Your trusted source

Eating out just once a week raises your risk of suffering from high blood pressure.

Those who frequently dine out or feast on takeaways are more likely to have pre-hypertension – elevated blood pressure – with just one extra meal out a week raising the odds by six per cent, a study found, the Daily Mail reports.

Eating out is associated with higher calorie, saturated fat and salt intake – all causes of high blood pressure.

A team at Duke-NUS Graduate Medical School in Singapore found 27.4 per cent of the population suffered from pre-hypertension.

Of these, 38 per cent ate more than 12 meals out per week, the American Journal of Hypertension reported.

Professor Tazeen Jafar, of Duke-NUS Graduate Medical School Singapore (Duke-NUS), designed and supervised a study to find behaviour associated with hypertension in a young adult population in South East Asia.

Her team surveyed 501 university students, aged 18 to 40, in Singapore. Figures on blood pressure, body mass index (BMI) and lifestyle, including meals eaten away from home and physical activity levels, were collected. The association with hypertension was then determined.

Using statistical analysis, the researchers found that pre-hypertension was found in 27.4 per cent of the total population, and 38 per cent ate more than 12 meals away from home per week; while the gender breakdown showed that pre-hypertension was much more prevalent in men (49 per cent) than in women (nine per cent).

The findings showed those who had pre-hypertension or hypertension were more likely to eat more meals away from home per week, have a higher mean BMI, have lower mean physical activity levels, and be current smokers.

The novel finding of the study, published online by the American Journal of Hypertension, was the link that Dr. Jafar's team was able to show between pre-hypertension and hypertension with meals eaten away from home.

The researchers said that what was also significant was that even eating one extra meal out raised the odds of pre-hypertension by six per cent.

Dr Jafar said: 'While there have been studies conducted in the United States and Japan to find behaviours associated with hypertension, very few have surveyed a South East Asian population.

'Our research plugs that gap and highlights lifestyle factors associated with pre-hypertension and hypertension that are potentially modifiable, and would be applicable to young adults globally, especially those of Asian descent.'

She said future studies should examine the effect of lifestyle modification programmes on blood pressure levels of at-risk people.