Low-fat diets were all the rage in the ’70s and ’80s, with the idea that fat in your diet winds up as fat on your body. As a result, people loaded up on carbs such as pasta and potatoes, and the food industry introduced low-fat and fat-free versions of their foods. Unfortunately, fat-free food isn’t necessarily healthy because sugar or artificial ingredients usually replace the fat. These processed foods led to people gaining more, not less, weight and developing type 2 diabetes (per NPR).
Sodium is often to blame for high blood pressure but added sugar can also influence your blood pressure, according to a 2019 study in Nutrients. Although a low-fat diet can be healthy in reducing your risk of heart disease, the National Institutes of Health says that replacing fat in your diet with refined carbohydrates can reduce the effectiveness of your good HDL cholesterol in clearing bad cholesterol from your blood. High-carbohydrate diets that are low in unsaturated fats can also increase your risk of cardiovascular disease.
Even if your low-fat diet is healthy, it might not be effective in reducing your blood pressure. In a 2016 study in the American Journal of Hypertension, women who lowered their daily fat intake to 20% of their daily calories had a 4% lower risk of developing high blood pressure in the first few years compared to the control group. However, this reduced risk went away after five years.
Dietary fat has a limited role in your risk of hypertension
Saturated fats have often been linked to high cholesterol, but unsaturated fats from nuts, seeds, and olive oil can lower your risk of inflammation and heart disease. On the other hand, dietary fat might not make as much of a difference in your blood pressure, according to a 2023 study in Scientific Reports. The researchers tracked the types of fats in the diets of more than 7,000 people for about six years and found that high or low intake of polyunsaturated fats, saturated fats, and trans fats didn’t affect the risk of high blood pressure.
However, including more monounsaturated fats in your diet may reduce your risk of developing hypertension. A 2016 systematic review in the Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior found that following the Mediterranean Diet, which is rich in monounsaturated fats, for at least a year was associated with reduced blood pressure in both healthy adults and people with mild hypertension. Therefore, adding some monounsaturated fats to a diet rich in fruits, vegetables, beans, and whole grains could be part of your plan to control your blood pressure. Some of the best sources of monounsaturated fats are avocados, olive oil, and fatty fish such as salmon.
The DASH diet allows for healthy fats
Diets that emphasize plant foods, fiber-rich grains, omega-3 fatty acids, and yogurt are strongly associated with lower blood pressure, according to a 2024 article in Current Hypertension Reports. However, a low-fat diet might not make much of a difference in lowering your blood pressure unless it’s tied to a weight loss program.
The Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension, also known as the DASH diet, advocates low-fat and fat-free dairy, but it’s not a low-fat diet. It’s also not a high-fat diet because it limits meats that are high in saturated fat. You’ll get a moderate amount of fat from nuts, seeds, and vegetable oils. The DASH eating plan limits not only sodium but also sweets. In other words, you won’t be replacing your high-fat foods with fat-free processed foods and refined grains that are higher in sugar (per National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute).
A 2023 review in Nutrients reviewed 12 studies to find that people who closely followed the DASH diet reduced their risk of high blood pressure by 19% compared to people who didn’t follow the diet closely. For people with elevated blood pressure or hypertension, the modified DASH diet (which is suited to a person’s individual needs) can reduce both your systolic and diastolic blood pressure, according to a 2021 review in Frontiers in Nutrition. You might also find that the DASH diet can reduce your waist circumference and the triglycerides in your blood.