not find a strong link between animal protein intake and the risk of high blood pressure, they did discover that a lower risk of hypertension correlated with increased plant-based protein intake.

“For every 20 grams of plant-based protein consumed each day, the risk for hypertension decreased by 16% compared to those who ate the fewest plant foods,” the press release states. “Those benefits leveled out once a person consumed 30 grams of plant-based protein.”

On average, the participants ate around 68 grams of protein daily—24 of which came from “plant sources.” The data also showed most participants had nine different types of protein in their weekly diet.

However, “eating a broader range” of plant-based proteins was reported to increase high blood pressure risk. One of the study’s authors, Dr. Marcia Otto, a nutritional epidemiologist at the University of Texas Houston School of Public Health, suggested this may be due to consuming more highly-processed plant proteins.

The American Heart Association recommends the following as good sources of plant-based protein:

• Beans and legumes
• Chickpeas
• Lentils
• Edamame
• Nut butter
• Oats
• Quinoa
• Nuts and seeds
• Tofu and soy milk

Ultimately, the study concluded that “higher quantity and variety of protein from plant sources was associated with a lower hypertension risk.”

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